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Queen of the Kingdom - Meet Jessica, Senior Data Scientist for Candy Crush Friends 🦸🏻♀️
QueenMia
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All great Saga needs all sort of Heroes 🦸♀️
As part of Women's day (on the 8th of March), Tiffi would like to take the opportunity to celebrate some of our strong and talented women at Candy Crush Friends 💪 This week, we'd like to introduce to @JessVDK, Senior Data Scientist - We sat down with her, asked a dew questions and here is what she's told us.
Sit down, relax, enjoy the read!
"Hi, my name is Jessica and I’m a senior data scientist for Candy Crush Friends Saga. I’m originally from the Netherlands, but have been living in London for 5 years now!"
! . What was your dream job as a child?
I always wanted to be a writer. I loved reading, and was always writing short stories in my school notebooks. I still love reading, but I mostly write code nowadays!
2. What is your favourite game?
I spend a lot of time on my mobile phone playing lots of different games. Of course I love Candy Crush Friends Saga, I’m currently on level 1327 😃 I also like puzzle games like 2048, solitaire, and picture cross. My favourite PC game is The Sims, I can spend hours building a house and raising a family!
3. What do you like about your position?
I really like trying to understand the players and our game better through data. For example, if I notice that only few players are succeeding on a certain level, I will pass that information on to the level designers so they can adjust the level. That’s how we keep our game fresh and fun for the players!
4. What are you challenges as women in the gaming industry?
I find it difficult that there aren’t many female role models in the gaming industry. Most successful people in the industry are male, and it’s hard to relate to their journey. I want to become successful staying true to myself, and not try to imitate the typically masculine leadership behaviours. I am not aggressive, I prefer to stay in the background, but I am good at what I do and I believe that a different, more feminine and compassionate leadership is just as good.
5. Any advice for the women out there wanting to join a gaming company?
The biggest advice I can give is to believe in yourself. Women are generally prone to overthinking and second guessing themselves, which might make them hesitant to take the leap and apply for a job at a gaming company. Just do it! Believe that you can do it and you’re halfway there. If you need help, reach out to a woman in the industry. Most women I’ve met in gaming are incredible and very supportive of trying to get women into the industry.
6. Who Inspires you and why?
I’ve recently watched the Netflix documentary on Taylor Swift, and I am in awe of her strength, passion, and hard work. She is such an example for women who are trying to find their voice, and she inspires me to overcome any obstacles that get in my way.
🍭 Well thanks so much for answering our questions, @JessVDK! It's amazing to see your passion and inspiration. You truly are a source of inspiration yourself! 🌟
If you have any questions for her, please ask below 👇
Happy day everyone 🍒
More women's interview from King here!
Comments
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Hi @JessVDK,
Very nice meeting you! I am a game expert for CCFS. I enjoy the CCFS game very much. Thank you for the good work you and your team have done.
My question to you: What kind of analytic reports do you normally create in monitoring the player's behavior? Satisfaction? frustration? A lot of players who frustrated with the game often threaten uninstalling the game. Are you tracking this type of data? Your area of expertise is very interesting to me. Thanks,
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Hey..Hello Jessica or @JessVDK . It's my pleasure to meet another member of CCFS.
I'm a game Expert too and CCFS is such an amazing game and I totally love it so please keep up you and your team the good job.
Btw, I have a question.
Since you are a Senior Data Scientist, please tell us more details about your job.
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Welcome @JessVDK! We finally get to speak to a wonderful Senior Data Scientist! I hope that you are ready for our questions. I always wanted to know how you collect the data and how you determine the difficulty of a level. I'll wait for you to answer @flew66 and @Sofia1992 and then maybe I will have more questions for you.
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Well hello there @JessVDK and I'd like to welcome you to our sweet community! 😊
I do many things for my free time, like writing and drawing and of course, playing Candy Crush Friends! I am in the 800s and working on to make it into the 1000s. I have wrote my first King story here in the Friends community. You will love it! I had some help from our dear Superstar @Elsa with the images, sending them to me and putting them together. I have updated my signature below so all the newbies can view the awesome work and effort I have put into. Please feel free to read it 😊
My favorite music artist is Taylor Swift, as she too inspires me to find my voice and overcome obstacles along the way. It is really hard for some women to fit into the gaming industry, since there has been more masculine leadership and interest. I love video games myself and so does my friends, which most of them are male. Thank you for such an inspirational interview and remember to believe in yourself and keep working hard. Never stop believing ✨👀
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Thanks for the questions, and nice to meet you all! 😃
@flew66 We look at a lot of different things! Some very important to understanding how players are enjoying the game are the difficulty of the levels (how many times do players have to try before they win a level), how often players play in a day, and for example if they play our special events. When we haven't seen players in the game for a while, we look at what was the last thing they've done in the game before they left. That might give us some indication of why they don't like the game anymore!
@Sofia1992 As a Senior Data Scientist, I look at all the data we get from our players, and try to learn from that. You probably don't notice, but in the background we receive data every time you play our game. Nothing confidential, of course, but all about how you are playing our game: what levels you played, how many rounds you played, what characters you used, etcetera. As you can imagine, with millions of players, this is a lot of information! I write code and create reports in order to organise all that data and make it useful for our designers, producers, and others involved in making the game even better 😊
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Hello @JessVDK - thank you for sharing a bit about yourself and answering our questions. I have to be honest I didn’t even think there was a position like yours but it makes sense that there would be. I admire what you do - it sounds fascinating but beyond my scope. If I joined the industry I’d want to be on the artistic side (Analyzing numbers is a bit beyond me).
So due to the tons of people playing CCF - about what percentage does it take for the studio to make a level easier to pass? Just curious. I love the game but can rarely pass a level the first time and I may be stuck on a level for 2-3 days since I usually only play once a day and quickly use up my 5 lives (sometimes a few more if I get them from friends).
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Wow! I knew that once you answered that I'd be coming in with my questions. @QueenMia might have to hold me back from asking too many. 😀
Are you using specific programs to get this data? If you could go into my game, would you be able to see how many times I've played a certain level and which character I used more? That has got to be the most interesting job!
How do they determine the recommended character? Does it go by game modes?
