Scott Hartsman

What Blair Westlake said re: the Guilds It’s bad and it’s gonna get worse. It’s driving tens of thousands of talented people out of LA and possibly out of entertainment…or will it? Content creation is marketing now. If you’re a brand, you need a content creation capability. Hollywood’s loss is the brand’s gain. But also all this talent isn’t going to just go work at Mickey D’s. It’s going to regroup in places like Austin and Nashville and it’s going to create a more diverse media business in the long term. Big & expensive are gonna lose to small crews empowered with AI and unencumbered by the Guilds. “Unemployment in film and TV in the United States was at 12.5% in August, but many think those numbers are actually much higher, because many film workers either do not file for unemployment benefits because they’re not eligible or they’ve exhausted those benefits after months of not working. As a whole, the number of US productions during the second quarter of 2024 was down about 40% compared to the same period in 2022. Globally, there was a 20% decline over that period, according to ProdPro, which tracks TV and film productions.”

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Horrible news today about layoffs at Traega Entertainment, with 19 employees being laid off. Game Director Tony Mann shared their details here, if you are in the market for some amazing talent: https://lnkd.in/eJDgas_5 To those affected, please find a comprehensive list of resources, below: 🥇First, Discipline Games Jobs Resources: Over the past weeks I have created 8 (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/eu2bjadW ⚙ Engineering and Programming This resource lists just over 1,800 jobs worldwide across all links. It also talks about interview tips and questions to practice. Link: https://lnkd.in/eYdxANFM 🕹 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/dwwVjZuc 📑 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/gxDvFM-Z 📢 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 🥈 Second, 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/ 🥉 Third, If you have worked in publishing, please message me. I am looking for quite a few roles right now! ⬅ 🎖 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 #traega

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 received FOUR nominations for next month's 2024 'The Game Awards!' 🎮✨ 🎧 Best Audio Design – For the explosive soundscapes that immerse players in every battle. Every reload, explosion, and stealthy footstep wouldn’t be the same without the genius behind the audio. 👥 Best Multiplayer Game – Redefining the multiplayer experience yet again with modes that bring players together and keep them on their toes. If you’ve squad-ed up, you know the magic. 🔥 Best Action Game – Where adrenaline meets flawless execution. Black Ops 6 doesn’t just raise the bar—it rebuilds it. 💡 Innovation in Accessibility – For making sure everyone can jump into the action. This one’s about breaking barriers and ensuring the joy of gaming is universal (shoutout to Steve Saylor!) Huge congrats to the incredible teams at #RavenSoftware, #Treyarch, and our many partners who made this possible. #TheGameAwards #BlackOps6 #CallOfDuty #GamingCommunity #GameAwards2024 #AccessibilityInGaming

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This videographic reveals some mindblowing and terrifying data: 1) Since 1986 (that's almost 40 years), the games industry has enjoyed double-digit, YOY revenue growth. This is why the games industry is now bigger than the movie and music industries combined. We've done this while delivering content on new devices every 5 years and totally new platforms every 10. 2) This is *also* why the dip at the end is so scary, and why I'm so obsessed with where the industry will find its next $100B in revenue: https://lnkd.in/gGBpk2U4 #videogames #gamesindustry #infographics Visual Capitalist

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You know what's better than one #NickyHilton game? TWO #NickyHilton games!! 🎮 In today's SECOND "Our Love Language is Bite-Sized, Branded Video Games" post 💖 👗 We created a fan game for Nicky and Kathy Hiltons' Printfresh holiday PJ's collection!! 👚 Join the festive fun with these adorable Christmas pajamas from the exclusive Printfresh x The Hiltons collection. ⚡ The game was created on Breshna.io's template "Bounce Pounce" with no-code and in 45 minutes! Breshna.io (by GRID) Playable game link in comments ⬇ 🎮 CPG brands are using Breshna to create snackable video games for enhanced user engagement, attributable conversion and lead generation. 🎮 Breshna games can be fully customized with brand IP and embedded into social media posts, websites, apps & QR codes on physical products as simple URLs. Hope you're game: Leo Voloshin Amy Voloshin - we're hiring Kristin Weber Eliza Reinhardt Molly McNamara Alayna Giovannitti Perry Zavetz Mo Karimi

