Joe Houston’s Post

Riot Games laid off 27 devs from its League of Legends team on its 15th Anniversary. This is the second round of layoffs since January, but this time, it's not about reducing headcount to save money! In fact, Riot Games has promised a severance package that includes 6 months of pay, an annual bonus, health coverage, job placement assistance, and access to the studio’s internal job board. Unlike many trying to ride the coattails of negative sentiments around the layoff, we are more focused on celebrating the impacted devs and their achievements. Here are a few ultra-talented developers that we came across, and we are showcasing their kickass achievements while working on a quality MOBA like League of Legends. Rocky S. — Led production efforts at Riot Games, driving key initiatives for League of Legends' metagame and immersive event features. He oversaw in-game content production for Wild Rift, managing skins and turntables. Notably, Rocky contributed to champion trailers, including Akshan: The Rogue Sentinel and Neeko. Annie Kwon — A Character Artist who brought numerous iconic champions to life in League of Legends over her 3+ years at Riot Games. Before Riot, she led projects at Airstrafe Interactive, creating low poly assets and visual assets for UI/UX. Check out all her work in the comments below. Dan Gomez — A Game Producer who played a key role in shaping the League of Legends experience at Riot Games over the last six years. As the lead for Splash Art and Illustration, he delivered over 150+ pieces of splash art annually. Previously, he led global delivery for store, loot, and missions, handling events like Spirit Blossom 2020 and Mythic Essence Currency launches. Before Riot, he coordinated hiring efforts for PlayStation's San Francisco office. Aharonit Elior — An experienced Video Game Animator, recently worked as Animator II at Riot Games, where she animated skins for various champions in League of Legends while maintaining champion readability. Her credits extend to projects like The Foglands, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, Next Stop Nowhere, Afterparty, and Kena: Bridge of Spirits. Jason Hwang — A Gameplay Engineer who brought champions like Bel'Veth, K’Sante, Briar, and Smolder to life in League of Legends. With a solid background in gameplay programming and accessibility projects, Jason has worked on crucial features such as the global ult SFX notification and Nemesis Quests, enhancing the player experience. Tereza Rozumkova — A 3D Character Artist who spent 4.5 years at Riot Games, making significant contributions to the League of Legends Skins team. She created 23 game-ready skins and managed the outsourcing of over 40 skins, including key projects like the Art & Sustainability update for champions such as Lee Sin and Teemo. Tereza's comprehensive skill set also includes mentoring, onboarding artists, and hands-on involvement in high-tier Legendary and Epic skin development. *** #layoffsupport #riotgames #gamedev

🚀 **Excited to Announce!** 🎮 I’ve just launched my **new gaming website** – **Gaming Zentry** – a hub for gamers and gaming enthusiasts! 🌟 Whether you're into competitive gaming, casual adventures, or exploring gaming-related insights, this platform is for you. As part of this journey, I’m also sharing the **GitHub repository** where I developed this project from scratch. You can explore the code, contribute, or even use it as inspiration for your own gaming projects. 📂 GitHub Repo: [Gaming Zentry](https://lnkd.in/dKhzXR_3) Check out the project in action in the video below – your feedback and support would mean the world to me! 💬 If you’re a gamer or a developer, let’s connect and build something amazing together. #GamingWebsite #OpenSource #GameDev #WebDevelopment

