80 Level’s Post

Today's post is dedicated to the excellent feature from Jason Schreier about games industry team sizes (via Bloomberg) https://lnkd.in/ePTPNegF In a world of never-ending layoffs and unwieldy corporate oversight, many studios have popped up from industry veterans with smaller, focused teams that can do a lot more for a lot less. I've seen some speculation that this will lead the industry to follow in Hollywood's footsteps where a handful of seniors on staff direct projects while everyone else constantly moves from project to project, company to company. And I cannot see a world where that's successful for the simple truth that game development is fundamentally different from television and movies. The best, most successful games and series are crafted by teams that stick together (look at Capcom, Nintendo). If the industry moves towards a Hollywood style of development, I can only see worse quality games being made and audiences unhappy with the results. And this is happening right now with studios that rely on a majority of contract workers that churn over every year or so. Outsourcing isn't inherently a bad thing either -- it's necessary for a lot of games -- but when the scales tip to favor it, you're getting teams that take longer to ramp up on projects and aren't able to pass that knowledge onto the next group for the next project. You need people embedded in the team long-term to thrive. Related, the brain drain we've seen from these layoffs the past two years will be felt for years to come. I'm glad to see many of these newer studios embrace remote work (as they should) and I hope this is a turning point for the better. That we learn the correct lessons from *waves hand* everything that's happened. #gamesindustry #games #gamedevelopment

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I have been demotivated this last year, and with all the AI changes, it has been hard to tell myself that everything will be okay. Every day, I see more updates that make so much sense for VFX and how much our production will improve with the workflows. But at the same time, knowing the training methods of these data sets, the lawsuits, the interpretation of the IP ownership, and the number of jobs that will be outdated and probably culled hurts badly. It's hard not to see the impact this will have on our industry. Still, in the middle of all this noise and mess, I finally found some inspiration and ideas and decided to do personal work again, as I used to do it for myself, not caring about all of this noise. I have been working on a personal project for the last 8 years, a whole 12 Episode series with my own characters and ideals; some people have seen some of them already, others know about drafts and have read part of the story, and Just now on this massive crisis for our identity and industry, I think is the moment to get serious about it, my main goal is to make a trailer this year, make our studio finally public and find a producer to pitch the project outside.  ( The image attached is 10 years old, now the idea changed, the setup changed and the characters changed but I think is important to stay true to ourselves, the more complex the moment the more important it is) But what is there for us that are on this every day? On top of all the layoffs and changes in the industry, game and VFX projects being cancelled, the recovery from the strikes is proving to be way slower than anticipated. Most paused projects will not happen this year; companies are not taking more money to kick off slowed projects even if approved. How can we motivate and keep the people in our industry happy, knowing that the current state is unstable, to say the least? Being a junior right now has to be extremely difficult, knowing that thousands of experienced artists are looking for an option. I found my inspiration in real life, walking and talking with non-industry friends about dreams and life. But it took me almost two years to find myself, and I am just slightly feeling it; I am not fully there yet. What would you say/do to inspire our industry? What would be the words to keep us all going and afloat? #vfx

Airship Syndicate had to lay off 12 of its employees in January this year so they could continue operating sustainably. Developers of Wayfinder & Battle Chasers: Nightwar were laid off so here's a shoutout post for the ones impacted to help them reach the right studios. ~José M. N.~ José is a strong experience holder when it comes to development and programming. As a Sr. Software Developer, he can handle both backend & client-side development with expertise. Moreover, he is well-versed in AGILE/SCRUM methodologies & software design. ~Pranshu Mishra~ Here is a unique Producer who is a Voice Actor too. Talk about a dynamic and unique talent. Pranshu has done production work for renowned titles like Fallout 76: Wastelanders, Guild Wars 2, and Deathloop. Studios who are in search of a producer specializing in creative production, project support, feature production, and pipeline creation & maintenance can consider Pranshu as an ideal candidate. ~Jason Lepanen~ Jason holds 5+ years of experience in Level Designing who has worked on multiple pre, post, and full-production projects with post-release content and support across the games industry. ~Robert Bailey~ This talent is extraordinary when it comes to working around the narrative development and lore of a video game. Robert is a Designer who was laid off as a Quest Designer from Airship. During his career, he has handled major design roles such as technical narrative design and technical/content design for titles such as Star Trek Timelines. ~Chris Hepler~ Chris is a Lead Writer with over 2 decades' worth of dedicated writing experience. One of Chris' most astounding works is for the very famous Mass Effect during which he was the resident loremaster of the writing team. Having contributed to the major aspects of writing lore for Mass Effect this individual is surely a massive contestant for any studio looking to hire someone with such an impressive experience. Additionally, apart from Mass Effect, he has also written for Star Wars: The Old Republic and Pirates of the Caribbean which are everything from MMOs, and Battle Royales to single-player RPGs & Hidden Object mobile games. 𝗪𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗼𝗳𝗳𝘀? or 𝗜𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴? Here is a list of valuable resources compiled together to ease the processes of hiring and applying for studios and game devs respectively across the video game community - https://lnkd.in/gFCQQV9r #games #gamedevelopment #gaming #layoffs #gameprogramming #jobs #layoffsupport