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Today I want to tell a story. I've been holding onto it for a specific circumstance, but in case that doesn't happen, forgive the rough edges. For the longest time, I wanted to be a games journalist. I've known how to play games and deconstruct their mechanics ever since I spent many school summer holidays playing the same Playstation games over and over. I would be the kid that would read games magazines, mostly for the cheat codes, on occasion spotting an article about the next Pokemon game that I just had to tell my friends about. I was never taught or told that being a "critic" or "journalist" was a career, let alone in games. Media Studies wasn't even a subject my high school taught until sixth form options, so I'd have to get by with learning how to deconstruct the written word - often Shakespeare or "Of Mice and Men" - in English Literature class. Jump forward to 2014/5. I was in University, with the freedom to learn about "the media" and online video (YouTube) as I had experienced through college. Despite being on a TV Production course, and though we students all knew the influence social media was going to play in our careers, games were still part of my plan. Through friendships and unsuccessfully trying out for the Student Union's monthly news series as a "games correspondent", I was able to work on a project with a criminology student who also liked games. He ran his own YouTube channel, as I had done under many brands and guises over the years, but he was more consistent. I came on board as his camera operator during EGX Rezzed and we made a few interview videos together. One of which I want to bring to the attention of Hyper Luminal Games. Yes, happy birthday Hyper Luminal! 🎉 We've both changed since this video about Big Crown Showdown! Congrats on releasing Pine Hearts - a wholesome cosy game that is a love letter to the simple life in Scotland. I can't wait to play the full thing - Melissa kindly showed me it at WASD this year, it really was charming! Things have a weird way of coming back around. I don't believe in karma, but I've been watching the work of many studios that I admire and wondered where I fit, thinking maybe there are some answers in my previous work. So, this little story is tale of never forgetting your roots, and celebrating them where you can! Also, if I may be a bit cheeky: If you ever have the availability Hyper Luminal, I would love the chance to join your team! I can assure you my on-screen presence and ability to manage events & communities is far better than what I could manage 10 years ago. I'm happy to work on a relocation plan up to Dundee, be that to work for the core studio under Melissa's expert & bubbly guidance, or having the opportunity to scout for Little Nook's next great wholesome story to share. Here's to both our next chapters! Video:

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I get to work with some very talented people on my team here on DC Universe Online, several of whom worked for years at Cryptic Studios on Star Trek Online. So naturally, we have a lot of great quotes to pull from both franchises. This morning, one of those quotes came up again and reminded me of how many people are agonizing over rejection emails they're getting right now. Having just interviewed several fantastic people for a role I opened here, I know nearly all of them are about to get a rejection email from us. I want you all to know something: it's not because you necessarily did ANYTHING wrong. You could have done everything right, but still lost out. Your qualifications and references were enough to get you on a call with a hiring manager like me in the first place. You got to speak with members of my team and while not all of the feedback may have been perfect, I assure you that no one we hire ever gets by unscathed, either. So yeah, as Patrick Stewart reminds us in his role as Captain Jean Luc Picard, “It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness; that is life.” Don't get caught up in what you could have done differently. Don't agonize over minute details, inflections in your voice, if your facial expression wasn't genuine enough, if your answer was too rambly - you may not have made any mistakes at all, honestly. Someone else just matched the specific team fit slightly better, or had slightly better experience in a slightly different area, or scored in some other category just slightly better. It's possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. Get up, brush yourself off and as we're told... Leave your hesitation and your self-doubt behind. You've got more calls to prep for and one of these days, it's going to be you who ends up scoring just ever so slightly better in a category or two. And here's the real secret - you'll invariably make mistakes on the interview you finally nail, anyway. #gameindustry #getbusyliving #youvegotthis #opentowork #hiring #boldlygo

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Another good Q under our belts. Watch our earnings call video and let me know what you think of the new format.

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Had a blast sitting down talking monetization and live ops with Michail Katkoff! Certainly a fan boy moment for me as I’ve been a huge follower of Deconstructor of Fun for many years! In this episode we talk about how to organize your teams, culture, and strategy to setup effective monetization for your products. We even share a little extra on our partnership with Light & Wonder and how we’re changing the wider gaming space. I hope you enjoy! If you want even more of the secret sauce, join us :) SciPlay #SciPlay #PassionToWin #DeconstructorOfFun

