The Vilnius team will be responsible for backend operations for Avakin Life, the company’s signature free-to-play 3D mobile virtual community. In the next couple of years, Lockwood expects to have a dozen highly skilled employees running the Vilnius office.
“Lithuania has excellent developers, especially in the field of backend server development, and this opens up a gateway of talent not only from Lithuania but also from Russia and other countries in the Baltic region”, says Halli Bjornsson, CEO at Lockwood Publishing.
The Vilnius team will most likely comprise up to 15 backend server developers. Although many of the current employees have an MSc or PhD degree, the company is primarily looking for experience and programming skills.
“What we offer is the opportunity to work on a successful and fun product that combines the best of two worlds – mobile gaming and fashion,” Bjornsson continues.
Lithuania is already home to a vibrant game development community comprising such companies as Unity, Charlie Oscar, JetCat Games, TutoTOONS and many more. In the last couple of years more than a dozen game dev studios from the CIS have relocated to our country.
“According to the Lithuanian Game Developers Association, the industry employing just around 500 people generates 100 million euros in revenues per year,” states Virginijus Sinkevičius, Lithuania’s Economy Minister. “Thus, it is a relatively small community that creates great added value. Several successful studios that have relocated to Lithuania from Eastern Europe have propelled the growth further, meaning that the decision of any new foreign company to set up in Lithuania is a strong impetus both for the game dev industry and the economy.”
The most popular study programme, according to data provided by Lithuanian General Admission Office is KTU Software Systems. KTU Faculty of Informatics, where currently studies almost a fifth of the University students, is one of the best places for computer science studies. Innovative teaching/learning methods, practical skills and knowledge and possibility to apply them using state-of-the-art equipment and advice from top-level experts guarantees our graduates excellent career.
