Category: News

H1Z1 developer Daybreak Games has laid off a portion of its workforce, cutting jobs across various departments within the studio in the process.

Daybreak confirmed the layoffs had occurred in a statement given to Gamasutra, although the company didn’t elaborate on the full extent of the layoffs.

Early reports from former Daybreak President John Smedley on Twitter suggest that the number is estimated to be around 70. 

This comes after the studio laid off an undisclosed amount of its staff back in April, shortly after launching its battle royale title H1Z1 out of Early Access.

Fellow devs have taken to Twitter to show their support for those affected by way of sharing the hashtag #GameJobs, as well as sharing a collection of links to open game industry positions.

As always, if you or someone you know has been affected by these layoffs, you can email Gamasutra to share your story confidentially.

The full statement from Daybreak can be found below:

“We are optimizing our structure to ensure we best position ourselves for continued success in the years to come. This effort has required us to make some changes within the organization and we are doing everything we can to support those impacted in this difficult time.”

“As we look to improve efficiencies and realign resources, we remain focused on supporting our existing games and development of our future titles.”

Phoenix Labs announced that its free-to-play RPG Dauntless (which is currently available for PC) will be heading to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in April 2019, with a Switch and mobile release to follow later on.  

This is another instance of a game (with Fortnite and Rocket League ushering in the feature) to be released with cross-play compatibility across all platforms including PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, the Switch and mobile. 

As reported by GameSpot, the studio said Dauntless’ release on new platforms brings it closer to the team’s “One Dauntless” vision, which will allow players to connect through cross-platform play, with their progression and account management to carry across all platforms.

“At Phoenix Labs we define ourselves through a transparent development relationship with our community and strong focus on inclusivity, both at the studio and in our game,” said studio co-founder Jesse Houston.

Whether you’re just starting out, looking for something new, or just seeing what’s out there, the Gamasutra Job Board is the place where game developers move ahead in their careers.

Gamasutra’s Job Board is the most diverse, most active, and most established board of its kind in the video game industry, serving companies of all sizes, from indie to triple-A.

Here are just some of the many, many positions being advertised right now. If you’re a recruiter looking for talent, you can also post jobs here.

Location: Bellevue, Washington

Are you the type of artist who really understands how to “see the forest for the trees”?  Do your co-workers consider you a well-versed generalist and great problem solver? Do you like helping others create art faster and at a higher quality level? Sucker Punch is looking for a driven, self-directed Outsource Artist to use their artistic eye and technical skills to help create the world of Ghost of Tsushima for PlayStation 4.

Location: Remote

A Mobile Game Programmer at Game Changer will be responsible for designing, implementing and maintaining software in a game development environment. The candidate will interact with team members to develop the next generation of the Arena and Stadium gaming experiences while sustaining and improving our current game product line.

Location: Hamburg, Germany

As a vital member of a small Art team, you will be working on state-of-the-art 3D SciFi games in a positive and productive environment. By close collaboration with both the Art team and other teams like Game Design and Programming and mutual feedback, you will further develop both technically and personally.

Location: San Mateo, California

The Sr. Technical Program Manager reports into the Platform Planning & Management (PPM) department’s Business Operations team and is primarily focused on “Go to Market” and in-life project management, communications & operations around the launch of platform products and features. These projects are typically platform initiatives which vary in scope and subject matter, ranging from incremental feature planning through to new hardware and software releases. The PPM team works with a broad set of internal and external teams including global counterparts responsible for all aspects of product planning and development in the PlayStation family. As such, the ideal candidate has direct experience of platform planning and/or managing projects in a global digital media entertainment environment (gaming experience/interest strongly desired).

Location: McKinney, Texas

We are currently seeking an FX Artist to join our growing team. As an FX Artist you will be responsible for bringing our worlds and characters to life! You will take the creative vision set by the director and expand the ideas into your own magical creations; developing effects from concepts to completion. 

Farming Simulator 19 has sold over one million copies worldwide within the first 10 days of launch, making it the fastest in the franchise’s history to reach this milestone.

The game was released on November 20 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Mac, and features an overhauled graphics engine, new gameplay features, and the inclusion of John Deere to the roster of vehicles.

“It’s incredible to see the impact of the team’s hard work. Never before has a Farming Simulator game reached the one million mark so quickly and we are proud and happy that so many players join us on this amazing journey,” said CEO of GIANTS Software Christian Amman.

