Joe Nickolls

Gameloft Toronto confirms reports of layoffs to GamesIndustry.Biz. GamesIndustry.Biz also reports estimates of 49 cuts. https://lnkd.in/eiiRhvJy If your role is 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. I won't pretend there are easy solutions but our community's only goal is to make things a little easier for as many people as possible. We have a ton of data showing that, for all candidates, your chances of finding a games role double (from 5 to 10%) over 12 months if you regularly use all our resources versus not. Additionally, yesterday, I just presented a 100% update to our Games Jobs Workbook as of 6/25/2024, with 3,600 companies fully updated and more than 13,000 roles fully updated. Of our 18 resources, this is the most powerful tool we have to help you. https://lnkd.in/d6x5NHMZ (Resource #8) I'm so sorry to hear this report and I will, as always, do my best to do something about it rather than just talking. Home 1 - 🔗 AMIRSATVAT.COM: Our main hub provides 17 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 99 of them. Home 2 - 🔗 Discord: Join us at discord.gg/amirsatvat, our live extension of community resources. With over 4,200 members, we are currently in an open-join phase. Home 3 - 🔗 LinkedIn: Our community here includes over 90,000 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 15 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 2,100 jobs and 39,000 coaching conversations to date, the largest impact of any games organization on earth, and has been visited by millions of gamers lifetime.

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Friends, our weekly community impact update for June 7th! This week, I'm so proud that we added Hailey Rojas' #opentonetwork resource as our 16th community offering. I thank Desirée R. also for her help with that content and design leadership this week as well. Haven't signed up yet for our community badge rewards for being a member and participating in community coaching? Register here: https://lnkd.in/evQpQDfd Our Four Headline Stats First (as always), straight from amirsatvat.com: - Job Placements: We've successfully facilitated over 2,000 job placements. - Advisory Chats: Our community coaches have engaged in more than 37,000 free advisory chats - We added 808 members to our LinkedIn community (88,973 total). - We added 336 members to our Discord community (3,735 total). JOIN OUR DISCORD COMMUNITY HERE: discord.gg/amirsatvat Resource Updates: - Hiring Visibility: Our community now includes 7,501 job seekers, with 70 new candidates joining recently. - Coaching: The number of coaches has risen to 2,228, thanks to 19 new volunteers offering support across our four services. - Role Listings: There are now 13,783 job opportunities across 3,616 organizations. Providing a full update on this is my top priority. - Career Planning: Both our General Planning Resources and our Early Career Pack are now live. Please submit any additional contributions you may have! - Games Org Support Posts: We have highlighted 98 individuals affected by programmatic layoffs. - Free LinkedIn Premium Trials: This week, we provided 20 new 2-month LinkedIn Premium trials to gamers, bringing the total to 370. - Ticket To Ride: We have given out 370 free tickets to gamers across 5 events, thanks to 29 generous sponsors. - Weekly Community Spotlight Posts: We have posted 8 spotlights, allowing community members seeking work to highlight themselves. How You Can Help: We have a page (https://lnkd.in/dY9KQ5a3) detailing 14 ways to contribute, highlighting areas of elevated and highest needs marked in yellow and red. This Week’s 8 New Mentors, 6 New CV + LinkedIn Reviewers, 3 New Mock Interviewers, and 2 New Art Portfolio Reviewers are in the comments! Thanks for your support and let's continue changing gamers' lives together! Super Amiro

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If you are going to MIGS, there will be two Canadian Studios: Honour Bound Game Studios Inc. and Bonkers Builders by Emmanuel Proulx and Richard Lalancette, Which has two upcoming games. PC Games have not been announced yet. Palworld, Stardew Valley, and Slime Rancher 2 like: The adorable and diverse seedlings, with cute designs and charming animations, will make players want to collect and care for them, driving engagement and attachment to the game. Sci-Fi, Pet Collection, Farming, Live Sim Soon on Xbox, Steam + Deck, Switch Coop: 4-player local co-op Media: https://lnkd.in/dM-X2M64 And  Infinite Onslaught, is a retro-styled arcade shooter that brings the intensity and excitement of classic games to modern players. With a demo set for release in 2025, Infinite Onslaught is the first-ever "Keyboard Basher" game. It offers a unique experience that combines the nostalgia of 1990s arcade cabinets with cutting-edge gameplay mechanics. Has Licensing & Patent. 😎 👆 Media: https://lnkd.in/dHr6CqGb #gamingnews #gaming #videogames #gamingindustry #gamingevents