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As engineers working on UEFN projects, performance optimization is a constant concern. While we've had basic metrics like frame rate and memory usage, in-depth analysis has been a challenge. Epic Games' recent announcement of the Spatial Profiler is a step in the right direction, but we're eager for the full suite of Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) tools to make their way into UEFN. The Spatial Profiler: A Visual Approach to Optimization The Spatial Profiler is a welcome addition to UEFN. Its heatmap overlay of our islands, highlighting areas with high actor counts, game update times, render times, or draw calls, provides much-needed spatial context. We can now see precisely where optimization is needed most, making our efforts more targeted and efficient. This visual approach is particularly helpful when working with complex islands. Instead of sifting through numerical data, we can quickly identify performance bottlenecks by simply looking at the heatmap. This streamlines our workflow and allows us to focus on the areas that need the most attention. The UE5 Toolset: A Glimpse into the Future While the Spatial Profiler is a great start, we're eagerly awaiting the integration of UE5's full suite of optimization tools. Tools like Unreal Insights, the Profiler UI, and Stat Commands would give us the granular data and real-time feedback we need to fine-tune our UEFN projects for optimal performance. For example, Unreal Insights would allow us to trace and visualize engine data, giving us a deep understanding of how our games are utilizing CPU, GPU, and memory resources. This level of insight would be invaluable for identifying and resolving performance issues that are difficult to detect with basic metrics. Integrating UE5 Tools: A Seamless Workflow The ideal scenario would be a seamless integration of UE5 tools into UEFN. This would create a unified workflow where we could leverage the full power of Unreal Engine's performance analysis capabilities, regardless of whether we're developing for Fortnite Creative or other UE5 projects. This would not only make our lives easier but also democratize optimization for less experienced developers. By providing them with accessible and intuitive tools, we can empower them to create high-performance experiences without requiring deep expertise in optimization techniques. A Unified Ecosystem: The Future of UEFN Performance Optimization At Magnetik Gameworks we envision a future where UEFN and UE5 are fully integrated, allowing us to use the same powerful tools for both platforms. This would streamline our workflows, enhance our optimization capabilities, and ultimately lead to better-performing UEFN experiences. With the Spatial Profiler as a first step, we're optimistic that Epic Games will continue to bridge the gap between #UEFN and #UE5, empowering us to create truly exceptional Fortnite Creative experiences.

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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.

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🎯 Strategies For Weapon Field Recording Success 🎯 https://lnkd.in/gNJxPJsi 🔫 Recording gun sound effects is a big undertaking. I know that 20 years ago when I was starting out it felt like an unapproachable goal. So when Mac Owens found a gun range near Austin for us to record at I jumped at the chance! If you know me at all then you know I love documentation, so I also decided to thoroughly document the entire process to help make this easier for other audio folks to go record their own weapon sessions! 📽 In this video, you'll find invaluable insights on Pre-Planning, 32 bit vs. 24 bit recording, setting recording levels for loud sources, running a large field recording session, and preparing a Reaper DAW session for the files. It's 40 minutes of material so I also broke it down into chapters for targeted learning 🎓 Please share with your audio contacts. I hope you find it helpful. Now, go record something cool! #FieldRecording #SoundDesign RECORDISTS: Chris Carroll, Ryan Stunkel, James Barker​, Mac Owens, Andrew Corbitt, Dietrich Dice, Aaron Brown​. SHOOTER: Karl Rehn.

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Dear Stretch Network Partners, Please allow me to inform you about additional changes that will take place in the global network on July 8. 🍀 All Heads-up tables will be removed 🍀 Badugi cash tables will be removed 🍀 Sonic cash tables will become 6-max 🍀 The minimum buy-in for Sonic Omaha cash tables will be 20 BB 🍀 Sonic Omaha 7 card cash tables will be added These changes apply only to cash tables and only to our Global Network. In your local networks, you decide your product strategy, but we would be happy to assist you in managing your local networks as well. If you need our help, please contact us. The above-mentioned changes are part of the new strategy for the Stretch Network Global Network, which prioritizes the comfort of novice players and casual traffic to maintain the proper balance of our ecosystem between amateurs and professionals. Caring for the ecosystem of the Global Network is our priority. The changes we are implementing now and will continue to implement will significantly improve the user experience for your players, extend their LTV, ARPU, and, of course, Revenue.

