Tim Murck

More horrible news: Dutch Game Garden is shutting down in January 2025 after 17 years... Since its foundation in 2008, Dutch Game Garden has developed itself into a cornerstone of the Dutch games industry. The organization has played a crucial role in the growth and development of countless start-ups and established game companies. Over the years, more than 130 companies have participated in its incubation program. More than 150 companies have had an office in Dutch Game Garden’s cluster, allowing them to pursue and realize their creative ideas. Successful companies from this ecosystem include Studio Deloryan (Deloryan B.V.), Abbey Games and many more. I know we cannot provide an incubator like this, but what we can do is try and help those affected through mentorship, engagement and support: 🥇 Jobs wise, reach out to us at People Can Fly Studio, we have many roles open right now in Canada, the UK, Ireland and Europe, please check them out here: https://lnkd.in/eWpV5PbA 🥈Next, Discipline Games Jobs Resources: Over the past months I have created 9 (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/ePywd2kq You can find over 6,000 jobs there. 🥉 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/ I urge you to check out the areas in particular about support and mentoring, as these will help you no matter what industry you are hailing from or are looking into going next. 🎖 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 ❤️ #dutchgamegarden #shutdown

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The Dutch Games industry suffered a unimaginable loss today: due to a change in public funding policy, the Dutch Game Garden - which without exaggeration could be regarded as the beating heart of the Dutch games industry - has announced its closure after 17 years of service due to a lack of funding available. To put that into perspective, when I was dropping out of university, the "DGG" was where I went to start Vlambeer. Being in that building, with all the other studios and developers, was an invaluable part of accelerating my career. I don't think I'd be here without the guidance and selfless support of the team back in the days. Pick any random person in the Dutch games industry, and it's likely that at least one point or another in their career, the Garden was a critical factor, a meaningful support, or a useful resource. In the Netherlands, we have a disproportionally talented and creative games industry - but we also have had a lot to be jealous about when it comes to the structures supporting the industry in other countries. Yet, on my travels, the Garden was consistently named as something the rest of the world was envious of. An institute that enabled, incubated, organized, and connected almost every aspect of the games industry - brightly visible, a beacon, a clubhouse, a facilitator. All that now ends in 2025, and it feels borderline unacceptable to lose something that powerful in a time where the industry, more than anything, needs symbols of hope. The team at the Dutch Game Garden gave it their all to find a way forward, but that way never materialized. That means it is now up to all of us to make sure that we carry their torch forward. As a person, I have many more thoughts and tears to shed about this loss - but as a board member of the Dutch Games Association, I know there's a lot of work we can do to ensure the damage caused by their forced closure is at the very least reduced. We are already actively evaluating how our association can ensure continuity on at least some of the incredible activities of the Dutch Games Garden. And, as the person responsible for government relations, I am going to give it everything I have to ensure this will never happen again. If you are a part of our industry, and you have thoughts, ideas, or initiatives you want to share with us, or me, please feel free to e-mail me at [email protected]. If you just want to vent about this, express your feelings, or share a story - please do feel free to reach out too. Thank you so much to everyone who made the countless iterations of the Dutch Game Garden possible. It would not be an exaggeration that there would be far less of us without your efforts. I would not be here without your support. Your legacy remains - and while I can't speak for everyone, based on the countless messages I received today I know many of us feel the same: we'll miss the Garden, but we will make sure we grow onwards on the soil you've nurtured for us.

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🇳🇱 Netherlands vs. USA 🇺🇸: Two completely different worlds in terms of music. While the US is the birthplace of genres like jazz, hip-hop, and rock, the Netherlands has mainly made its mark internationally with Dance. Think of big names like Tiësto, Armin van Buuren, and Martin Garrix. But beyond electronic music? The Netherlands often borrows styles from other countries, like the pop structures from Sweden or the urban influences from the UK. Why is that? In America, music is often intertwined with culture: hip-hop, for example, is more than just music—it’s a lifestyle, a movement. In the Netherlands, music often remains just ‘entertainment’. We look at what’s successful in other countries and adapt it. This doesn’t mean that the Netherlands lacks talent, but it’s challenging to develop a unique, recognizable identity outside of Dance. The challenge for Dutch artists? To develop their own sound, instead of simply following what’s popular internationally. Can we ever create a unique ‘Dutch pop’ or ‘Dutch hip-hop’? Or will the Netherlands remain dependent on influences from other music countries? What do you think: does the Netherlands have its own sound, or are we mainly good at refining what others already do? 🎶💭 #Music #DutchMusic #DanceMusic #Hiphop

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My Mum and her friends always ask me what I do for work. I explain that I work in games for a Backend Game Engine. But what's a Backend Game Engine, they ask? 🤔 Our latest Pragma article explains all of this: https://lnkd.in/eZ7D2Mmj 🔎 ▶ Game development is challenging, especially for online games. While game engines have standardised many aspects of game creation, backend services remain a challenge, even more so at significant scale ▶ Pragma is the first "backend game engine," providing a flexible foundation for online game services that allows studios to customise and extend their functionality ▶ By offering pre-built solutions for common backend needs and tools for customisation, Pragma reduces development costs, speeds up feature implementation, and minimises launch day risks for game studios of all sizes. Love you, Mum.