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Terrible news last night with Behaviour Interactive announcing that it has laid of 95 employees, 70 of which in Montreal. To those impacted by these layoffs, please find a comprehensive list of resources, below: 🥇First, as you are on Montreal, please reach out to us at People Can Fly Studio, we have many roles open right now in Montreal and Canada, please check them out here: https://lnkd.in/eWpV5PbA 🥈Next, Discipline Games Jobs Resources: Over the past weeks I have created 9 (at time of writing) Games Jobs Resources to find jobs in a wide range of disciplines: 🎨 Art, Animation, VFX and UI: This resource contains around 1,200 jobs worldwide across all links. Link: https://lnkd.in/eXgEEUAA ⚙ Engineering and Programming This resource lists just over 1,900 jobs worldwide across all links. It also talks about interview tips and questions to practice. Link: https://lnkd.in/eAufG7q4 🕹 Quality Assurance: This resource lists over 450 QA jobs worldwide. This post also talks about the craft of QA and contains tips and interview practice. Link: https://lnkd.in/e6YwwJeS 📑 Game Production: This resource lists around 400 jobs worldwide. It also contains info about game production as a whole and GDC talks. Link: https://lnkd.in/eE8QgeDq 📢 Marketing & Community: This resource lists around 400 jobs worldwide. It also gives an intro into game marketing and community management. Link: https://lnkd.in/e5MuViug 🎶 Audio and Sound Design: This resource lists around 190 jobs worldwide. Link: https://lnkd.in/eSkPSsWf 📠 Studio Support, HR, Recruitment and BizDev: This resource lists around 290 jobs worldwide. Link: https://lnkd.in/ePG57_7v ⚙ IT, Helpdesk and DevOps: This resource lists around 140 jobs worldwide. Link: https://lnkd.in/e8ZsuiZh 🎮 Game Design: This resource lists around 480 jobs worldwide. https://lnkd.in/dCv_hQXv 🥉 Third, the Ultimate list of Video Games Career Resources: This should be your one-stop shop for all information. My dear friend Amir Satvat maintains these documents, he is a legend for doing this - please check them out: https://amirsatvat.com/ 🎖 Finally, do not give up. Ever. No matter how dark things may look right now, I KNOW you will get through this, you have got this! 👊 Remember you are not alone. If you need help, advice, or even an ear to listen, we're here for you. Always! ➡ A request to my community, please can I ask you to repost this post to your colleagues and friends, so that we can get as many into jobs as possible! And please comment if you or your studio are currently hiring - let's help each other! Much love ❤️ #layoffs #gamesindustry #jobsingames #behaviourinteractive

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In the Gaming world, Democracy prevails 🎆 Sony's swift response to community feedback on Arrowhead Game Studios's Helldivers 2 is a testament to player power. Cheers to all Helldivers 2 players! When Players' Voices are heard, it's a Victory for All 😄 Here's to a brighter future for Gaming 🎮 For those unfamiliar with the issue, here's an article to keep you updated https://lnkd.in/gqNVQVeh #JBlaze #Helldivers2 #Sony #Democracy #Gaming #ArrowheadGameStudio #PlayerVoices #Gamers #GamingForAll #Crossplay

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Come learn about Xsolla's strategies to improve your mobile games revenue.

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Bennett Liu shares an important life lesson here about the power of connections, and the value of supporting one another. His work with our awesome volunteers is one of the reasons XP Game Summit 2024 was so smooth. Check out his talk below:

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🚀 Exciting news! 🚀 The Kaia Wave has been updated, and applications are now officially live! 🎉 If you’re a Web3 builder looking to grow your project, this is your chance to join the Kaia & LINE NEXT Web3 Builder Support Program. From $95K in fee waivers, $700K+ in marketing support, and reaching 100M+ global LINE users, to VC connections and financial backing, this program is packed with opportunities to help Dapps take off. If you’re ready to push the limits and build on Kaia's Layer 1, now's the time to apply and bring your ideas to life. 🌍💡 📌 Check out the link and apply today #JBlaze #KaiaWave #Web3 #Blockchain #DappDevelopment #LINENEXT #VCOpportunities #TechInnovation #KaiaCommunity #Kaia