Discover how savepoint cinematic-quality deepfakes can revolutionize your productions and learn about the efficiency of OpenBID for your VFX bidding. Let's connect at the #hpatechretreat! Reach out to explore innovative solutions designed to save time and money in production. See you there!

Remember that work systems built to serve the most senior people in a studio create lots of (often contextless) visibility and allow massive bureaucratic interference... ...while work systems built to serve the people directly creating the game may just provide an environment where you can move fast and get things done. The primary audience of a work system should be the people doing the work, not the people overseeing them. #gameproduction #gamedevelopment #gameindustry #worksystems

About week (or more) behind sharing this .. I'm going to be speaking at Epic Games #unrealfest24 with my esteemed colleague, Mohsen A.. We have a cool talk planned that illustrates some strategies for working with reality cap content + re-topo'ing using Game Dev tools within AEC. #gamedev #aec #archviz #realitycapture #architecture #technology #datamanagement HOK

Kudos to Ezzam for bringing in this amazing client review. 🙌 Ezzam, your dedication doesn't go unnoticed. Thank you for going above and beyond! 👏 Thanks, Jesse, for sharing this. It truly made our day. RepStack | Jesse Darnell | Trailhead 8 Studios | Ezzam Khan #clientwin #clientfeedback #testimonial #happyclients #employeeappreciation #teambuilding #companyculture #repstack

Today on GamesIndustry.biz... (Wednesday, April 24th 2024) 1. Your must read today is my full interview with Lars Wingefors about the future of Embracer as it prepares to split into three companies, why the company will drop the Embracer name, why it has moved the bulk of the debt to Asmodee, and more https://lnkd.in/gZQtAHRh 2. The Federal Trade Commission has banned non-compete clauses in employee contracts https://lnkd.in/gkcTcipb 3. President Biden has signed a bill that could potentially see TikTok, a key marketing platform for games firms, banned in the US https://lnkd.in/gzBasUCM 4. Brendan's monthly retrospective column, 10 Years Ago This Month, looks at how Amazon TV and Google TV failed to impress https://lnkd.in/gPWrcB9W 5. The former Lionhead devs at Gloomhaven dev Flaming Fowl Studio have released a demo for Ironmarked but warned the production is on hold due to lack of funding, with some layoffs at the studio https://lnkd.in/gSXPpRpV Get even more news straight to your inbox with the revamped GI Daily: https://lnkd.in/eAkx_zen

'We have taken the extremely difficult decision to propose the removal of a number of roles globally.' 🔴 The Next Big Wave Of Video Game Layoffs Is Here 🌊: Studios big and small are laying off game developers 🎮. To ensure your studio can keep production costs down and profits up, consider kaedim3d.com for AI that turns images into models in minutes ⏰. Use code A836A7X to get 1 month of Kaedim’s starter plan free (up to 10 credits) 🆓. If you’ve already searched for a 3D AI generator, you know that Kaedim alternatives will only leave you with unusable meshes and wasted time ⌛. Kaedim’s image to 3D AI engine can be used with Unreal Engine, Unity, Omniverse, and Blender or via API for seamless integration into your workflow 🔄. The best part about 2D to 3D AI is that you now have unparalleled access to allow user-generated content like never before 👥. Used by more than 200 studios, Kaedim’s 3d model AI generator adds levels of quality control to provide the best 2d sketch to 3d model option on the market 🏆. Remember to use code A836A7X on Kaedim’s Starter Plan for 10 credits for new customers 🎁. You will not find a comparable AI 2D to 3d converter 🔍. #GameDev #GamingIndustry #VideoGameIndustry #GameNews #Games #IndieGameDev