Marc Petit

Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios Group acquired Monster Closet Games (founded by Ubisoft veterans) in October last year and integrated its developers to launch a new studio in Montreal. Yesterday, this studio was shut down 8 months after launch, along with Avalanche’s New York studio, cutting 50 jobs. In an “exceptionally difficult decision” taken by Avalanche, the shutdown was “necessary to ensure a stable and sustainable future for the company”. Avalanche even expressed regret for losing 9% of its workforce but gave no updates on how it plans to help them after this. For big studios, posting on social media is easier and a one-time thing. But what about the 50 devs who are left with tougher days to come? When AAA giant (Avalanche) entered their lives last year, they promised the devs big game projects. For eight months, they worked hard on a title with Xbox, getting excited about how they would thrill gamers from different corners of the planet. But instead of receiving due credit, they are informed that they are no longer needed on the project and that the company has to lay them off to sustain themselves. If this is sad to learn, consider the sudden mental toll on these developers and the possibility of many falling prey to self-doubt. I also tried finding the impacted folks to give them a shoutout, but I can’t see any #opentowork banners except one or two. If you know of anyone who was impacted, please mention them below, and we will do everything in our power to give them maximum visibility. If you were impacted and saw this, I am listing three resources and various other ways for you to get back into the games industry ASAP. First💎 Layoff Support Kit 2.0 - https://lnkd.in/gCCXW_Wp My team and I have dedicated countless hours to curating hundreds of online game development resources so you don't have to. This comprehensive collection includes top programming boot camps, renowned game dev educators, free game assets to help you build great games, insightful podcasts, and much more. Second💎 A 100% scholarship on our $11,000 Full Stack game dev program - https://lnkd.in/gZKqNBFh If you were impacted by the recent bloodshed of layoffs, here’s a chance to Re-skill and revise your game dev knowledge with our advanced C++, OOPs, Unity, and Data Structure modules. Additionally, you will receive exclusive one-on-one mentorship from top game programmers who will help you strengthen your already solid foundations. Third💎 Our Discord Community of over 10K game devs - https://lnkd.in/gH-wZe2G Here, we listen to everyone’s take on game development, support aspiring game developers in building stronger portfolios, and solve each other's doubts. Also requesting Kelly Bender, Alexander Rehm, Caitlin Cooke, Jordan Mazer, Ruty Rutenberg, Hailey Rojas, Kevin F., Kat Craig, Ali Farha, Matt Barney, and Ash C. to help this reach all the folks who can benefit from this. #layoffsupport

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Another WIP update on our snack n' slash RPG Hangry! 🍽 This is a shot of the diner.... Thank you to Frank Lalonde for helping our indie team to unlock the magic of video game lighting in our game. Lighting in video games is more than just a way to see where you're going. It's a vital component that breathes life into the worlds we create. It shapes the atmosphere, evokes emotions, and can influence gameplay. 💡 Atmosphere and Mood: The right lighting sets the tone of your game. Whether it's the eerie shadows of a horror game or the warm, inviting neon glow of a (almost) cozy diner, lighting pulls players into your world. 🔦 Guiding Players: Strategic lighting can subtly direct players where to go or highlight important objects and areas. It's like having an invisible hand guiding you through the adventure. 🕯 Realism and Immersion: Advanced lighting techniques, like those available in UE5, make environments look more realistic. Dynamic shadows, reflections, and global illumination all contribute to creating immersive experiences. 🤣 Emotional Impact: Light can convey emotions and narrative elements without a single word. Think of the dramatic use of light and shadow in a cutscene or the sudden change in lighting to signal a plot twist. With Unreal Engine 5, I was blown away by the power and flexibility it offers for lighting. The real-time global illumination and dynamic lighting capabilities are game-changers. They not only make "Hangry" look stunning but also help us craft the exact experiences we want our players to feel and allow us as a small team to strive for a higher level of visuals for our games. Stay tuned for more updates on "Hangry" 🎮 #gamedev #unrealengine5 #hangrygame #lightingmatters #indiedev #gamedesign

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🎙️ New Series G podcast episode: Featuring Raphael van Lierop - CEO and Founder of Hinterland, the Vancouver-based studio behind the brilliant survival game "The Long Dark". ⭐ This discussion features topics including: - The early stages of building Hinterland as a company and studio - Managing Early Access expectations with the game community - Building a company culture that promotes studio longevity Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gabUNB-g YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gmbNJsxJ Here's a short clip from the episode where Raphael discusses how the team decided upon The Long Dark's Steam description:

