WARDOGS Boss Explains Why a Steam Account Audit is Essential to the Hiring

Derby-based studio Bulkhead Interactive has hit the jackpot with its newest tactical shooter WARDOGS. The game hit a peak concurrent player count of 428,666 last week, with a 24-hour record of 342,220.

In an interview with GamesRadar+, executive director Joe Brammer made it clear that attention to detail is key to this success, and that starts during the hiring process.

Brammer likes to frame Bulkhead as "one of the good guys to support" in the fight to do good by the FPS audience. To achieve this, the director wants "people to know where their money is going and what type of studio it's going into," which means building a team of FPS fanatics committed to furthering the genre from within.

Putting in Gaming and Crunch Hours

To get the right people working on WARDOGS, Brammer wants applicants to "put [in] the Steam hours." Senior producer Kane Allard explains the team checks the Steam account of each prospective developer to make sure they are "passionate about FPS games."

Brammer says not having a million hours on FPS games "doesn't make you a worse developer, but we want to know that you really care about the details of what we're doing."

Steam is not the only account Bulkhead scrutinizes ahead of hiring, and the other side of the coin has drawn some controversy.

Earlier this week, Joe Brammer told Christopher Dring of The Game Business that Bulkhead is "a place you come to work hard," which translates into working extra hours. To that end, during the candidate screening process, Bulkhead members "check people's socials" and shy away from those "constantly tweeting anti-crunch messaging."

Brammer explains that a developer who believes crunch "should never ever be a thing" will not be happy in Bulkhead, so there is no point pursuing that route in a company that wants "to be known for" hard work. The director also doesn't "believe in work from home for making videogames."

The director clarifies that while he expects people to crunch, he owns that, and doesn't try to hide it. Brammer says "those who do hard work get that return, and it is life-changing," but the prospective crunch incentives have not quite softened the PR blow, with some community members raising questions about the legality of this practice.

Screening candidates' social media is a gray area in the United Kingdom, as public profiles often expose protected class information from candidates that is not initially accessible to recruiters through traditional channels, opening the door for breaches of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Equality Act 2010.

Bulkhead Responds to Crunch Allegations

In a statement to Eurogamer, Brammer explained his position, citing a June 2026 incident around the WARDOGS beta, which we got to play here.

With deadlines fast approaching, the director apologized to the team and said the only way to hit the mark would be to work an extra two hours from Monday to Thursday for four weeks, and "admitted to the staff that this was crunch."

However, Brammer rejected claims of mandatory crunch: "It was optional; four people opted out, nothing happened to them and nothing will. But I can admit that maybe the social pressure within a very tight-knit team might make those individuals feel less than great."

The two extra hours allowed Bulkhead to "get x1 more build per day, review it and get QA's pass back on it, instead of waiting on the nightly build and picking it up the following morning."

Brammer went on to mention that Bulkhead wants to bring back the "four-day working week, which we ran for two years" with "huge benefits." Launch timelines forced the company to revert to a five-day format.

Brammer explains that a developer who believes crunch "should never ever be a thing" will not be happy in Bulkhead

According to the director, 80% of Bulkhead shares are owned by 50% of the staff.

In response to legal concerns raised by Eurogamer, Brammer explained the comments to The Game Business were informal rather than "setting out our formal recruitment process." According to him, Bulkhead considers "publicly available information as part of recruitment, it is done in line with applicable UK employment and data protection law. We don't access private accounts or carry out covert or intrusive checks."

While the debate over crunch and company culture is hardly settled across the industry, it is hard to deny that WARDOGS has made a name for itself as one of the most memorable shooters in recent years. On this fine Saturday afternoon, it is the fourth most-played game on Steam, and the top one among paid titles.

WARDOGS is available on PC exclusively via Steam.

WARDOGS

First-Person Shooter Tactical Action War & Military Multiplayer Systems Released August 10, 2026 Developer(s) Bulkhead Publisher(s) Team17 Multiplayer Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op Number of Players Single-player 14 Images

Genre(s) First-Person Shooter, Tactical, Action, War & Military, Multiplayer