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Wanna play a #game? If you know that Tripple A studios prefer #Translate.ED for their Games, and Translate.ED also works for a number of very #Indie game studios. You can't go wrong for the #Dutch games market. #HoldMyStroopwafel #DutchGamesTranslations #DutchLocalisation

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Meet MIMO: The Game-Changer in Video Creation! 🎬 With just one image, MIMO can replace anyone in a video! This groundbreaking AI transforms 2D frames into realistic 3D scenes, controlling characters, backgrounds, and more. No need for multiple camera angles — MIMO does it all with one view, making your videos more interactive and adaptable. Ready to take your video creation to the next level? The future is here, and it’s powered by MIMO! #AIV #MIMO #VideoEditing #FutureOfFilm #AI Generative AI

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The type of legal framework Brazil has implemented will boost opportunities in game development across the entire board. In collaboration with the Dutch government the Dutch Games Association is working in the Netherlands to establish similar structures. The games industry is distinct from other forms of software development, distinct from other forms of art, distinct from other forms of entertainment media. While I aim to form and strongly maintain coalitions across software, art, and entertainment where our needs overlap, it is important that as an industry, we get to legally define ourselves as "games industry" - not just "software companies" that happen to make games.

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Change makers don’t understand games; game makers don’t understand change. Policy makers, researchers and activists don’t really leave their own realities to visit the crazy multiverse of gaming. At the same time, game developers often think sustainability is about trowing plastic bottles in the recycling or about putting windmills in a grid. We need to bridge this divide if games are going to mean something for our collective futures. Change makers and game developers need to actually step into each other’s worlds. Having worked as a researcher on games and better futures for a number years in Anticiplay and now in Strategies Horizon, I find myself moving between two realities. The one reality is that of policy makers and researchers who want to use games for social impact on issues like sustainability. The other reality is the game industry, where people want to make good games, driven by a mix of commercial and artistic ambitions. There is a pretty huge rift between these two worlds. So how do we bridge it? Read on. Spotlighting Dutch Game Garden and Fossielvrij NL, as well as highlighting work by Arnaud Fayolle; International Game Developers Association (IGDA®) Climate SIG; Playing for the Planet; and HKU (Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht).

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🎶 Consu's Release Tips 🎶 Here’s my step-by-step checklist for pre-release, release day, and post-release. With almost £0 budget, this is what I do: Pre-Release: 🎵 Register the song with my PRO (e.g., PRS) + PPL and The MLC. 📤 Upload the release to my distributor. 🔗 Share the pre-save link on socials. 🎯 Pitch to Spotify editorial. 🎥 Post a teaser clip on Spotify and schedule it for release day. 📻 Submit the release to BBC Introducing. 📅 Schedule posts/reels on Instagram & YouTube about the release + BTS content. (Tip: Auto-share Instagram posts to Facebook!) 🗓 Post weekly, starting 4 weeks before release day, always on the same day of the week. 🎬 Schedule a YouTube lyric video for release day. 🎧 Add the release to Bandcamp & SoundCloud (set to "private"). 📜 Create a Spotify playlist with songs similar to the release. Release Day: 🌟 Update my website: "Out Now!" 🔗 Move my release to the top of your Linktr.ee. 🌍 Set Bandcamp & SoundCloud releases to "public." ✏️ Update my Spotify bio to highlight the release. 🎤 Make my new release the "Artist Pick" on Spotify. 📀 Add my song to the top of my Spotify playlist. 📣 Feature the release on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. 📌 Pin release posts on all socials. 📝 Share on Facebook groups and DIT community. 🎧 Pitch to playlist curators. Post-Release: 👀 Thank listeners! 📊 Reply to comments. 🚀 Keep the momentum going with follow-up content. 💡 Pro Tip: Be consistent and authentic 😉 I hope this helps make your next release a smash hit! Let’s grow together! 🤟 #releaseday #indieartisttips #musicindustry #independentmusic #diymusician #musicpromotion #artisttips #howtoreleasemusic #stepbystepguide #prerelease #postrelease