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💡 Just out of a demo call with Gilles Domartini, Damien Organ, PhD and the team. 🚀 Seeing Cleeng launch "ChurnIQ Studio" brings back memories of my lateral project analyzing streaming patterns for a major US sport. I vividly remember spending countless nights (while simultaneously watching the games on 11 platforms) manually building over 70 custom dashboards to uncover viewer behavior and churn signals. Loved that, but... What took weeks of SQL (big)queries and moving log files wizardry can now be done in minutes. QUESTION: Have you been there too? Share your stories. Kate Waters of ITV said it perfectly: "We almost have too much data but we still have an insight gap." This resonates deeply with my experience - the data was always there, but connecting the dots required herculean effort. That's why I'm particularly excited about ChurnIQ Studio's launch. The ability to explore 80+ dimensions and create tailored visualizations for different teams is a game-changer for the streaming industry. No more sacrificing sleep to build custom reports! Congratulations to the Cleeng team on addressing this critical pain point. This is exactly the kind of tool I wish I had back then. #StreamingAnalytics #ProductLaunch #DataVisualization #CustomerRetention #StreamingPlatforms"

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• Fans don’t just watch anymore—they participate. • CTV platforms are revolutionizing how we connect with audiences. • Let’s explore how to captivate today’s fans.👇 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗧𝗩/𝗙𝗔𝗦𝗧: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 Nearly 8 in 10 sports viewers use a second screen during live events—checking stats, engaging on social media, or participating in interactive features. This underscores the growing need for truly immersive CTV experiences. 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀: • 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴: Use leaderboards, polls, and challenges to reward fans in real-time and drive interaction. • 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗧𝗩: Leverage data to deliver tailored highlights, hyper-targeted ads, and curated recommendations. • 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴: Stream live events paired with behind-the-scenes features to create excitement and urgency. What’s Next: • 𝗖𝗧𝗩-𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: Interactive ads and second-screen integrations that bring fans closer to the action. • 𝗠𝗼𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗡𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀: Share inspiring stories of athletes and gamers to build emotional connections. • 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹-𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀: Use viewer insights to refine content, optimize ad placements, and track engagement metrics. 𝗦𝗼, 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿... CTV and FAST platforms aren’t just tools—they’re opportunities to create immersive, memorable experiences. Build connections, measure results, and keep fans coming back for more. What’s one CTV feature you think will define the future of audience engagement? Let’s discuss! 👇 #CTV #BrandPartnerships

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Not another shutdown, and then this close to Christmas.... Canadian game studio Hothead Games has closed its doors. Hothead president and CEO, Ian Wilkinson, announced the news on Linkedin and said the company "had a good run" but has now filed for bankruptcy. "What Really Matters: It wasn’t the company and surprisingly it wasn’t the games. It was the people. Hothead was chock full of incredibly, smart, talented, loyal, hardworking but mostly just really nice people. We grew up together, we laughed, we cried, we celebrated, we grieved, we found partners, we started families… I had the privilege of working with so many wonderful people at Hothead over the years. " wrote Wilkinson, looking back on that period. It's unclear how many people the studio employed at the time of its closure. To those impacted please check out the following resources: 🥇First, Discipline Games Jobs Resources: Over the past months I have created 11 (at time of writing) Games Jobs Resources to find jobs in a wide range of disciplines, and I would urge you to check them out, if anything just to see what would be available to you: https://lnkd.in/ebdNWaVi You can find over 5,700 jobs there. 🥈Next, 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/ I urge you to check out the areas in particular about CV support and mentoring, as these will help you no matter what industry you are hailing from or are looking into going next. 🥉 Third, reach out to us if you need anything - CV help, introductions, reviewing your portfolio or LinkedIn profile - just ask in the comments. 🎖 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 ❤️ #hotheadgames #shutdown

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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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Some nice tips about using ElevenLabs Text-To-SFX feature. Feel free to try them out. My first tests were not that successful, but in the end, I am not the expert user and I only tested for a couple of minutes. Question is, if it will currently help professional sound designers to really be more efficient? I suppose not yet, as I am pretty sure you are faster when you know your existing library inside out. But as an additional tool, when looking for something you do not yet have, this will come in pretty handy very soon I guess. #ai #genai #elevenlabs #soundeffects #sounddesign #postproduction