Happy Thursday everyone! This post won't be a full round-up as I just wanted to highlight a few stories from the week. 1. Firstly, the majority of developers at Bethesda Games Studios unionized through the Communications Workers of America (CWA) to form OneBGS USA, the first wall-to-wall union at a studio under Microsoft. The 241 members took a huge step forward for industry unionization across the US. https://lnkd.in/gb-jRuUi 2. Days later, another Microsoft studio unionized, with Blizzard's World of Warcraft team unionizing also through CWA, but with more than 500 members forming the World of Warcraft Gamemakers Guild, or WoWGG-CWA. https://lnkd.in/g2847GD6 3. A new report from Bloomberg showed that in 2023, Roblox reported more than 13,000 incidents of child exploitation to the NCMEC. Those are just the reported numbers, mind you, and it's an increase of 10,000 incidents from 2022's 3,000 reported incidents. Interestingly, Bloomberg spoke to current and former Roblox employees, who said that Roblox didn't even have any automated systems to scan for grooming and other exploitative behaviour until 2022. I think that might be why the number of incidents spiked from 2022-23. But what I found most upsetting about Bloomberg's report was where it focused on a Roblox user who went by DoctorRofatnik, real name Arnold Castillo. In 2022, Castillo abducted a 15-year old girl from Indiana, after spending months grooming her. He was active on Roblox the day he was arrested. The worst thing is that Roblox knew about Castillo, knew he was dangerous, and failed to take steps to ensure he wasn't able to be on the platform where he was a danger to kids. How do I know that Roblox knew about him? Because Castillo and a separate case of him attempting to groom another young girl was featured in investigative group People Make Games' video looking into Roblox's poor moderation and exploitative practices. The video was published in 2021, where PMG shows how they asked Roblox directly about Castillo. His main account under the DoctorRofatnik was banned, but that didn't stop him from making another account where he continued to profit off the popular game he is credited with creating. Another example in which Roblox has failed to properly protect the kids who make up nearly half of its player base. I know Roblox is working to improve itself and is implementing new moderation tools, but it's frankly disgusting that it has been running for so long with such a lax approach to keeping its players, especially kids, safe. Who knows how many more incidents have simply gone unreported since Roblox launched back in 2006. https://lnkd.in/gZXbkqGx

RDC is fast approaching and I'm looking forward to connecting with all the passionate developers and creators in attendance! If you want to talk about all things gaming and music, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I'll also be speaking on Saturday @ 10:45am (SJCC - Concourse Level - 210C) about Monetization for Avatar Creators. "Learn how to find more ways to earn as an avatar content creator. Join this session to discover more about creating, publishing, and earning from avatar items and the Marketplace. Then hear directly from experienced creators who are using their creations and Marketplace to engage their community and scale their businesses."

Hello Connections, The GamEvolution made a website for all the games on our various platforms. The GamEvolution has 20+ Google Play Store offers from multiple companies; some are Yodo1 Games, GamesKeys, Creator Worlds, and many more. This post is based on the fact that we have an opportunity for you guys to join The GamEvolution as a game developer. If you are interested in creating games, our platform is the best opportunity for you guys to publish your games free of charge. As per current data, The GamEvolution has 30+ video games, crosses 10,000+ views in online gaming, and 500+ downloads in our PC/Mobile games, with also 20+ Google Play Store offers. So if some of you are interested in game development and want to join The GamEvolution, contact us through LinkedIn. Our website: https://lnkd.in/guFC9uJg Skills needed:- -Unity3d with C#. -Android Java. The GamEvolution is waiting for you guys to show your skills to the world. 🎮 🎮 🕹 #gamedevelopment #game #developer #hiring #joinTheGamEvolution #joinus #thegamevolution #computerscience #unity3d #android #unreal #thegamevolution #gamers #coding

It's the middle of the week, and already a lot has happened across the games industry - but it's also #GDC week, so that's to be expected. I'm not at GDC unfortunately, which is why I wanted to highlight a few pieces from my regular news grind covering the conference and the rest of the happenings across the industry: 1. Ubisoft revealed its NEO NPC Project at GDC, showcasing its efforts to create NPC's that can "really talk to you," by using Generative AI tools so players can have unique interactions and conversations with NPCs in game. I personally think anything like this still has a long way to go before it's actually viable, and you can check out my write-up here: https://lnkd.in/gfDF2ANE 2. More sad layoff news unfortunately, as it looks like Something Wicked Games has let go of "most" of its staff, according to one of those impacted by the layoff. Best wishes to those affected and hopefully everyone is able to land on their feet: https://lnkd.in/gWxYpKYh 3. A crazy story in esports broke over the weekend where pro Apex Legends players had their computers hacked mid-game, which they only realized once the hacker enabled aimbot and wall-hack cheats on their devices. The ALGS NA finals have been postponed as a result, and how it happened is still unclear (note that Respawn has since released a statement about the hack but has yet to release any info regarding how it happened, and where the vulnerability exists): https://lnkd.in/gixwbzg8 4. A personal highlight for the week is that we have a release date for Animal Well, a game created by solo developer Billy Basso that I've had an eye on ever since I was first made aware of it in 2022: https://lnkd.in/gEBZtW-7 5. Lastly, a welcomed surprise from GDC is Project Birdseye, a new game in the works from Striking Distance Studios, set in the same world as SDS's debut game, The Callisto Protocol. As a longtime Dead Space fan, TCP didn't go down the way I had hoped, but there were a lot of things it did that I liked - Project Birdseye looks like something entirely different but also just as much up my alley, and I truly can't wait to learn more about it: https://lnkd.in/gHixEAFh