For a fairly niche title sharing a release date with other blockbuster games, it’s a pretty big accomplishment. The developers also took to Twitter to celebrate the news and thank players for their support.

This week, BioWare took some time in Los Angeles to show off key details about its upcoming online action RPG Anthem, sharing story details with members of the press in advance of a trailer preview at The Game Awards. 

Next week, we’ll be bringing you a conversation with game director Jon Warner about the direction of Anthem, but during the presentation BioWare lead producer Mike Gamble was able to talk to Gamasutra about the transition to live gameplay operations, and shared an interesting detail about BioWare’s philosophy toward its (loot box-free) plans for monetization.

Namely, Gamble said that as of this time, BioWare doesn’t feel the need to target so-called “whales” as the core part of its plans. 

A lot of game companies, especially in the free-to-play space, structure their monetization to attract large spenders who hopefully exceed the average user spend for a given game. When pressed if Gamble thinks BioWare needs these kinds of players for Anthem to succeed, Gamble’s immediate reply was “I don’t think so.”

With Anthem, Gamble stated that BioWare “is hoping to attract as many people as possible, make the pool as wide as possible, to support the game as long as possible. So even if we don’t have lots of people spending lots of money, we’re hoping the economy is such that we have a number of people [who can support the game.]”

“Having whales is great…but we don’t cater towards any particular group,” Gamble explained “Some people have more time than others, some people have less time than others, and that’s just where we leave it.”

Gamble also made an interesting comment during a group Q&A in response to a question from Mashable’s Jess Joho about BioWare’s plans for live operations for Anthem. “We want to support matchmaking where you don’t have to know six people on Reddit to play the game,” he said, rather bluntly pointing out that many online RPGs in the vein of Diablo and Destiny have that social barrier that can even turn away experienced players without the right social group. 

“We feel that is one of the barriers into getting into these kinds of games…we’ve tried to design the game that we felt we could get into [as single-player RPG players], we could take that extra step and say ‘you know this is actually fun playing with someone else.'”

The visual style of thatgamecompany’s Journey is dominated by gentle slopes, clean lines and flowing capes. The story of how the game’s art design coalesced, however, is peppered with rocky starts, bumps and sharp turns.

At GDC 2013, Journey art director Matt Nava presented the artwork he created during development and showcased how the characters, creatures, and architecture of the game evolved over time. 

It was an interesting talk, in part because Nava summarizes creative processes, inspirations, challenges, and constraints that were encountered while formulating the visual aesthetic of what would become an award-winning game that was lauded for its art style.

Now you can watch it again (or for the first time, if you missed it in person) for free on the official GDC Vault YouTube channel.

StarVR, a joint VR venture from Acer and Starbreeze, has temporarily suspended the StarVR Developer Program as the company undergoes the operational shift of going from a publicly traded company to a private one.

According to Road to VR, the shift comes after StarVR was delisted from the Taipei stock exchange last month and amid rumors that majority owner Acer is concerned about the company’s future. 

Originally, the StarVR Developer Program sought to get the StarVR One VR headset, access to dev support, and the tech’s SDK in the hands of developers interested in creating apps for the wide-FOV virtual reality headset. The process required developers to apply for the program on the StarVR website, after which the company would review applications and grant approved parties access to dev tools and the opportunity to purchase one of the first production units of the StarVR One for $3,200.

Devs that had already joined the program received an email from StarVR informing them that the program has been put on hold. Attempting to fill out the application for the StarVR Developer Program on the initiative’s website also returns a similar message. 

“We regret to inform you that the StarVR Developer Program has been put on hold until further notice,” reads the text of the email obtained by Road to VR. “We believe it is the most responsible course of action to put the StarVR Developer Program on hold while our company is in the process of going private, which may entail some changes to our operations. Your interest and support for StarVR is greatly appreciated. We understand that many of you were looking forward to purchasing the StarVR One headset, and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

While Starbreeze hasn’t been majority owner of StarVR for over a year at this point, StarVR’s transition comes as Starbreeze itself is enduring some rough times. Starbreeze’s CEO Bo Andersson stepped down earlier this week as the company filed for administration following the underwhelming release of Overkill’s The Walking Dead.