Michael Fitch

Don't want to bum you out but I know I'm not the only one who has noticed the same layoff cycle on LinkedIn over and over. I can tell your future... 1. Studio is shut down, all the devs become active on LinkedIn maybe for the first time in years and do their looking for work posts. People reach out with connections and support emojis. 2. The outpouring of thanks to the wonderful gamedev community. Amir Satvat and other full time LinkedIn influencers are tagged. 3. Nothing comes of all the LinkedIn support. Devs post frustration posts about how hard it is to be laid off and the injustice of the game industry. Many people will later delete these posts when they start to realize studios still aren't hiring them. 4. The reality step. Months pass and prominent veterans are still unemployed, let alone those "juniors" with a mere 5 years experience. At this point, people either give up and disappear, get a job and disappear (rare), or become a chronic disillusioned LinkedIn user. This last one either requires wearing a mask or ranting about capitalism more and more. 5. The laid off devs watch this cycle repeat for a whole swath of suffering people every couple weeks/days. And that's the step I've been on for a few months. But hey I've been working hard on my family and my solo projects. Magehunter coming soon, and AAA Simulator devlogs will be in production even sooner! Make art for yourself and those you love. Don't make my mistake - look for happiness outside this Microsoft product called LinkedIn.

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Amir Satvat's Games Community Support Content - Upcoming Schedule All Resources Cited Available @amirsatvat.com 11/8 - Helping Hands  (Resource #4) Spotlight on community members who have been searching for a job for over a year. 11/9 - New Games Jobs Update  (Resource #11) I've held off on loading new roles for a few days due to everything happening in the world, but expect hundreds of new roles to be available for application soon. 11/9 - Full Weekly Update (Resources #1, #2, #3, #5, #6, #7, #8, #16) Full refresh of all resources on the community website. 11/10 - Creator Partner Program Interest Check (Resource #18 - TBA) I will solicit participation interest in our new proposed Creator Partner Program for Amir Satvat's Games Community, highlighting those offering free games support to the community - based on your 94% / 6% in favor community vote. 11/11 - A BIG, BIG, BIG Surprise for Our Games Community Also Coming Soon   - A full study on job cuts by location (and more) from 2022 to 2024 YTD. - A concise one-page reference for all our key games job insights and stats. - Started a full update of the Games Jobs Directory (Resource #10)

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Know anyone that might know someone? Asking for a friend 👀 https://lnkd.in/g44DSCP8 #'s for the #'s #TheMattBarney #VideoGames #GameJobs #GameDevJobs #Unreal #UnrealEngine #GameEngineer #PrincipalEngineer #RemoteJobs #RemoteEngineeringJobs #RemoteEngineer

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Have you seen the multi-team staffing diagram where the timing between projects is lined up just right? It is the one where teams ramp up and down between pre-production, production and post-production to keep everyone assigned. When I ran my own studio, I planned out scenarios just like this. In thirty years, I’m uncertain whether I’ve ever seen one play out that way. A project often takes 3+ months longer to sign than your worst case – if it gets signed at all. Even with an internal dev team, management may change strategy or be unable to initiate a project for a myriad of reasons. Then there is the drumbeat of project cancellations that rumbles just below the surface of our industry… there are a thousand reasons a game might not reach release. For those games that make it to launch, it is unlikely the gold date resembles what was written on the whiteboard in the original greenlight meeting. And if you cannot properly predict when a game starts, ramps or ships, then this efficient team diagram is only a goal… not a plan. And so, we can continue to handle team staffing as has been commonly done for decades and see the cycle of ramp ups, layoffs, closures, restarts, rehires, strategy changes, more layoffs and closures endlessly repeat. When a full team is carried, the difference between the staffing goal on the diagram and the executed reality is paid in forced decisions of taking any work possible and an elevated risk of losing it all.  No one knows the count of digital tombstones in the video game studio graveyard. The human damage is massive and the turmoil chases talent out of our industry. Changing jobs, moving, losing healthcare in the US… the impact is severe. An alternative is to hire only the core team and become experts at bringing professional consultants and co-dev partners in and out as needed. Sometimes they cost more than equivalent employees in the same territory, but you will not be responsible for their burn when they are not on the project. Thanks to the pandemic we now have the tools, tech, knowledge and industry expertise to properly manage remote team members. Who is core? Only you can answer that. Employ those who together can create magic, who have the skills and disciplines that make you stand out, and who are central to maintaining learnings from project to project. Contract everyone else. I realize there are exceptions, but often, hiring only a core team provides you with a better culture, a nimbler footing and an extended runway to handle what this crazy industry is going to throw at you next. Plans will go awry one day and the key to better options is to have the time to maneuver. Without a wider embrace of the core team concept, the industry devastation we witness around us right now, which is in no way new, will repeat for the next thirty years.