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Very interesting article. When we say "A.I." it often means "statistical computing feature that outputs a prediction". A.I. represents the future and always will be, as it is a very anthropomorphic notion that evolves in time as we do. Spellcheck is for us a useful feature, while for Gutemberg it would have been called witchcraft. Somewhere in the middle it could have been called an AI proofreader. LLMs predict the next most probable word ("token") based on the distribution of the data it has used to "learn" (actually "set statistical weights"). (1) If we talk about "computing statistical feature" we'll say something like "the result is wrong". But as we talk about A.I. we say things such as "it hallucinates". As such we project beliefs that can feed themselves back. Now the fun part. It is exactly the kind of technique used by psychics. 👇 https://lnkd.in/eMACW4r6 (1) check this very cool demo 👇 https://moebio.com/mind/

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TRACKING RELEASES & TRANSFERS # 1 LIST OF SEPTEMBER, 2024 Hi Mobile Gaming Fanatics! 🤩📲 Today I bring you another edition of our… 💫 Tracking Releases & Transfers 💫 September's first list brings releases and transfers to big publisher accounts between Aug 16 and Sep 21. I've found 157 titles. 💪🔎 I highlight 4️⃣ titles of them. ✅ “Eternal Hero” by Supersonic from Unity A big Israeli publisher 🇮🇱 has released a stunning, high-quality action RPG. ✨ “Eternal Hero” has two standout elements: game art and the deep gameplay. Its highly polished game art, with delightful details such as the excellent jump animation and the battles' SFX. ⚔️ The game’s depth is also a highlight, with a character with dozens of features. Despite this depth, “Eternal” retains the easy gameplay of Hypercasual, with mechanics similar to Idle Arcade, combats that don't kill the player quickly, short dialogs, and an arrow tutorial that remains throughout the game. 👍 There are still some changes to be made, but there's no doubt that “Eternal Hero” is a promising Hybridcasual. 📈 Since August the game has amassed almost US$150k in IAP revenue with 220k downloads. Developed by Rivvy Games, "Eternal Hero" was transferred to Supersonic's account on September 16th. 🗓️ ✅ “Unscrew Pin Jam: Nuts & Bolts” by Supersonic from Unity This thought-provoking puzzle mixes “Screw Jam” by Rollic 🔩 with “Tap Away” by Popcore. ↗️ Developed by EOgames, "Unscrew Pin Jam" was transferred to Supersonic's account on August 29th. 🗓️ 👆 In my opinion, the Hypercasual giant is accelerating in the Hybridcasual race with these two games. 👆 ✅ “HexaCoin Harmony - Merge Tiles” by Voodoo “HexaCoin” is another attempt by the big French publisher 🇫🇷 to launch its version of “Hexa Sort”. With few changes in mechanics, the game's key differential is the AMSR coin sound. 🪙 Developed by Cympl Studios, "HexaCoin Harmony" was transferred to Voodoo's account on August 30th. 🗓️ ✅ “Blossom master: Tile matching” by Lihuhu Games The big Singapore publisher 🇸🇬 (and a Cost Center partner 🥰) released another game in its specialty: Match Tile. “Blossom Master” is a typical Matching tile with a flower theme. 🌺 In addition to its usual visual appeal, the flower theme provides powerful collection features. "Blossom master" was launched by Lihuhu on August 16th. 🗓️ All data from AppMagic. 💯 👇 Swipe through the slides below to see releases & transfers by Zynga, Azur Games , Dmobin Global (Dmobin Studio), SayGames, Vgames Studio, Rollic, Supercent, CrazyLabs, Lion Studios, FreePlay, KAYAC Inc., Kwalee, TapNation, YSO Corp, OVIVO Games, and much more. 👇 - X - Cost Center 🔜 GamesCom Asia offers a BI platform that helps scale up mobile games across UA, Creatives, and Gameplay. 💪 Its portfolio includes amazing clients such as Amanotes and Lihuhu. 🏆 I highly recommend it! 😍 Call my friend Yi Ting Ho. She'll show you a demo. 😉 #innovation #gaming #gamedevelopment #HypercasualByCarlosPereira

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Mere days after I wrote about how "prediction and betting markets incentivize corruption, cheating and fraud. As such they are inherently parasitical" and how the industry fails to recognize the substantial, associated badwill risks, we get this:

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"New developer Old Glory Studios today announced the launch of its new crowdfunding campaign, in partnership with Folla Capital, LLC. The studio, which is founded by military veterans who previously worked on titles such as Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon and The Division, plans to develop military-based titles, with its launch game being team-based PvP shooter Victory’s Grave: Outflank. To build this title, Old Glory has launched a “Regulation Crowdfunding” campaign, which will give investors equity in the studio."

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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?

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