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

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Navigating the complexities of porting to Apple Vision Pro? Unity's guide offers 6 essential tips to streamline the process, from leveraging Unity's AR Foundation to optimizing your app's performance on Vision Pro. Check out the full guide for expert insights and practical advice to ensure your app shines on Apple's latest platform - https://lnkd.in/dCcxYKem. #AR #VR #AppleVisionPro #Unity #realtime3D

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The new “Dragon Age": Veilguard game trailer feels like a marvel superhero movie instead of an epic. Doesn’t feel like it’s targeting adult RPG anthusiasts, seems to be made for children or teens. In comparison, look at the badass vibes and feel you get when watching the original "Dragon Age: Origins" trailer from 15 years ago, linked below. From the character, to the music, to the unapologetically brutal depiction of blood and violence. In comparison, Veilguard looks like its made for children. Children generally play free and casual games like Fortnite and Minecraft. Adult men are the ones generally spending money on premium titles. And as an adult male gamer myself, your game from 15 years ago was much more appealing. In a sense, the franchise seems to be regressing rather than maturing.

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Congratulations to this outstanding XR pioneers. Well deserved recognition for decades of work. As Jacki Morie says, we're in XR's 3rd generation. Spending the morning learning about trailblazers that I surprisingly have not met! Humbled, honored, and a bit star-struck to be included among such industry giants. Wonderful warmup for the XR History talks coming up at AWE in Long beach. Remember there are no WIMPS in XR (Windows, Icons, Mice, Pointers, or Solo Play). Time to learn from the past and unleash the next wave of XR innovation! Today we celebrate: Ivan Sutherland, Tom Furness, Henry Fuchs, Steve Mann, Prof Bob Stone, Jacquelyn (Jacki) Morie, Mark Bolas, Diane Gromala, Monika Fleischmann, Ann Lasko-Harvill, Jannick Rolland, Brenda Laurel, Carolina Cruz-Neira, Jonathan Waldern, Philip Rosedale, Lanny Smoot, Tim Sweeney, Avi Bar-Zeev, Stan Honey, Louis Rosenberg, Evelyn Miralles, MBA, Bruce Thomas, Mark Billinghurst, Paul Travers, Tony Parisi, Shelley Peterson, Bruno Uzzan, Alvin Wang Graylin, Nonny de la Peña, PhD, Thad Starner, John Gaeta, Yaakov Amitai, Elizabeth Baron, John Hanke, Thomas Alt, Peter Georg Meier, Sean White, Christine Perey, Jeri Ellsworth, Dr. Helen Papagiannis, Ph.D. and so many more! 🏆 XR Hall of Fame Full list: https://lnkd.in/dXPZbDEf 🐦 Early Bird pricing is still on. Ends May 9th. https://lnkd.in/gE_gTv7k 💰 Use my speaker code SPKR24D for a 20% discount. On top of Early Bird discount before May 9th! I'm joining Josette Seitz and Finn Staber 6/19 to talk about Designing for the Future of XR! I'll be sharing some of my experiences designing Follow the White Rabbit Tales on Apple Vision Pro! #XR #VR #AR #SpatialComputing #AugementedReality #VirtualReality #MixedReality #Metaverse #FutureTech #Innovation #HCI #AWE24 #AWE #AWE2024

