Dylan Jones - Topia | LinkedIn (original) (raw)
San Francisco, California, United States Contact Info
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At nine years old, I premiered my first movie to my biggest audience yet: my proud…
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Topia
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Cherrington Global Scholar
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Primary financial endorsement for studying abroad requiring high GPA during University.
Featured by Apple and Google for Battle Group 2
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Featured by Apple and Google for War Commander: Rogue Assault
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IGF Finalist
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A finalist in the Independent Games Festival (IGF).
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- Mayank Grover Sumo Digital announced a 15% cut in its workforce, roughly impacting 250 individuals. Among these 250 individuals was the team of Timbre Games, which also confirmed that the studio was being shut down. Timbre Games was founded in 2021 and made a part of Pipework Studios. Although Timbre had yet to launch any games, its website indicates that it was in the middle of two game projects. Unfortunately, game developers face more loss than the parent company when something like this happens. Who knows how Timbre's team might be coping after putting in millions of efforts to build the games and losing everything in a single blink? In their support, this is list 2 of some of the Timbreeos who were impacted by the closure. Every bit from the community counts, so requesting you all to help this reach recruiters and game studios currently hiring. Sophie Mallinson — In 2017, she was Arkane Studios' (Lyon) Narrative Designer who worked on Dishonored: Death of the Outsider and Wolfenstein: Youngblood. By 2019, she had become a Principal Narrative Designer for Arkane's Deathloop. It is quite interesting to note that after Arkane, she went on to work for EA on Star Wars and later for EA's own studio - Maxis Studios on The Sims Series. Nadia Lohan — With over a decade's worth of experience in Production, before Timbre, Nadia was a Producer at Blackbird Interactive and worked on Minecraft Legends. Notably, she has experience in the VFX industry and coordinated for blockbusters like Mulan, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Maleficent. Vivek Ramkumar — Here's a talented Game Designer who has worked on titles like Sleeping Dogs and Tryst, built his own first-person indie game, and has experience in LiveOps Design. Prior to Timbre, he was a senior Technical Designer for Relic Entertainment. Gerritt Turner — Before Timbre, Gerritt worked at Wizards of the Coast on a lot of Magic: The Gathering's writing, designing and overall creative. They even have an experience in Brand Writing for Hasbro. Yuliia Bocharova — Prior to Timbre, she was a Lead 3D Artist for Blackbird Interactive and worked there for 3+ years. You should check out her ArtStation portfolio: https://lnkd.in/gKEwykG5 Vincent-Gabriel Canadian — A talented VFX Artist who has worked for Studios like Frima, Behaviour Interactive, and Nesting Games. Vincent specializes in real-time VFX for video games! #layoffsupport
- Raphael van Lierop Now that Timbre is officially closed -- and my heart goes out to all those affected -- I think someone should ask WTF Sumo Digital Ltd was thinking in making this drastic cull. You have a team of about 100 folks who -- just based on the outpouring of support and collective love between them; I know nothing about the studio itself -- seem to have been a high-functioning group of developers who had worked together for up to 2 years (obviously some of them were newish, as the median time employed was about a year; I saw some layoff notices from people who'd been hired within the past 2-3 months, so this suggests the leadership team had no idea the closure was coming, unless they are just evil...). Anyone who has built a team understands the value of having folks across many different disciplines who work well together. There is significant value in this, and you don't just throw it away. I understand Sumo decided they needed to make 15% cuts to save costs, but then why not cut 15% uniformly (more or less) across all your studios and the parent org? If you are cutting 250 people worldwide across multiple studios (I count 14 studios: https://lnkd.in/gxmRTJcz), why then cut 100 of them in one place? 250 people across 14 studios is less than 20 people per studio (some of the Sumo studios have 100s of people). You could have cut 15 from Timbre and kept 85 employed. Could they not have sold the studio to another publisher? Or found a buyer from outside games? Both Relic and Phoenix were bought by non-game buyers (private equity in Relic's case, a blockchain company in Phoenix's case), so there's clearly money from outside the industry looking to invest and own a piece of the games business, even in super expensive Vancouver. This doesn't seem like just another "oh whoops we overhired during COVID" story. What, did you set up an entire new studio from scratch and hire 100 people between 2022 and 2024 by mistake? Tencent bought Sumo a while ago. Tencent has more money than anyone. Did Tencent not want this studio? They could have spun it out from Sumo. Microsoft? Ubisoft (they used to have a Vancouver studio...)? Anyone? Nobody out there wanted a team of 100 folks who knew how to work together and had built some amount (maybe a lot?) of a game together before they were unceremoniously shut down? No publisher wanted to pick up the game and continue to float the studio until it shipped? There's been a lot of love being generated from the demise and aftermath of this studio. But where's the rage?
- Andrei Zubov DeamPlus Games Earned $12M+ IAP Revenue Amids “Hoa Hoa Hoa” Season 🍂 Game of Vampires: Twilight Sun, an empire-building RPG, is the ultimate vampire fantasy brought to life. 🌘 Gothic castles, luxurious dark interiors, a spooky atmosphere — and a ton of pop-culture references! From Twilight and The Vampire Diaries to Blade and The Addams Family — this game is packed with nostalgic nods that resonate with players through its ASO, ad creatives, and character design. 🧛♂️🏰 The right timing and a touch of luck drive this success even further: with the game’s global launch, the unexpected revival of the Twilight franchise came into play! Millennials are fueling it with nostalgia, while Gen Z is having fun with those cringy moments the old movies have. ✨🧛♀️ For a deep dive into this phenomenon and the insights game developers can draw from it, check out Diana Levintova's fantastic article for AppMagic. Halloween couldn’t be a better time to dive into the industry insights, spooky vibes, and, of course, “hoa hoa hoa” 🎃👻 Link in the comments! 👇
- Mike Sanders Time for an impromptu meetup of the #GameDev Executive Support Discord group! If you're an #Executive or C-Suite in the #games industry, with #VC funding or consistent revenue, and small to medium sized team, then come and join us! We're targeting a quick late afternoon meetup either on Thursday or Friday, south of the Koelnmesse. If you'd like to attend, then please reach out! The GDES is a place for leaders of game #developers to support each other, offer support, mentorship, teaching, or lend an ear! Want to rant about the current state of #funding or the lack of diversity in the #industry? Maybe you need a #coach, someone to provide a second opinion, or a beat on current #game market trends. GDES is your place!
