Ins and Outs – February 2021’s industry hires roundup

Here are the highlights from the recent industry hires and moves, as published in MCV/DEVELOP’s February issue.

Splash Damage continues its regular appearance on this page, with four new hires at the company.

First, Diego Llorens Rico joins the studio as an assistant gameplay programmer, Rico previously spent five months working as a game developer for Simedis, working on LapEntryCoach, a laparoscopy simulator.

Still at Splash Damage, Richard Hayden signs on as a lead product manager. Hayden has worked as a product consultant for the past four years, and has previously worked at Oneserve, as head of product.

Anthony Kyne also joins, as a production director. Kyne joins from Mediatonic, where he has spent the past two years working as lead producer.

The last hire at Splash Damage is Ethan Page joins the company as an associate gameplay programmer. Page has worked for five months as a teaching assistant over at Kingston University.

Game developer Sharkmob is starting the new year by adding several new names to the London studio’s leadership team.

First, Simon Lashley joins as a principal technical designer. Lashley joins the team from Wargaming, and has previously worked at companies such as Guerrilla and Rockstar, as well as at Sumo.

Next up, Ashleigh Webb joins Sharkmob as a HR director. Prior to joining the team at Sharkmob, Webbworked at PlayStation London Studio.

Still at Sharkmob, Sergio Franco joins as technical director. Franco joins from Amazon Game Studios and has previously worked at Rare and Microsoft Studios.

Kelvin Janson also joins, as an art manager. Janson joins Sharkmob from Playground Games, where he worked for over nine years. Janson has also worked for both Sony and Codemasters.

Lee Adamson also joins Sharkmob, joining the team as a lead vehicle artist. Adamson previously worked at Rocksteady, where he spent over 13 years working on projects such as Batman: Arkham City and Arkham Knight

Sharkmob’s next hire is Chris Royall, who joins the team as a studio IT lead. Royall previously worked at King, where he spent six years working as an IT support team leader, and has also worked at Acxiom Corporation.

Finally at Sharkmob, Stefan Valasek joins as a concept artist. Valasek joins from Staffordshire University, with a bachelor’s degree in Concept Art.

Hypercasual mobile publisher Kwalee has hired Max Everingham as head of PC & console publishing. The former Team17 head of publishing is already working to build his new team and identify exciting new games to publish, following the recent launch of Kwalee’s first externally-developed PC title, Eternal Hope.

Future Publishing has undergone a series of promotions and new hires at the company.

First, Oscar Taylor-Kent has been promoted to deputy editor on Official PlayStation Magazine. Taylor-Kent was previously games editor at the magazine.

There’s some change over at EDGE magazine, too. Chris Schilling has been promoted to deputy editor – with Tony Mott rejoining the team as acting editor.

Also at EDGE, Alex Spencer joins as features editor. Spencer has been working as a freelance journalist since 2011.

Keywords Studios has appointed Sonia Lashand Sedler as the Group’s Chief Operating Officer (COO). Sedler has 20 years of experience, most recently as global head of managed services and banking strategy at Diebold Nixdorf, a global retail and banking technology and services organisation.

Liquid Violet, part of Keywords Studios has announced that Katie Young has joined its audio production, voice casting and recording facilities located in London’s West End as head of studio. Young has nearly 18 years of experience in the industry—including 12 years working in various roles at The Walt Disney Company

Publisher No More Robots has made a series of new hires at the company. First, Sophie Smart joins the team as a senior producer. Smart will be helping to organize No More Robots in preparation for the 4+ games that the publisher is planning to announce and launch this year.