Hilmar has been part of the core leadership team at CCP Games since their inception first as CTO and now CEO.

He is one of the pioneers of player-driven digital economies through CCP’s critically acclaimed science fiction game EVE Online, one of the games industry's longest-running MMO’s that’s been active for over 20 years.

They are now backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Makers Fund and Bitkraft ventures to deliver a new triple AAA title and they’re open-sourcing their proprietary technology - the Carbon Development Platform.

This is something I’m very excited about - I believe this will empower the next generation of game developers to create their own meaningful virtual worlds and inspire product developers to find new ways to incorporate the time-tested systems that led EVE Online to create globally impactful real-life experiences in new and unexpected ways.

I caught up with Hilmar to learn more about the roots of EVE Online, the challenges of building a digital community that stands the test of time and why open-sourcing their technology will enable the EVE Universe to last forever.

Down The Rabbit Hole - Eve Online Documentary
Github - Awesome EveCarbon Engine

Carbon Engine

Quentin is an Amsterdam-based entrepreneur with 15 years of experience working at the forefront of immersive technologies across XR, gaming, and experiential industries.

His leadership in spatial computing has made significant contributions to global giants including Media.Monks, Netflix and WPP. He has delivered multiple critically acclaimed 3D projects for high profile brands in Chinese, European and North American markets.

Firtina is known for creating the React Three Renderer, a predecessor to React Three Fiber that gained significant community adoption. He is a London-based technologist with over a decade of experience in game development, 3D graphics, and creative technologies.

His expertise spans across WebGL and cutting-edge 3D tooling. He’s made key product contributions to Electronic Art’s Need for Speed and Battlefield games series and also contributed as an engineer to the success of Unity Technologies in Denmark and Improbable in London.

Together they’re building Greybox. A platform for democratising access to 3D tooling for new concepts and prototypes - put simply - they’re building the Figma for 3D design.

I caught up with them at the very beginning of this journey to learn more about their path to entrepreneurship and their goals for the next 12 months.

Greybox

I'm back with an end of year market update as I prepare for a line-up of exciting guests in 2025.

Tune in for news and hiring trends across games and tech with plenty of advice to help steer your next (or first) career move.
You can also get the latest on the projects I'm working on.
Thank you so much for the support this year and have a great festive break. I'll see you next year!

Bloxd.io

CATCHES

Funding announcement

Today's episode is a market update across video games and tech.

I pick up where I left off in March and cover off the rise in solo game devs along with the latest tech funding news and implications for the wider job market.

You can also get the latest on the projects I'm working on.

HELIX Team - Careers

MANUAL - Careers

Isaac Olander is a Swedish artist of Gambian heritage with a background in 3D character creation for video games and film.

He is the founder of Tallgran, a 3D character and production studio best known for the quality and cultural accuracy of their work.Isaac was a key contributor to Dove's Code My Crown initiative and delivered a solutions focussed presentation at GDC '24 about authentic representation of black hair in games.

I talk to Isaac about his motivation for contributing to these 2 projects because I know first hand they have already inspired the next generation of independent video game developers and I for one cannot wait to see what they build.

Isaac Olander - Instagram

Code My Crown (includes open-source code to create your own characters)

Tallgran

⁠GDC Vault ⁠

Today's episode is a market update across video games and tech.

It’s been 3 months since my last update where I covered off some of the reasons for a large number of redundancies in the video game industry, why tech firms are operating with smaller teams and how employer expectations of employees have shifted in the last 18 months.

I’ll be picking up where we left off in December and offering an optimistic outlook on the months ahead as we head into GDC season.

Jace is a solo game developer and content creator. He’s best known in the video games community for his contributions to the team at Coffee Stain Studios where he spent 9 years, initially joining as a programmer before stepping into the community management role for Satisfactory which has gone on to sell in excess of 5 million units.

I talk to Jace about his journey into the games industry, community management and taking the leap from a steady job to become a solo game dev.

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Splash Damage are the London based AAA video games studio who are working on the upcoming Transformers:Reactive title. They're best known as the creators of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.

They've launched a work experience program for both school age and university students who are curious about working in video games.

Applications are open now so I caught up with Chelsea Ferdinales who created and runs this initiative.

Apply for work experience at Splash Damage