This September, Centigrade turns 21. It is a good moment to look back, and one where we want to be honest. The past two years have shown us that a lot of experience does not mean you already know everything.
20 years + 1
Many big games use the principle of New Game Plus. You can play through the game again from the beginning, but at a higher difficulty level. In return, you typically keep the equipment and abilities you have collected, and of course your experience, so you do not start from zero.
That is exactly how our 21st year feels. For a long time, we worked in a field we knew inside out. The AI era has changed the playing field, because technologies are evolving at a pace that calls into question much of what seemed settled only yesterday. Methods, tools and expectations sometimes shift from one month to the next.
Experienced does not mean all-knowing
So we are learning again, and we have no plans to stop. We try out new tools, question our own routines and let go of assumptions when they no longer hold. That can be uncomfortable. But it is also exactly what good design and development have always been about, which is staying curious and not assuming that you already know the answer.
Our equipment: experience and a stable team
What we carry over from our first run is valuable. Working with AI in particular shows how much the human in the loop matters. It takes people who can put results into context, check them critically and tell good solutions from merely plausible ones, and nothing can replace experience for that.
That is why we deliberately rely on experienced people and a team with low turnover, and this strategy is paying off, especially now. The knowledge we have built up over the years, about users as well as industries and projects, helps us use new technologies in a meaningful way instead of just chasing them.
So the most important tool for our new run is not our old end-game gear, but the experience we have gained. Even as technology changes, we know how to tackle new challenges as a team.
On to the next level
Thank you to our team, our clients and all our partners who share this journey with us. We are looking forward to our New Game Plus, with everything we have learned in our first 20 years and a real appetite for learning more.