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⚠️LINKEDIN SCAM ALERTS & LIST OF SCAMMERS⚠️ The amazing Amir Satvat compiled this list with help from loyal community members. Click on the LINK👇for the full list From Amir: Friends, over the past month, we have been hard at work assembling the most comprehensive list possible for you of known LinkedIn scams that prey on the most vulnerable job-seeking members of our community. We started with about 15 in a past post and are now up to 28 known situations. This document lives permanently at amirsatvat.com under our General Career Resources (Category 5, Resource 13). For now, to make this simple, please see the attached document that goes into each of these 28 scams in more detail. Please make sure to keep this on hand before engaging with anything that looks suspicious. Reach out to me directly if you have 2 confirmations of any scam, and we can get it on the list to protect others. Remember to also report it to LinkedIn. To those who prey on our most vulnerable community members, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Stay safe, Amir --- 1. Janet Patrick: Aggressive personal info requests. 2. Raina Laura: Location details don’t match. 3. Clara Scott: Offers job without an interview. 4. Annabella Christina: Poorly written messages. 5. Anderson Tracey: Requests upfront payment. 6. Susan James: Deletes profile when questioned. 7. Thomas Lenz: Unprofessional behavior. 8. Upshot Creatives: Fake checks for equipment. 9. Fake Meta Promoters: Unusual personal info requests. 10. Fake Nintendo Rep: Impersonating Nintendo Texas Office. 11. Outlier Impersonators: Pretending to be a legitimate company. 12. Luminary "Founder": Illegal contract terms. 13. Elsewhere by Paul Sawaya: Free work during interviews. 14. Tungsten Automation: Insists on non-professional communication. 15. Breck Group: Suspicious phishing emails. 16. Stream Media: Asks to purchase tech equipment. 17. Ebara Technologies: Non-existent job postings. 18. Gary Vaynerchuk Impersonator: Nearly identical profile to deceive. 19. DHU Healthcare: Fake checks for data entry positions. 20. Korn Ferry Headhunter: Pushes conversation to WhatsApp. 21. Heitec AG: Fake job postings in the US. 22. Ryan Howard from Carbon 360: Asks for money and equipment. 23. Fake Disney Project Manager: Non-professional communication. 24. Northrop Grumman: Insistence on app communication. 25. High Salary Job Fraud: Personal info or payment requests. 26. Syneos Health: Incorrect email setups. 27. Henson Group: Shady interviews and pressure. 28. Fake Stardock Games Email: Uses [email protected].

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⚠ FAKE COMPANY ALERT Amir Satvat reported these SCAM ALERTS recently and I have to report some more: https://lnkd.in/ddkrUKuQ Gray Wolves is a fake company run by Chadwick Tait (he also ran LUMINARY which Amir Satvat also points out is a scam company) and it was brought to my attention by a community member Russ Blackney https://lnkd.in/dsFWUj4B I talked about his other fake company LUMINARY in this post: https://lnkd.in/dK4CiVup Please let's report his fake companies and the person/people responsible.

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Lots of people changing jobs or on the hunt at the minute. Some useful tips to be mindful of from Amanda here. Even though you'll understandably be focused on landing the new role as smoothly as possible, these aren't unreasonable expectations at all and much easier to tackle up front than to deal with after the fact.

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What to do if your game has low retention? I teamed up with Mykola Veremiev to make a decision tree for your game. If your game is struggling, ask these questions:  1. Is the FTUE completion rate high?   2. Are players engaged with the core loop?   3. Are paywalls causing drop-offs?   4. Are there difficulty spikes?   5. Is the player funnel strong?   6. Is the game technically stable?   7. Do players have clear long-term goals?   8. Are players pursuing those goals?   9. Is feedback on gameplay positive?   10. Does your team still believe in the vision?  Depending on the answers, you have 3 paths:  • 🔁 Iterate: Minor fixes can boost retention.   • ↩ Pivot: Core gameplay has potential but lacks depth.   • ☠ Kill: Systemic issues with no clear solution.  Use data to guide your decisions. Iterate, pivot, or cut your losses. And if your studio needs help testing or scaling the next game idea, feel free to DM Mykola!