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2 days ago, Behaviour Interactive laid off 95 individuals, citing “unprecedented competition” and wanting to focus on its “historical strengths” as the main reasons. BI is one of Canada’s largest independent game developers and publishers, with an average revenue per employee of $282K (approx) and a consistent revenue growth since 2015. On the surface, the world praises a studio for its games and talks about its big moves. Like that, BI is known for its horror titles (especially Dead by Daylight), partnering with WB for Mortal Kombat 1 and co-creating AAA games like Fallout Shelter with Bethesda. We endlessly glorify studios and their games, but we rarely talk about the individuals who actually make these games a reality. Nobody talks about it when game developers who were truly responsible for a video game’s success lose their jobs. In the end, behind all this visible glory, game developers are the ones actually forced to bear the volatile fluctuations in the gaming industry's economy. We congratulate studios when they make great games, but we fire our game developers as soon as things don’t seem to be working out! Imagine putting years of hard work into building a fine game only to hear one day that you’ve been removed from the effing project. So, here is my attempt to highlight game devs who were impacted by Behaviour Interactive. Repost and tag the right people. Let’s bring them maximum visibility from recruiters and game studios that are currently hiring: Jorge Eduardo Chaparro — As a Sr. Community Manager for BI, Jorge established social media strategies for ‘The Casting of Frank Stone’ and ‘Islands of Insight’. Remarkably, he has also been a senior level Community Manager for Studio Onoma (formerly Square Enix Montreal) and Square Enix.   Marika D. — Marika was also BI’s senior community Manager but for its most renowned hit, Dead by Daylight. She has worked on Capcom and Disney’s DLCs apart from DBD. Before BI, she worked for Ubisoft as a Social Media Content Specialist. Meriem B. — A highly talented Social Media Manager who also supported the launch of Islands on Insight to corporate platforms and multiple chapters for Dead by Daylight. Moreover, she contributed to the growth of Behaviour’s audience by 10%. Vincent Davila — A Game & Level Designer of Behaviour Interactive who worked on four unannounced projects before being laid off with some experience in production, too. Sara Calzada — A killer talent who started her career as a Camera Operator and ultimately became an Art Director & Team Lead for BI. Sara has also been a Designer and Concept Artist for Netflix’s 3D animated series - Kitti Katz. #layoffsupport

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Ubisoft Toronto confirms reports of 33 layoffs If your role is 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. I won't pretend there are easy solutions but our community's only goal is to make things a little easier for as many people as possible. We have a ton of data showing that, for all candidates, your chances of finding a games role double (from 5 to 10%) over 12 months if you regularly use all our resources versus not. Additionally, recently I presented a 100% update to our Games Jobs Workbook, with 3,600 companies fully updated and nearly 14,000 roles fully updated. Of our 18 resources, this is the most powerful tool we have to help you. https://lnkd.in/d6x5NHMZ (Resource #8) I'm so sorry to hear this report and I will, as always, do my best to do something about it rather than just talking. Home 1 - 🔗 AMIRSATVAT.COM: Our main hub provides 18 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 99 of them. Home 2 - 🔗 Discord: Join us at discord.gg/amirsatvat, our live extension of community resources. With over 4,300 members, we are currently in an open-join phase. Home 3 - 🔗 LinkedIn: Our community here includes nearly 91,000 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 16 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 2,100 jobs and 39,000 coaching conversations to date, the largest impact of any games organization on earth, and has been visited by millions of gamers lifetime.

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Disturbance in the Force: Avalanche Edition The bloodletting in the game industry continues. Avalanche just bought the now closing studio in Montreal last October. Bloody hell. ----- VideoGameChronicle: "Just Cause maker Avalanche announces 50 layoffs and closure of two studios. ROUGHLY 9% OF ITS WORKFORCE IS BEING CUT, WITH ITS NEW YORK AND MONTREAL OFFICES SHUTTING" "Just Cause maker Avalanche announces 50 layoffs and closure of two studios. ROUGHLY 9% OF ITS WORKFORCE IS BEING CUT, WITH ITS NEW YORK AND MONTREAL OFFICES SHUTTING “This is an exceptionally difficult decision, but we believe it’s necessary to ensure a stable and sustainable future for the company,” Avalanche said in a statement. “Our focus is now on supporting all Avalanchers through this challenging time. We’re grateful for the invaluable contributions of those leaving and remain committed to creating incredible gaming experiences for our players.” Avalanche, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2023, specialises in open-world games. As well its Just Cause series, it developed 2015’s Mad Max and co-developed 2019’s Rage 2 with id Software. It only announced plans to open its Canadian office last October, following the acquisition of Monster Closet, a Montreal-based studio founded in 2021 by a team of veteran game developers with a shared history of working at Ubisoft. Avalanche is currently working on Contraband, which is set to be published by Xbox Game Studios for console and PC. The new IP, which is billed as “a co-op smuggler’s paradise set in the fictional world of 1970s Bayan”, will reportedly be focused on vehicular combat." VideoGameChronicle: https://lnkd.in/g36whEas #ghameindustry #gamelayoffs #disturbanceintheforce #avalanche

