Amir Satvat built a free, spreadsheet-based resource to help people find work in games after hearing that friends had lost their jobs. In an August 2023 GamesBeat profile by Dean Takahashi, updated June 18, 2025, the reported workbook had grown to 14,000 listings across more than 732 game companies. More than 450 people had told Satvat that it was partly responsible for helping them find game-industry jobs—a self-reported figure, not an independently audited count of hires or proof that the workbook alone caused them.
How the Game Jobs Workbook began
Satvat started collecting openings after hearing around Thanksgiving that friends were losing work. Using spreadsheet skills and web scraping, he gathered game-industry postings into a Google Sheet and shared it through LinkedIn. The aim was practical: make openings easier to browse in a field where job listings could be scattered across many company and recruiting sites.
The workbook also let users list their skills and indicate that they were looking for work. That turned it into more than a directory: job seekers could make their availability visible to others in the community.
What the reported numbers do—and do not—show
In the article’s 2023-era account, the workbook contained 14,000 listings from more than 732 game companies; GamesBeat said the listing count had remained steady for several weeks at the time. Takahashi also reported two distinct figures about job seekers: more than 450 people told Satvat that the workbook was partly responsible for helping them find game-industry jobs, and 450 said the community was their primary resource in finding work.
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Those are figures reported by GamesBeat from the project and its participants, not an independent audit. “Partly responsible” does not mean the workbook alone secured a job, and the primary-resource figure describes respondents’ own accounts. The profile includes an example of a senior gameplay engineer who had received an offer while formalities were still pending, but that anecdote does not establish a general success rate.
The 14,000 figure is likewise a historical snapshot, not a current count. Job postings change quickly, and the profile does not establish how many listings remain open today.
Support beyond the listings
As described in the profile, Satvat expanded the project with several kinds of human support:
- Mentoring: volunteers offered 30-minute conversations.
- Resume feedback: a network of more than 100 volunteers reviewed resumes.
- Internship information: the resource also gathered information for people seeking internships.
Maintaining a useful list required more than collecting links. Satvat had to contend with stale postings, job sites that presented information differently, international borders and translation; he identified Japanese-language sites as a particular challenge. GamesBeat estimated he spent two to 10 hours a week on the effort at the time. These details describe the project as covered in the article, not guaranteed current operating arrangements.
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Satvat framed the project as a way to make a difficult job search more manageable, rather than as a route to paid recruiting or consulting. “I’m not trying to push people to a recruiting site or sell a consulting service. That makes it easier,” he told Takahashi. He also said, “I have a job. I have my income. I don’t feel like I need more money and rewards for being humane.”
That approach matched the resource’s simple format: a shared spreadsheet, plus volunteers and peer support. As Satvat put it, “I’ve often thought that a lot of the things that can be the most powerful are things that are simple.”
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What job seekers can take from the story
The profile’s central lesson is not that one spreadsheet guarantees a job. It is that a centralized, easier-to-browse list can reduce friction in a fragmented search, while visibility, resume feedback and direct conversations can add forms of support a list alone cannot provide. Anyone using a jobs workbook should still check the employer’s original posting for its current status, requirements and location before applying.
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