- Amir Satvat I want to extend my heartfelt sympathy for the layoffs yesterday at Archiact, as reported by the company itself (https://lnkd.in/eyg7g_2G). These situations are challenging for everyone involved, and our community stands ready to offer support in any way we can. I'm thinking of you all today. If your role was affected by this news, please make use of the support available across our three platforms. Specifically, I recommend checking out the Games Org Support Posts in Home 1. These resources are highly effective, with ample data to back their success. Home 1 - 🔗 AMIRSATVAT.COM: Our main hub provides 15 resources to assist you in finding work, featuring a fully updated design. - 🔗 Games Org Support Posts: Find a template at AMIRSATVAT.COM (Category 4, Resource 10). If you can provide information from your team (with their consent), I’ll help edit and disseminate the final product, reaching 100,000+ people. These posts are highly effective in increasing visibility, and we've done 98 of them. Home 2 - 🔗 Discord: Join us at discord.gg/amirsatvat, our live extension of community resources. With nearly 3,800 members, we are currently in an open-join phase. Home 3 - 🔗 LinkedIn: Our community here includes over 89,000 members, with 1-3 daily posts offering support and career assistance in the games industry. How the Broader Community Can Help: - Spread the Word: Reshares and comments on this post amplify the visibility of these resources. - Offer Support: Utilize the 13 ways listed on AMIRSATVAT.COM under "How You Can Help" to assist, or simply lend an ear or advice on our Discord server. - Join Our Movement: Volunteer with us at AMIRSATVAT.COM to support our colleagues in the games industry. Our network has facilitated over 2,000 jobs and 37,000 coaching conversations to date, the largest impact of any games organization on earth, and has been visited by millions of gamers lifetime.
- Joe Minton I just left a video call with yet another game studio executive trying to navigate having secured initial funding and now running out of cash with a potential closure of their studio looming. In addition to sadness, I can’t help feeling as though both the investors and the studio headed down an unnecessarily dangerous path from the start. Investors can play a critical role in the success of a game studio by providing capital and expertise. However, applying traditional investment models may cause developers to pivot from best practices in order to secure the investment. The unintended consequence is that risks can be added instead of mitigated, and it is important for both parties to navigate together carefully to avoid common pitfalls. Examples of these risks include making a game larger to increase potential returns, hiring a big internal team to maximize enterprise value, setting unmovable deadlines to keep the dates of future returns in place and, as faced by the studio I just spoke with, providing only initial funding. These decisions may lead to a riskier project to manage and one that is not attuned to the challenging reality that finding fun cannot be promised by a given date. Starting full production too soon is a recipe for the studio to risk cost overruns while piloting a battleship when the agility of a speedboat is still required. Without a clear funding path, a studio can end up burning investment capital intended for development on pitching and demos. Games are not well suited to ‘build ten things fast, expect nine to fail and one to skyrocket’. They need to be nurtured by oversight which advances step by step towards success. This doesn’t mean a game should be finished at all costs, it just allows the investor and developer to pull the plug on a project that is not coming together before full production, so that the team can focus on the next opportunity while there is money left in the bank. The good news is that digital games sell forever, and game franchises are strong platforms to build upon with sequels and additional content. For investors open to long term cash generation, games are a great match. If a fund has a maturation date, successful IP can be sold based on future revenues. Fundamentally, rather than pressing for a quick home run, the most consistent returns come from supporting quality studios making games iterated through feedback from the team, testing with consumers and learnings from the industry. This approach lays the groundwork for developing “singles and doubles” into powerhouse franchises. The greatest investor impact comes from adapting fund structures and return models to account for development best practices. Success hinges on a strong partnership of developers and investors together forging new ground that is aligned to the unique dynamics of the game industry.
- Alexander Rehm Paradox Interactive announced today that Double Eleven, the developer behind Prison Architect 2, will be stepping away from the project after nine years with the Prison Architect franchise. Good news first, construction on Prison Architect 2 isn't being halted! Co-development studio Kokku, who's been working on the game since 2023 and previously collaborated with Double Eleven, will take the lead in bringing the sequel to completion. The news comes with a hint of complication. While Prison Architect 2 passed certification, negotiations between Paradox and Double Eleven for continued development reached an impasse. Technical hurdles, particularly with memory usage and minimum specifications, emerged during final testing. Paradox, likely wary of past performance issues (think Cities: Skylines 2), emphasizes their commitment to delivering a high-quality sequel that honors the Prison Architect legacy. Kokku, a Brazilian studio with a history of co-development and outsourcing on major titles like Horizon Forbidden West and Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War, is now at the helm to ensure Prison Architect 2's smooth launch. The Prison Architect series, which began in 2015 with the original simulation/management game, is still on track for a 2024 release with Prison Architect 2. While the development team has shifted, fans can rest assured that work on this highly anticipated sequel continues. (source: https://lnkd.in/dWtBvDhN)
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