Creating an organization where 3DCG designers can pursue their careers by creating customer value - Interview with Masay

[mdabuhasan]

IMAGICA GEEQ Inc. (formerly Bauhaus Entertainment, hereafter referred to as IMAGICA GEEQ) is a 3DCG production studio that mainly produces games. Since its establishment, the company has been involved in the development of many famous domestic consumer games, and has two studios in Tokyo and Osaka, with a total of more than 150 3DCG designers.

The person who launched IMAGICA GEEQ was Masaya Ishizuka, who is currently the general manager of the Digital Contents Division. IMAGICA GEEQ has been proactive in hiring people with no experience, as long as they have a strong desire to learn new things and are highly motivated to contribute to the organization, but what was the motivation behind launching the company? And what is the appeal of working at IMAGICA GEEQ? We spoke to Ishizuka.

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Aiming for business growth by increasing opportunities for people with no experience in the industry
IMAGICA GEEQ
-- Thank you for participating in this interview. Could you please tell us more about IMAGICA GEEQ's business?

Ishizuka: IMAGICA GEEQ was established in 2004 as a 3DCG production studio that focuses on games. Since its establishment, it has been involved in the development of many games, both consumer and smartphone games, and is the largest CG studio in Japan that focuses on games. Usually, CG studios also handle video production for games and commercials, but IMAGICA GEEQ is unique in that it specializes only in games.

- I heard that Mr. Ishizuka was involved in the launch of IMAGICA GEEQ.

Ishizuka: Yes. Before launching the company, I was working as a freelance designer. I was approached by someone I had worked with at my previous job about starting a production studio, so I decided to give it a try and joined Digitalscape (at the time).

However, right after launching, I was the only staff member. As expected, I could only do the work of one person, so I asked people who were studying CG at the "CG Training Room" in Digitalscape's human resources business at the time if they wanted to do it. I taught the content and methods of the work to those who raised their hands, and gradually expanded the scale of the business.

- When you were starting up the studio, did you ever consider recruiting people with experience?

Mr. Ishizuka: Of course, there was the option of gathering experienced people and getting results quickly, the so-called "vertical launch." If you have a team of skilled members, it will be easier to take on work from the beginning. However, looking around, those studios tended to have poor member turnover and slow business growth. It's like starting with industry email list five people, but still being five people after 10 years. This puts a limit on profits.

Also, I didn't think that many experienced people would join a studio that had just been launched and had no track record. So I thought I would aim to grow the business with the concept of increasing the opportunities for people with no experience in the industry. Since I have experience as a lecturer at a vocational school in the past, I had the impression that "if you just get the key points and study hard, you will definitely be able to acquire 3DCG skills."

Is that concept still ongoing?

Ishizuka: That's right. We conduct a recruitment activity called the "Talent Discovery Project," where we judge whether someone can join the company based on their portfolio , regardless of their educational background, age, or experience. Among the people we have hired in the past, we have had people with a variety of careers, including recent graduates, people who switched from mobile games to consumer games, people who got a job at a regular company but couldn't give up on their dream of working in the game industry so they went back to vocational school, and former bankers. IMAGICA GEEQ's style is to hire people with potential and then develop them through training and actual projects.