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🎮 On this day in gaming history: 44 years ago, Pac-Man was released for arcade machines! Pac-Man, initially called Puck Man in Japan, is a 1980 maze action game developed by Namco for arcades, released in North America by Midway Games Manufacturing. Players control Pac-Man, who must eat all the dots in a maze while avoiding four colored ghosts. Eating "Power Pellets" turns ghosts blue, allowing Pac-Man to eat them for bonus points. Developed in 1979 by Toru Iwatani and his team, the game was designed to appeal to both women and men with its cute and colorful characters. Renamed Pac-Man for its North American release, it became a massive hit, spawning sequels, merchandise, TV shows, and the hit song "Pac-Man Fever" (I still recall that song by Buckner & Garcia). Pac-Man is now Namco Bandai's mascot and remains one of the highest-grossing and most iconic video games ever. Interestingly, it also inspired the nickname of a world-famous boxer from the Philippines. I recall my first time playing Pac-Man on the Atari 2600 console, a gift from my dad. It wasn’t arcade accurate, but the gameplay was sweet and kept me glued to the screen, munching on wafers and avoiding those pesky ghost monsters. I distinctly remember the satisfaction of gobbling up the ghosts after eating Power Pellets, racking up points—it was incredibly fun! 👻 What was your strategy? I used to follow a specific pattern, prioritizing eating all the wafers over chasing ghosts. To me, advancing to a new level was more beneficial than risking being caught by a soon-to-recover ghost. Pac-Man is definitely one of those games I'll never forget. 🕹️ #JBlaze #PacMan #GamingHistory #RetroGames #ArcadeGames #Game #Gamer #Namco #Atari

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Had a fantastic chat with Julian Maroda while visiting Montreal for MIGS this week! What a treat to meet other devs who deeply understand and harness the power of feedback and rapid iteration. Julian's success with Tribes of Midgard at his studio Norsfell was built on a foundation I strongly believe in: weekly sprints, regular build reviews and playtesting, and a "less talking, more doing" philosophy. What really resonates with me is Julian's commitment to sharing builds early with players - even when core systems aren't complete. At Norsfell, the team actively involves players even before some of the basic mechanics are implemented. Why? Because involving players early to capture and make sense of their experiences allows teams to validate fundamental decisions when changes are still easy to make. This is exactly why we built Live Aware - to help teams of all shapes and sizes effortlessly engage with and learn from their play community. We are empowering the next generation of devs make better games, faster and more aligned with audience expectations. Merci Julian for the great chat and for demonstrating how embracing "extreme velocity through iteration" can lead to great success! Want to learn more about Julian's work and dev philosophy? Check out a fantastic interview with Julian hosted by Daryl Ogden at Valued Cultures: https://lnkd.in/gCHMGqYA

