Keen Software House

Video Games

Prague

Marek Rosa is the CEO and CTO of GoodAI, a general artificial intelligence R&D company, and the CEO and founder of Keen Software House, an independent game development studio best known for its best-seller Space Engineers ( more than 4 million copies sold). Both companies are based in Prague, Czech Republic.

Marek has been interested in artificial intelligence since childhood. He started his career as a programmer but later transitioned to a leadership role. It all started as a small garage company. Marek started to develop games and engines in his spare time alongside his normal job as a programmer, after a while other volunteers joined him and helped him out, and eventually it became a studio. After the success of the Keen Software House titles, Marek was able to personally fund GoodAI, his new general AI research company building human-level artificial intelligence. GoodAI started in January 2014 and has over 30 research scientists, engineers, and consultants working across its Research and Applied teams. At this time, Marek is developing Space Engineers, as well as leading daily research and development on recursive self-improvement based general AI architecture - Badger and other projects. In his free time, Marek devotes himself to science, the development of knowledge in the field of artificial intelligence, both general and that which can be used in video games, as well as robotics. His great passion is also Romanesque architecture and history. This interest is reflected in our HQ Orangery in Prague, which Marek purchased for Keen Software house and GoodAI and sensitively renovated to reflect classical architectural elements.

Jan joined the company in the summer of 2016 as a junior 3D Artist and worked my way up to his current role.

"One of the reasons I was able to progress into the Art lead position is very supportive leadership. Our leaders are always there to help, but also challenge me, so I could grow and develop my artistic skills. Here I have to really praise the guidance of my previous lead and my friend Natiq Aghayev, who passed so much of his experience and skills onto me. The company really values its people and cares for them. I hope to be able to show my team the same care and leadership he showed me. As a 3D artist working on a project like Space Engineers, you are usually making the assets from scratch, which gives you a lot of freedom and room for creativity. There are of course rules and guidelines that need to be followed, but generally, they don't limit you that much. Sometimes it can be quite challenging to come up with something out of the blue, but the greater satisfaction it brings when you see players enjoying your work is an incredible reward for such a challenging task. I have to say that working in Keen is a pleasure and I get to work on so many interesting projects with some of the best colleagues I have ever met. I am really excited to see what the future brings to us and what other awesome projects I can be part of!”

Katka started working at Keen Software House in November 2018 as a Junior QA Tester.

" It was my first job in game development, so I had no experience at all. However, I have always been an enthusiastic gamer and if I found a bug in games, I reported it to the developers! After a year at Keen, I was promoted from junior to Regular and after another two years to Advanced QA Tester, which is my current position. When I joined the company, I started working on Space Engineers, which was just getting ready to move out of Early Access. This was in February of 2019. Even after almost four years, working on Space Engineers is still a challenge as the game is extremely complex. That complexity is what I enjoy about this job, the creative atmosphere when we're figuring out how best to test a new feature in a game, or the almost detective-like work of finding bugs. This is where cooperating with my colleagues in the QA team is irreplaceable and wonderful! They have helped me so much and their advice and guidance were especially crucial for me during my time as a Junior. As I gradually gained experience and our QA team grew, I also started to provide support and advice to our new QA colleagues. I find it really fulfilling to pass on my experience, explain the work processes, or discuss possible solutions. I also like that our company believes that every idea deserves to be heard so every team member can make an impact. I am delighted that my work at Keen allows me to constantly grow and learn new things. There is nothing worse than stagnation! When I started working as a junior, I never imagined that in a few years I would be helping to train new colleagues. I can't wait to see what else I learn at Keen.”

Sander is one of the Team leaders of our game design team, which takes care of our flagship game Space engineers. Fate brought him to Prague in 2020, where he have got the chance to get more familiar with KSWH and the game. Since then he is taking care of our team of designers making sure everything is running smoothly.

Sander is a big Warhammer 40k nerd - He loves riding motorbikes - and has a fascination for mechanical engineering He loves to travel. He has been around most of Europe and (parts of) central and south-east Asia and Australia. At this moment Sander is one of our fully remote employees working from his home in Leeuwarden

Tomáš started working at Keen Software House in 2019 as a Programmer

"I worked as a web developer for a couple of years, but while I enjoyed the programming aspect of the job, I never felt very invested in what we were creating. And since games have always been my passion, I have decided to try switching to game development. Keen was recommended to me by a friend - it was a good match since I have used C# my whole career and I liked the creative aspect of our games.
In my free time, I try to stay active, I enjoy running very much. I am also an active musician - I play the piano and teach African drumming. In the time that is left I like playing games, these days primarily single-player. I try to mix up the genres to try out different games, some of the recent titles I have played include Shadowrun Returns, Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector, What Remains of Edith Finch, and Horizon Zero Dawn."

Presentation

Keen Software House was founded in 2010 by Marek Rosa. Marek started as a programmer working independently on the Miner Wars games and the VRAGE engine. After some time Marek was joined by a few volunteers and a real studio was created.

We are an independent game development studio based in Prague, Czech Republic. Our main project is the sandbox video game 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬 and 𝐢𝐧𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐕𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐄. The game 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬 has sold almost 5 million copies worldwide. VRAGE’s core feature is volumetricity within the environment. At this moment we are currently in the research and development phase, exploring new features of the VRAGE3 engine! Our goal is to support extremely large and fully dynamic and destructible environments, including planets, large spaceships, and any other creations built by the players.

We want to create games that are based on real science, real facts, real physics and real emotions. No magic & fantasy allowed. If we step into the sci-fi area - as we did with Space Engineers and Miner Wars 2081 - we approach it from the hard-sci-fi angle. Every technology and every idea must be explainable using modern-era knowledge with very little extrapolation required.

KSWH is a studio with around 100 talented people working all across the world. As a company with a full remote policy we have more than 20 nationalities among themselves.

What they are looking for

We believe that one of the strongest forces in the universe is the “need to create” and so we are looking mostly for those, who share this need with us.

We’re mostly looking for people with experience in the game industry - Programmers, Artists, Game designers and testers.

Our company culture is defined by goals, rather than standards. We believe that there is always room for improvement and innovation. Adapting our goals and striving for improvement, rather than complacency and merely meeting some standard is at the core of our values.

Strive to establish a positive company culture and ensure our teams understand why our company culture plays a huge role in our success. We want to earn the loyalty of our community and continue to grow that community. Our community can help serve as a guide to our future direction. Every team member can take action to strengthen us, as a company, and ensure we deliver only our best. Provide people with good working conditions. This includes our intern policy, equal opportunity, advanced education and personal development, flexibility, participation in external activities, and more.

Good to know

We are a group of very curious people who share hobbies and interests, not just in the area of AI, science, and video games, but in a broad range of pursuits like mountain climbing, drones, or Roman architecture.

Other things that might interests you:

  • Company breakfasts and snacks.
  • On-site gym and private garden.
  • Office which looks like home.
  • Team-buildings and parties.
  • Private Chef Ceejay making us delicious lunch everyday.
  • Private Psychologist and life coach Misa, ready to help you handle any challenges you may have.

Our motto:

  • We’re getting it done.
  • Work hard & work smart.
  • Reality is the best game-designer.
  • We design games that we want to play.
  • Create a masterpiece.

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