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TONIGHT AT 6:30 PM join us for an improvised version of PVP Circuit and help us rebuild our local community brick by brick. I still can't believe I get to work in the video game industry. My 6-year-old would laugh, and then cry once she realized what it means to work in the creative technology sector. That's why IMO everyone could use some levity during these unprecedented times. Join us for a fun evening to raise funds for the Trevor Project. Event link >>> https://lnkd.in/g7tBuP6d Frequently Asked Questions: What if I can't attend the event? - If you can't make it, please consider purchasing a ticket to help us raise money for charity or get one on behalf of someone impacted by layoffs. What if I want to join but can't justify the cost? - If you want to join but find the cost prohibitive, DM me and we'll make it happen (see point above). Do I have to pitch at the event? - No, you don't have to pitch if you prefer to observe. It’s a great way to see how it's done. Will there be another event like this? - We plan to host our community again, but I can't specify if this event will be the focus. #gamesindustry #event #comedy <3

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

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This week I'm really starting to push the playtesting demo of Bundle of Joy and get folks to check out the game leading up to PlayNYC and other public events. One thing I've been trying to learn during this process is how to "let go." Sometimes I hold WIP a bit too close and don't invite folks into the process as much as I probably should. I not only want to be more transparent with what I'm making and *how* I'm making it, but I also want to feel less vulnerable when I'm actively sharing something in development. Bundle of Joy is so personal that it's been extra hard letting go. However, whenever I've shared the game with folks I get a lot of positive feedback and encouragement. But it still feels a little risky to be so... out there! I have to remind myself that EVERY SINGLE TIME I show the project something magical happens: laughter at my jokes, panicked button-mashing to change a diaper, satisfied smiles when finishing an in-game day, a thoughtful reading of the delicate narrative. Even when I find a new bug, it's still magic! Keeping that perspective in mind as I start this next sprint will help me loosen my grip and more fully appreciate another essential part of this process. I can't wait the demo with folks later this week at the NYU Game Center playtesting event and my community (which you can be a part of!!! https://lnkd.in/eRhHRftA). #indiegames #godot #indiedev #playtesting

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Hi all. I want to share another magic item I've created for an upcoming D&D 5th edition supplemental item module that I'm working on. This item is called Viridis, which loosely means Green, and is inspired by Emerald Dragons. Since I'm not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast, I'll be removing any Forgotten Realms lore I desribed when it's included in my upcoming module—it's just for my current campaign haha. About the weapon, I wanted to make it a Halberd because 5th Edition D&D doesn't currently have any unique magic halberds ha. I've always been interested in some of the less used weapon types in D&D. D&D Beyond Link to the item: https://lnkd.in/eex9H2mP

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Bit late talking about this one but huge news coming from 343 Industries, both a re-brand to Halo Studios and confirmation that they are switching development to Unreal. 🗞️ This comes off the back of 343's struggles with development of Halo: Infinite. We've seen many other studios move away from their own engines to Unreal, notably CD Projekt Red! Are proprietary engines going out fashion? 🤔 For those who have worked on both proprietary engines and Unreal, what have you found to be the key advantages of working with Unreal? #gamedev #unreal #halo

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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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Field Day Lab is compiling an exhaustive list of classroom-ready learning games and could use your help in finding them. Specifically we need to find every game that meets the following requirements: - Grade 3 through 20 - Free or at least a demo - Playable on a chromebook - Designed to teach a specific subject, or has materials that translate the game into classroom subjects We’ve found all the games that used to be on gameUP, and some of the bigger collections like icivics. Do you have any other lists or game titles we should include?

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Paradox Interactive announced today that Double Eleven, the developer behind Prison Architect 2, will be stepping away from the project after nine years with the Prison Architect franchise. Good news first, construction on Prison Architect 2 isn't being halted! Co-development studio Kokku, who's been working on the game since 2023 and previously collaborated with Double Eleven, will take the lead in bringing the sequel to completion. The news comes with a hint of complication. While Prison Architect 2 passed certification, negotiations between Paradox and Double Eleven for continued development reached an impasse. Technical hurdles, particularly with memory usage and minimum specifications, emerged during final testing. Paradox, likely wary of past performance issues (think Cities: Skylines 2), emphasizes their commitment to delivering a high-quality sequel that honors the Prison Architect legacy. Kokku, a Brazilian studio with a history of co-development and outsourcing on major titles like Horizon Forbidden West and Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War, is now at the helm to ensure Prison Architect 2's smooth launch. The Prison Architect series, which began in 2015 with the original simulation/management game, is still on track for a 2024 release with Prison Architect 2. While the development team has shifted, fans can rest assured that work on this highly anticipated sequel continues. (source: https://lnkd.in/dWtBvDhN)

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Do you love Autochess? Of course you do. Do you love Arkanoid / Brick Breaker? Rhetorical question, everyone loves those games. Now what if someone were to combine those two things? Well I did that and it was pretty cool. BRKRX combines the shop mechanics of autochess, the physics gameplay of arkanoid, and some JRPG influences into a unique roguelite experience. Read the full design breakdown of the prototype, and try it out yourself, at the link below. https://lnkd.in/gr824QPq

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Awful news today with Skydance Interactive having gone through a round of layoffs last week. My dear friend Scott Fine announced the news today, sharing the news and the profiles of those affected in a heartfelt post: https://lnkd.in/ex4BnyrX To those impacted please check out the following resources: 🥇First, 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/epvmzDW6 You can find over 6,300 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 CV 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 ❤️ #skydanceinteractive #layoffs

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