Customer Story

Challenges

In a highly technical gaming ecosystem, maintaining developer motivation, preventing burnout, and celebrating innovation were difficult without a centralized recognition platform. Disconnected processes limited visibility and weakened organizational culture.

• ‍Low visibility for project milestone achievements: Successful engine updates, feature releases, and optimization deployments went uncelebrated. ‍
• Limited peer-to-peer recognition across engineering and R&D teams: Collaboration and knowledge sharing weren’t consistently acknowledged.
• ‍Rising attrition among long-tenured engineers: Lack of tenure celebrations contributed to burnout and reduced long-term loyalty. ‍
• Minimal engagement in wellness programs: Employees struggled with crunch fatigue and work-life imbalance common in the gaming industry. ‍
• No structured incentives for technical upskilling: Certifications, training, and emerging tech adoption were not rewarded. ‍
• Innovation efforts lacked formal acknowledgment: Process improvements, optimization breakthroughs, and creative solutions received little recognition.

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Personas Involved

• ‍(Employees) Engineers, Designers, QA, Product & Support Teams: Receive recognition, view rewards, celebrate milestones, participate in wellness challenges, and track learning achievements through Empuls. ‍
• HR & People Teams: Manage recognition programs, wellness initiatives, perks, celebrations, and sentiment insights. ‍
• Engineering & Product Managers: Award milestone achievements, celebrate releases, and encourage peer recognition. ‍
• Learning & Development Teams: Oversee training incentives, certification rewards, and upskilling programs. ‍
• Finance Teams: Manage reward budgets, validate payouts, and maintain compliance. ‍
• Program Admin / Super Admin: Control permissions, configure workflows, manage integrations, and maintain program consistency.

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The solution

To build a culture of appreciation and sustain performance across fast-paced development cycles, the studio adopted Xoxoday Empuls as its unified employee engagement and recognition platform.  

Xoxoday Empuls brought structure and automation to project milestone celebrations, peer appreciation, tenure recognition, wellness initiatives, skill development incentives, and innovation rewards—turning everyday contributions into meaningful moments of acknowledgment.  

• ‍Project milestone & launch awards for achievement culture: Xoxoday Empuls automated celebrations for game engine upgrades, SDK releases, feature deployments, and project completions, reinforcing morale and acknowledging collective effort. ‍
• Peer-to-peer recognition for collaboration & teamwork: Our employee engagement solution enabled employees to recognize colleagues for exceptional reviews, debugging support, cross-team collaboration, and knowledge sharing, strengthening camaraderie. ‍
• Service & tenure milestone celebrations: Personalized rewards were delivered for 1-, 3-, 5-, 7-, and 10-year tenure milestones, reducing burnout and reinforcing long-term commitment. ‍
• Wellness contests & participation rewards: Xoxoday Empuls introduced wellness challenges tied to fitness, mental health, work-life balance, and recovery cycles, helping reduce crunch fatigue and improving wellbeing participation. ‍
• Training & development incentives for technical excellence: Employees earned rewards for completing certifications in game engines, middleware architecture, AI/ML, graphics optimization, and leadership training, encouraging continuous learning. ‍
• Innovation & improvement recognition: The studio rewarded process improvements, cost-saving initiatives, breakthrough optimizations, and R&D innovations, democratizing creativity and driving operational excellence. ‍
• Seamless integration with employee ecosystem tools: Our solution integrated with HRMS/HRIS systems, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, Outlook, payroll tools, SSO, and performance management systems, enabling automatic trigger-based recognition, instant notifications, unified employee data, and multi-channel engagement.
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This eliminated manual coordination and delivered a cohesive, companywide recognition experience.

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Impact

• ‍47% increase in project milestone celebrations, boosting morale and cross-team pride.
• ‍2.4× growth in peer recognition, strengthening collaboration across technical teams.
• ‍39% improvement in tenure retention among mid- and senior-level engineers, supported by milestone rewards.
• ‍2× increase in wellness program participation, reducing crunch fatigue and burnout indicators.
• ‍3.1× growth in learning & certification completions, accelerating upskilling across the studio.
• ‍KWD 1.9 million in automated employee rewards processed annually, improving consistency and reducing HR workload.
• ‍26% improvement in sentiment scores, indicating stronger belonging and cultural alignment.

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Conclusion

By implementing Xoxoday Empuls, the game technology company transformed its internal culture—celebrating achievements, supporting wellbeing, and rewarding continuous learning. Automated recognition workflows, peer appreciation, and innovation-driven programs strengthened morale, improved retention, and encouraged technical excellence.  

With multi-channel integrations and seamless reward delivery, our employee engagement solution helped build a connected, motivated, and high-performing workforce across Kuwait.

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