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Multiple games outlets report that Merge Games Ltd. has shut down and that Mountaintop Studios has had to lay off 13 people. Taking action in situations like this is what matters and our community is here to support you in any way we can! --- FOR THOSE AFFECTED - Amir Satvat's Games Community "Number 1 For 'Games Jobs Resources'" - Google Search We will not rest until every gamer is employed. OUR TOOLS WORK - We have reached up to 400,000 unique viewers monthly and nearly 4,000,000 annualized across all platforms. - Our community has facilitated over 2,600 jobs and 48,000 coaching conversations, with the largest impact of any games individual or community. - Our data shows we can double job-seeking success for those who engage with our tools over several months. - Always free, always with love, and always without ulterior motives. AMIRSATVAT.COM Our hub offers 19 resources for games employment assistance, with a user-friendly design. Use our template for Games Org Support Posts (Category 4, Resource 13) to maximize visibility for affected candidates. Discord Join us at discord.gg/amirsatvat, a live games career support community with over 5,900 members, open to new members. LinkedIn Follow and join discussions on LinkedIn with over 98,000 members and 2-4 daily posts offering support and career assistance, the largest Top Voice games community on the platform. How the Games Community Can Help - Spread the Word: Reshares and comments increase resource visibility. - Join Our Movement: Choose from 17 ways to help gamers on AMIRSATVAT.COM or provide advice on Discord. To everyone: Please reach out to friends at Merge Games Ltd. and Mountaintop Studios, check in on them, and, more importantly, find ways to help and start helping now. I’m thinking of all those affected, and our community will do everything possible to uphold its commitment to gamers everywhere.

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Another week, another round of layoffs, another studio closure, and another blow to the Vancouver game dev scene. Game development in Vancouver has been on life support for the past few years, and what a shocking fall from grace in comparison to how things looked in the early to mid-2000s where you couldn't throw a BC roll (sushi reference) without hitting a triple-A studio! You can blame more favourable tax credits in other Canadian provinces (which doesn't help!) but that's not the real reason for the decay, is it? We're not really competing against other provinces within our country, we're competing with a global talent market and a shift to remote work that has driven game development to lower cost regions that can produce stuff that's just as good as anything we can make. It's a shock and a wake-up call, perhaps too late. Everyone is on survival mode right now and there are still rough waters ahead. Today doesn't seem to be the day for big-picture industry analysis, but when the dust settles and the pain of layoffs is not so fresh for people, it'll be time to sit down and ask ourselves some tough questions about how we got here. I'm getting tired of saying it, but my heart goes out to all those affected by the current round of layoffs and closures. 💔

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🙏 A Big Thank You to Our Friends at Tekkie Pinas! 🙏 Grateful to Mark Anthony Wagan for this fantastic article on the recent launch of the Kaia Mainnet. 🎉 It’s exciting to see our efforts being recognized as we continue to push the boundaries of Web3 with LINE’s NEXT WEB SDK. Check out the full article to learn more about how Kaia is set to reshape the future of blockchain. 👉 https://lnkd.in/eSKQMyDu #JBlaze #KaiaBlockchain #MainnetLaunch #Web3 #TekkiePinas #Innovation #Blockchain

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Last week I attended External Development Summit (XDS) in Vancouver. Despite having a turnout of nearly 3:1 vendors (art/tech providers) vs. buyers (developers), I want to share a few happy learnings: - During the down period many new smaller studios in Asia formed from staff who exited when contracts dwindled. This is HUGE for a new generation of talent who are linguistically capable with much lower business/pm overhead (some even have a shared rev model with artists - it's the future!) Boutique specialist studios are everywhere! - Vendor studios are all hungry for work, which means PRICES ARE GREAT right now for any developers (large or small) looking to get things started. Everyone is willing negotiate! I certainly got some good deals from the event. - AAA is gonna need a little while longer to cook up. On the other hand, AA market has been quite good! High-end becoming too expensive for average consumers in this economy being one factor... but gamers are still gonna game, just looking for affordable ways to do so. This translates to projects. See my experience from PAX West. - There is no better place to get this kind of intelligence than External Development Summit (XDS). During a slow year, it's all the more important to attend and rack up resources. Bonus: Just because sponsored mixers have free drinks doesn't mean you can steal their props.

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It seems like only last week that myself, Rik Alexander and Ryan Woodland hit up Develop, but we're now just 2 weeks away from External Development Summit (XDS) in Vancouver! 🙌 I'll be downloading the XDS Connect app later today, and look forward to meeting with lots of Studios to discuss how we can help put their Unreal projects on turbo charge! We've seen very common requests from Studios we met at Develop, and have spoken to since, mainly around Unreal Engine performance issues. If you have queries around; -debugging and tracing -profiling and analysis -asset loading /dependency issues then we should talk ☺ I believe our CodeDev (Unreal Engine Experts) team is World-class when it comes to Unreal Engine- we'd love the opportunity to show you we know what we're talking about... I've been very quiet away at Disney with the family (purely research purposes, of course) and catching up since, but in case you were wondering, Tron 👇 at Magic Kingdom is different level ;)

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