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📰Mind Control Games, the team behind🤑Cash Cleaner Simulator💸is looking for a publisher.❓Ask: $280k - more ℹ below: I had the pleasure of meeting Leonid at INDIGO in Utrecht. As devs, you naturally show each other what you're working on and get to know each other. I was immediately hooked on Cash Cleaner Simulator and would like to help Leonid and his team as much as I can. 🔍 Looking for: Dev Budget & Publishing Services (more in the pitch deck link) 😍 Traction built: 6.4k wishlists on Steam, biggest YT video with 320k views, more than 500 people on Discord You can find more information in their pitch deck (comments 👀 ). 🤗If you're a publisher and don't provide a dev budget, but can help in other ways, that could be a possibility too. Please ask Leo directly, since he's actively looking. 📽 It's a super intuitive game and attracts people visually in an instant. Love this kind of game! Let's help Leo find contacts on LinkedIn! 🔃Share or comment if you have people in your network who would love to publish/play Cash Cleaner Simulator! 🙏 Thank you, and best of luck to you and your team Leonid! #games #gamesindustry #gamesdevelopment #publisher #gamespublisher #pitch #pitchgame #lookingforpublisher

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So proud & grateful of this achievement with BASE (Telenet Group)! 🙇‍♂️ We made it to Fast Company Innovation by Design 2024 list. This puts us where we want (and deserve) to be, next to CX heavyweights such as Notion, Google, Work & Co. How we did it? - It was MX™️ thinking that got us there, plain and simple. Wait what? - Well, MX™️ is November Five's way of thinking. It's about creating a memory, not an experience. A memory that boosts the confidence of choice of your customer. A conscious choice for your brand. And that memory is formed by connecting with the intrinsic motivation your customer has: what immaterial value does he/she expect when interacting with your brand? Sounds cool, what was the underlying need in this case? - In short, BASE is about offering control to their customers. Through deep MX research we discovered that underneath, their customers were looking for peace of mind, a form of security, and autonomy, which led us to create a meaningful 'feeling of control' experience. Happy to share more details over a ☕ Oh, and we've also earned the highest appstore ratings for a telco app in Belgium, and globally! 😎 #cx #customerexperience #FCDesignAwards

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Half-Life 2 ▪︎ 20 years later, still breaking the rules. How good does a game have to be for it to attract over 60.000 concurrent players two decades after its release? That’s right, dudes. Half-Life 2 didn’t just redefine gaming in 2004 — it still sets the standard for storytelling and gameplay excellence today. But what keeps its flame alive in a world overwhelmed by cutting-edge titles and 4K graphics? Let’s break it down a bit: 1. A narrative that stands the test of time. No endless cutscenes. No tedious monologues. In Half-Life 2, every detail — from graffiti on the walls of City 17 to the unspoken interactions between characters — invites players to piece together the Combine’s dystopian world, bit by bit. It’s show, don’t tell at its finest. 2. Physics innovation before it was trendy. In 2004, the Source engine and the Gravity Gun felt like playable science fiction. Solving puzzles, weaponizing the environment and feeling the weight of every object revolutionized how we understood physics in gaming. Even now, these mechanics remain a gold standard for game design. 3. Level design that’s second to none. Boredom? Impossible. Half-Life 2 effortlessly transitions you from solving high-stakes puzzles to cruising through apocalyptic landscapes to perfectly paced combat. Its rhythm is still a masterclass in keeping players on the edge of their seats. 4. Characters truly matter. Gordon Freeman might be silent, but Half-Life 2 connects you with characters like Alyx in ways that many modern games can only dream of. Back then, its facial animations weren’t just good — they were years ahead of their time, brimming with expressiveness. I won’t keep you much longer.. If a game can pull thousands of players back in, 20 years later, one thing is certain: Half-Life 2 isn’t just history — it’s still the present. Just like a raw diamond: innovative, unforgettable and perfectly crafted. When was the last time you played Half-Life 2? Maybe it’s time to revisit City 17. #gamedevelopment #valve #steam #gamedev #narrativedesign #gamingindustry #innovation

