**UPDATE, April 5, 2007: Mark Kern elaborates below…**

For all the non-game developers out there who may have missed this, Red 5 Studios, the new game company in Aliso Viejo, has been getting major buzz for its extreme recruitment campaign. I wrote about Red 5 in December when it officially launched with with a bang ($18.5 million in funding).

Mark Kern, a co-founder and the original lead developer for Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, mentioned to me in a passing e-mail that I should check out how it’s hiring the best of the best. It currently has 25 job openings on its site though obviously, they don’t want just anyone. Companies, please take note …

It first searched for 100 people in the game industry who have shown they’re creative, smart and innovative. Red 5 even documents what it did to compile its dream team. Then sent them a recruitment kit:

A slick box that unfolds into five pieces
A poetic pitch
And an iPod shuffle filled with a personal message from Mark Kern.

Take a look at Paul Sensee’s unfolding of his kit. Pictures above are from Paul’s site. The first track on Paul’s iPod said this:

Paul, this is Mark Kern, President of Red 5 Studios and former team lead for World of Warcraft. I came across your blog on the net and was impressed with the depth of your inquisitiveness regarding game design, programming and mathematics. Your work at Tiburon is impressive and we’d love the chance to meet you. At Red 5 we’re assembling a team of incredibly talented individuals dedicated to pushing the envelope …

(read the rest at Paul’s site)

Another person who got Red 5′s pitch: The Escapist

It’s nice to know that there are companies out there actively seeking the best people instead of waiting for resumes from online job sites. I guess it also helps that Red 5 is well funded.

So did the tactic work?

The company says the response rate was overwhelming. Red 5 had a nearly 100% response rate… Furthermore, Red 5 got supremely viral: almost every person used the website to send invitations to their friends, spreading the word even more.

Mark Kern elaborated to me that Red 5 doesn’t have 100 spots to fill but key positions, such as senior designers, artists and programmers.

“We received nearly 100% response to our program. We can tell because people who respond log into our website with the special code on their iPod, and we can track that. We had 4 mail returns, and a few cases where people had left the industry or their job and the package was never forwarded. We set up a special phone number direct to my office which rang 20 or so times, and we’ve extended 4 offers so far, of which we think 3 will accept in the near term. To break even on the program (compared to expensive recruiter fees), we needed 2 hires. And the 3 hires so far are at the peak of their field.”

He’s still getting calls from people. But really the campaign was to let these guys know who Red 5 is and how serious it is about making quality games. In addition, because of the unique way Red 5 went about recruiting folks, word has spread all over the industry.

“…We started to see an immediate increase in the quality and quantity of our resume flow. We’ve extended more offers to the “second wave” and hiring is brisk while maintaining quality. Overall, a very successful gig!”

This game better be good.

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