This is what would happen if the Doom Guy was transferred to Minecraft's universe. "Travel Knight Adventure" is an upcoming FPS that promises to give you this exact feeling. The game is being developed by an indie developer and publisher called "fleewortep". Set in a medieval world with magic and pirates, players will take on the role of a Knight to battle enemies like skeletons and wizards while solving dungeon puzzles. You can check out fleewortep's Twitter handle for more behind-the-scenes progress - https://lnkd.in/gsKrdn2U ----- 100% scholarship on our $11,000 Full-Stack Game Development program to anyone impacted by the recent layoffs in the games industry. Here's how to apply - https://lnkd.in/giFepuZT (Scroll to the very end) #gaming #indiegame #unrealengine5 #indiedev #videogames

Discord is looking to refocus its efforts on gaming as the company turned nine years old this month. As Discord’s founder and CEO Jason Citron states in a blog post, the product itself it used by 200M+ people monthly but primarily centers around video games with over 90% of users playing video games. The company will narrow its focus from “being a community-centric chat app” to instead “being a place that helps people deepen their friendships around games and shared interests”. This means three key areas will be focus areas for the future: - Quick and easy conversations with friends - Expanding Discord’s capabilities to more devices for cross-platform - Opening up Discord to more developer initiatives after users are done gaming This may take the form of recently announced Quests from game publishers to bring their games to market. Or perhaps a new Embedded App SDK for platform devs to bring new kinds of games and apps directly within Discord. The company’s rebrand also centers around the slogan “Group Chat That’s All Fun & Games”, tying the whole initiative together. This whole initiative comes after Discord put a good amount of effort into expanding beyond gaming into other areas like entertainment to get various other celebrities and respected personalities onto the Discord platform. Follow #MoreMark for #Business content in #Gaming, #Esports, and #Creators!

Lay-off is the new cool in the games industry! Please repost to help 🙏 Three more studios joined the bandwagon and have one thing in common — quality F2P games. Stating to restructuring and the escalating cost of game development, Singularity 6 underwent its third round of layoffs by reducing 40% (36 folks) of its staff, Phoenix Labs had to let go of 100 talented game builders, and Gameloft’s Cluj Studio in Romania will shut down completely with all of its 136 employees forced to leave. Palia by Singularity 6 is a very comforting MMORPG that has equally attracted gamers and non-gamers by its simplicity, unique farming elements and mostly big social party plays. Palia has only one in-game purchase option of coins for premium clothing and no more hidden in-game transactions. Dauntless is another free-to-play action RPG that Phoenix Labs has made. I remember running out of paid big titles to play on my PS4 one evening and checking if the PlayStation Store had something to offer for free before investing money in another game. Not that PlayStation’s Free Games catalogue has much to offer but that’s when I came across Dauntless. Hands down, Dauntless turned out to be the best title in the PS's free-games library immersing me for hours with its beautiful art pushing me to the point of questioning if this game deserves to be Free. And you and I both know how most of Gameloft’s games are free for iOS and Android with Asphalt being the universal go-to racing game (not everyone can afford heavy gaming PCs and consoles). Hell, I even remember enjoying Gameloft’s versions of Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed on my Nokia’s Symbian OS even before Android and iOS, simply because I didn’t have access to play those original titles. I can go on reminiscing about the titles that have been made by these companies and their game devs but let's keep nostalgia for another day. If you were impacted and are seeing this post you will find extensive resources below gathered by me and my team for months so you don’t need to waste your precious time searching for them: Resource 1: 100% Scholarship on our Full Stack Game Dev Program We are offering a 100% scholarship on our flagship Full-Stack game programming BootCamp priced at $11k to everyone affected by the layoffs. Send an email to [email protected]. Resource 2: Layoff Support Kit - https://lnkd.in/gCCXW_Wp A wide range of top internet resources for game development. You will find top YouTube channels on game dev, Unity & C# Bootcamps, and much more. Check out even more resources in the comments below! ⏬ (My dear LinkedIn, please let me create bigger posts) I am also requesting Kelly Bender, Alexander Rehm, Caitlin Cooke, Jordan Mazer, Ruty Rutenberg, Hailey Rojas, Kevin F., Kat Craig, and Lord Amir Satvat to help this reach the folks in need and drop in their resources in the comments below. #layoffsupport