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The Hidenburg report on Roblox is FUD and Joost van Dreunen rightly calls BS on the tone and superficial nature of the analysis. Every app on the Internet has bots in their numbers. But the level of deception that is being alleged here would be fraud and there would be jail time for execs if they were intentionally misleading the street - which I very seriously doubt is the case. Also, we dealt with this child predator problem on Club Penguin all the time. Barely a week went by that we didn't make a criminal referral. This is the whack-a-mole of running an online service with kids. Roblox has built an expertise in this type of moderation that's different from what Facebook's moderators do. Comparing numbers of mods is useless because they do different things. Joost rightly points out that incident reporting is the better way to measure this, and Roblox has far from the biggest problem. But evidence that there are referrals is not evidence of unrestrained abuse. To the contrary, its evidence of enforcement. Hindenburg is a short seller. Easy money to be made for them by FUDding the stock. I'd keep their agenda in mind when evaluating this. "The Hindenburg report presents a loud but largely toothless challenge for Roblox, even if it highlights issues that deserve more serious attention. What weakens Hindenburg’s claims is that despite its self-righteous tone, the research remains thin, decontextualized, and targeted. Instead of presenting a quantified assessment and comparative analysis (something you’d expect from a financial firm), it leans into openly accusing Roblox of deliberate malpractice and indifference toward child safety in favor of growth. It makes an emotionally evocative argument, certainly, and taps into the increasingly pronounced skepticism among regulators and researchers."

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We just finished filming a documentary for Octopus Energy about mythical sea creatures and now we are pursuing these 5 films... This is a photo of the echt.productions team doing a beach clean in the north coast of Scotland, with our new friend Dorcas! 🐬 We used this trash and built a raft. Yes. A full on Raft and sailed it in the North Sea. If you don't believe us, you'll have to watch the film. Coming soon! We spent the last month travelling all over the UK uncovering British myths, but now we are back, we are planning our next films. 5 films we really want to make 🎬 1. How phones are ruining our lives - We want to examine how phones are impacting our modern world. Are we ruining our brains and destroying our relationships? 2. All or Nothing Docuseries, following a lower league football team - This idea is a personal favourite of mine and I've been excited by this idea for a couple of years. I'm looking at you Walton & Hersham FC 👀 3. The Last White Rhinos - There are two remaining White Rhinos in Kenya and we want to document their attempts at saving the species 🦏 4. What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur? - A series where we follow 5 different start ups and their founders through the challenges of creating a business that makes a positive difference in the world. The highs and the lows. Idea credited to Oliver Carew 🌤 5. What is Good Art? - Exploring what makes art “Good?" Can Art be objectively good? What functions does art play in history? 🎨 If any of these films sound interesting to you and you know anyone that may be able to help, tag them below. If you have any ideas for a film, I'd love to hear them! For more about Dorcas efforts in beach clean ups - https://lnkd.in/djhu67VV

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With the partners of the PREMIERE project, ICK Dans Amsterdam is experimenting with new AI and XR technologies. PREMIERE is developing and superposing a VR platform and algorithms for creating, rehearsing, livestreaming and archiving dance and theater. During this ongoing journey we co-wrote with Suzan Tunca (Dance Researcher and Head of ICK Academy) an article where we reflect on insights from experts in robotics, biotechnology, choreography around if and how (embodied) AI, XR and artistic practices intersect and reveal that lifeforms resist reduction to mechanical control or calculation. https://lnkd.in/dqv3gRbR How do we interconnect information through our bodies? What does it mean to establish (physical) corporeality as AI ‘ground truth’? Can XR/AI augment the audiences’ physical, emotional, intellectual response and even affect in real time the behaviour of (virtual) humans or (synthetic) dancers? That and many other aspects of the co-evolution of biological and artifical technologies ICK aims to discover through a broad range of activities over the next few years – so check the article in the next story and stay tuned!

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Why should you choose the Filmpreneurship Network instead of working with one of the many consultants or professionals in the industry? I believe that making money with your film is being consistent the same way you are at the time you produce your film; you also need to be consistent when selling it. This membership is about learning to be consistent in marketing, sales, and distribution. But before you start taking action, there are strategies you need to implement first, such as: 📽️ Module 0. This is the orientation module. Here, you will find the instructions, T&C, community guidelines, and more about the membership. 📽️ Module 1. Branding. In this module, we work on your online presence because a good brand, a website, and a logo open doors for you and your film. People trust faster in someone who is easy to find on the internet. 📽️ Module 2. Business. This module covers everything you need to know about the materials you need to show once you are selling and offering your film to money people. 📽️ Module 3. Marketing. In this module, you will learn from your marketing plan to automate and post on social media frequently to attract and grow your audience. 📽️ Module 4. Distribution. This module contains your distribution plan and P&A, where you will learn the steps to show your film like a pro. 📽️ Module 5. Sales. For each of these steps in the business, one fundamental skill is selling; if you know how to sell and negotiate, the whole process will be easier to complete. You’ll learn this in this module. I know I know, this is the less sexy part of a film, but even creatives need to learn these skills if they want to see their film/s succeed. Be part of the success and join me on Filmpreneurship Network using the link in the comments. Do you have doubts or questions? Send me a PM.

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New versions of NNFlowVector and NNCleanup are released! 😄 #vfx #compositing #nuke #plugins #machinelearning

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