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Ruminations on Mythos: The term is not "cinematic universe". Cinematic universe means one is making shared IP films. Mythos is the correct term. Myth·os - (in literature) "a traditional or recurrent narrative theme or plot structure". A mythos is a fictional universe for stories by one writer or many that has a consistency of characters, setting, events, style, and world. The Cthulhu Mythos is one of the best known examples. 78 writers have contributed to HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos over the past 96 years (1928-2024). While HP Lovecraft was alive, a circle of writers contributed to the Cthulhu Mythos including: August Derleth, RE Howard, Fritz Leiber, Robert Bloch, Frank Belknap Long, Donald Wandrei, and Clark Ashton Smith. Many more added to the mythos after his death. They wrote stories in the shared universe of the Cthulhu Mythos. That is a mythos. Or one can just give a name to the universe that one creates. JRR Tolkien - Middle Earth, Terry Brooks - Shannara, CS Lewis - Narnia, George RR Martin - The Song of Fire and Ice, Fritz Leiber - Nehwon, RE Howard - The Hyborian Age, Larry Niven - Known Space Universe. Writers do this all the time, alone or together. Now if game creatives build the consistency of a mythos around their work, like with Halo, Resident Evil, and others, then the pitch process to publishers or consumers is different. One understands the basics of Assassin's Creed, Dead Space, Mass Effect, or Dragon Age. One knows what to expect not just for sequels but for different games around different characters in different genres in the same world setting. Fallout is more mythos than just IP. By contrast, Mario is more an IP than a mythos. Interestingly Mario as an IP has done more genre shifts than is often done with an IP that is a Mythos. The Legend of Zelda is more mythos than Mario, but in one genre. Mario is many genres in one world setting or IP. ---- VideoGameChronicle: "Dave the Diver’s creator wants to create a ‘Dave cinematic universe’ of games. Jaeho Hwang reveals future games will explore different characters and genres" “Actually, I want to expand Dave the Diver IP itself,” Hwang said, when asked what the future holds for Mintrocket. “I think that’s every director’s dream, since we have a relatable character. “But actually, we didn’t go really deep into the personal stories in Dave the Diver, because we wanted to keep the game very casual. “So as a director, besides the story DLC that we’re working on right now, I also want to make separate games about each character to show how they met, what they did before coming to the Blue Hole. “In that sense, the games’ genres can be different. Maybe one day, if we start to make a Dave’s backstory game, we could make Dave another profession. Hwang said he wants to flesh out the Dave the Diver story by telling the backstories of both its protagonist, and main side characters." VideoGameChronicle: https://lnkd.in/gUs-d23W #gameindustry #gamedev #worldbuilding

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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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How does one of the best studios in the industry stay at the top of the game? This sitdown between Michail Katkoff and Javier Ferreira on Deconstructor of Fun digs into how Scopely has thrived during a period when gaming has been especially challenged. Great insights on #productdevelopment, #intellectualproperty and #strategicpartnerships on this pod. https://lnkd.in/g2uuBSCG

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It had been a while I had not been impressed by an AI breakthrough (you know, the "my LLM is bigger than your" race in the tech bro space before they realize size is not everything), but this one got my attention : 👇 https://fugatto.github.io/ As there are few examples linking Audio and instructions to create it in order to train a model, they focus on a dataset generation method. Excerpt from the paper (link in the comment) : "(...) audio data does not inherently contain the instructions that were used to generate it. To overcome this challenge, we introduce a specialized dataset generation approach optimized for producing a wide range of audio generation and transformation tasks, ensuring the data reveals meaningful relationships between audio and language" "We focus on building as large and diverse a dataset in order to collect demonstrations of as many audio tasks and contexts as possible. We emphasize that our ultimate goal is not to just excel on such tasks, but to drive, as a community, towards a future where unsupervised multitask learning emerges from data and model scale." The resulting demo suggests a very versatile audio synthesis and transformation engine. Still, let's be sure it's not "one more tech demo". Thanks Olivier for the link !

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🌟 Big reveal time once again 🌟 It’s shaping up to be an exciting week as we unveil another lineup of amazing Mini Dapps that’ll soon be live on LINE NEXT Inc. Messenger—all exclusively powered by Kaia Chain! 💚 Exclusively powered by Kaia Labs Limited, the Dapp Portal (@dapp_portal) is your gateway to Mini Dapps, connecting millions of users across Asia through LINE Messenger. 🚀 Here’s the latest lineup to get hyped about (featuring their X (formerly Twitter) tags—follow them for updates!): 🎮 Axolt's Escape // @AxoltsEscape 📈 IX Swap // @IxSwap 🐉 Lair Finance // @LairFinance 😺 Meowtopia // @meowtopiagame 🏓 Ping Pong Parade // @PingPongParade 🎮 Retro.fun // @retrodotfun ⚔️ Sid Eternal // @ZatteraProtocol 🤳 Social.Meme // @SocialMeme2024 🌌 Televerse // @TeleverseXYZ ✨ Wonderbits // @wonderbitsio Which one are you most excited to try? Let me know in the comments, and let’s gear up for an incredible wave of innovation! 🌊 #JBlaze #KaiaMiniDapps #LINEKaia #BlockchainInnovation #Games #Apps #Kaia #LineNext #ThinkGrowth

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