Here's a hiring philosophy you won't hear from many studios: know our games deeply, and we'll pay you more for it.
Level-5, the Japanese studio behind Professor Layton, Ni no Kuni, and Inazuma Eleven, has a formal system where employees who score well on content knowledge tests receive significant pay raises. The policy applies across the board, including new hires. It's an unusual approach to compensation, and it comes directly from the top.
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The thinking behind a quiz-based pay structure
Level-5 founder, CEO, and president Akihiro Hino laid out the reasoning in a recent interview with Japanese publication Famitsu. The studio employs roughly 320 people and has no plans to grow that headcount significantly. With a lean team, Hino explained, the depth of knowledge each person brings to a project has a direct and measurable impact on how efficiently work gets done.
His argument is straightforward: if a team member working on a Professor Layton title doesn't know the series well, other staff have to pick up the slack. They review work, fill in gaps, and course-correct. That costs time and money. A team member who genuinely knows the material can take ownership, move faster, and reduce the drag on everyone else.
"We now consider knowledge of and passion for the company's titles to be a form of skill," Hino said, "and that's also part of our value as a company."
The key here is that this isn't a trivia bonus or a quirky perk. Level-5 is formally classifying game knowledge as professional competency, putting it on the same level as technical skills when evaluating what an employee brings to the table.
What the quizzes actually look like
Hino described the tests as "content knowledge" assessments covering the studio's game catalog. Employees who score well receive a pay raise, and the amount is the same regardless of seniority. A new hire who aces the test gets the same bump as a veteran developer.
The specific figure Hino mentioned to Famitsu wasn't printed in the published interview, but the reporter noted that everyone in the room reacted with visible surprise at the number. Hino also mentioned plans to increase the payout amount in the future, suggesting this is a policy the studio intends to expand rather than quietly phase out.
For fans of puzzle games, the approach feels almost thematically on-brand for a studio whose flagship series is built entirely around the idea that careful thinking and deep knowledge deserve to be rewarded.
Why this matters beyond Level-5
The gaming industry has spent years debating what makes a good hire in a creative studio. Technical skills are easy to measure. Passion is harder to quantify. What Hino is doing at Level-5 is building a system that treats passion as something testable, and then compensating for it financially.
It's also worth noting the timing. Level-5 is currently in development on Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, the eighth mainline entry in the series and the first in nearly a decade. The game is targeting Switch, Switch 2, PS5, and PC in 2026. With a high-profile release on the horizon, having a team that genuinely knows the Layton series at a deep level isn't just a nice cultural value. It's a practical production advantage.
Hino also revealed that he personally stepped into the first round of candidate screenings this year, specifically because he wanted to redefine what Level-5 looks for in new hires. His view is that studios too often filter out the right people early by prioritizing surface-level technical credentials over mindset and genuine product knowledge.
For players excited about the new Layton game, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes offers a similarly demanding puzzle experience to hold you over while Level-5 finishes production. If you want to go deeper into that kind of cerebral puzzle design, the Lorelei and the Laser Eyes guides cover the game's most challenging sequences in full.
