MOVERS AND SHAKERS This month: Thumbstar, PlayJam, Testronic Labs, We R Interactive
THUMBSTAR Newcastle-based mobile publisher Thumbstar has hired former Ubisoft game localiser and PR representative KIRSTEN KEARNEY
as its digital communications manager. Responsible for running the
company’s communication operations worldwide, Kearney has previously worked at One Thumb Mobile as communications director, whilst she has also been a freelance journalist for the last ten years. “I have had the pleasure of working
with Kirsten previously and I couldn’t think of anyone better to take on the role as the voice of Thumbstar across the digital and social space,” said marketing director Phil Brannelly. “Dialogue with our consumers is
absolutely key to Thumbstar’s future success and Kirsten’s wealth of experience in journalism and communications will prove invaluable in achieving this. Coupled with the appointment of Indigo Pearl, our communications strategy is well under way for our future launches.”
PLAYJAM Criterion co-founder ADAM BILLYARD has joined UK Smart TV games outfit PlayJam as its chief technology officer.
Billyard will be tasked with leading
the company’s technological development as well as playing a part in its future direction and growth. As well as founding Burnout
developer Criterion, which also created graphics rendering tool Renderware, the new PlayJam CTO has also worked at EA for four years in a similar role. “Adam joins a long list of industry
veterans supporting PlayJam’s absolute belief that Smart TV will emerge as one of the most important games platforms over the coming years.” said Jasper Smith, CEO. “His extensive experience will help ensure PlayJam maintains its already significant momentum and position as the dominant games service in this space”.
“Becky brings a unique understanding of quality assurance in each market sector, and we see it as a terrific benefit to our customers,” said Testronic VP of operations for games services Alastair Harsant. “Whether it is consoles and PCs, social gaming, MMO, or mobile gaming, Becky has the experience and knowledge this industry demands. She is a great asset to our team.” MARTIN RASMUSSEN (right),
meanwhile, has been promoted to Scandinavian sales specialist, and will manage sales for the firm’s North European region. “At Testronic, our primary goal is to
exceed our clients’ expectations,” said Harsant. “With Becky and Martin on our team, we are even better positioned to achieve our aims. We are very happy to have them.”
TESTRONIC LABSQA firm Testronic Labs has been busy expanding its games division by recruiting a new director and sales specialist for its games services branch in London. BECKY WALKER (left) has joined the
company as director of business development for games services, where she will focus on growing the firm’s games business around the world as well as acting as customer service liaison.
WE R INTERACTIVE Social games publisher We R Interactive has recruited ERIC EMANUEL as its first operations director. Emanuel will
report to studio CEO David Rose, and will be in charge of product quality and service delivery across the company’s growing portfolio of titles. His role will cover the firm’s IT, QA, customer service and localisation functions. Before joining up with We R
Interactive, Emanuel worked at NCsoft
for five years as VP Strategy of Europe, where he was responsible for building development and strategy for NCsoft’s online business, games data analysis and reporting. “The company is at a pivotal point in
its development as we expand our product portfolio and publish in multiple languages,” said We R Interactive CEO David Rose. “Eric’s wealth of experience made him the natural candidate for this key hire and we’re delighted to have him on board.”
IDEAWORKS3D Ideaworks3D, which created cross-platform development environment Marmalade, has made a coup by
hiring former EA VP and GM Harvey Elliott as MD and COO. The industry veteran has assumed
overall leadership of all teams across Marmalade and Ideaworks3D. “Marmalade has evolved dramatically
over the past year,” said Ideaworks3D CEO Niall Murphy. “With the successful launch of Marmalade 6.0 SDK, and the extension of support to include HTML5, we continue to affirm ourselves as the world leader in cross-platform technology. Harvey’s proven track record in developing and delivering complex products across multiple territories will be a great asset.”
Service & technology recruitment hot seat We speak to Unity recruiter Dana Ramnarine about working for the engine outfit
Why should developers work for Unity as opposed to other middleware companies? We have an extremely open and meritocratic culture, we’re on a long-term mission that’s fundamentally good, and we have some of the best engineers in the world working on a rich, elegant, and extremely popular product used by over a million of the world’s most creative and smart developers. We eschew hierarchy, and
encourage every member of the Unity team to be his or her own one-person ninja army: fast, able to act independently or in small groups, highly trained and deadly. And finally, because we work for
the very long-term and force ourselves to think big. We’re extremely robust financially, and our
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approach of solving problems for the long-term means that we don’t sweep our problems under the carpet, and are one of the best-run companies in the industry.
What kind of perks do you offer to your employees? The core of our perks is our free and creative environment, and how engaged we are with our community and each other. Our yearly developer conference Unite moves around to different cities and is attended by the entire company, and all our engineering staff come together for our quarterly developer camps, which we call NinjaCamp. The team takes time to learn and
support each other, and we have attracted people from all over the world with unique disciplines and skill
sets to our offices – it's truly a melting pot for creativity and innovation.
How many staff are you looking to take on this year, and in what kind of positions? As a game engine company, we're always looking for amazing engineers – particularly in core technology, rendering, technical artists, quality assurance, and online services. But anyone who’s smart and passionate can find a place with Unity, across our many locations around the globe.
What makes working on a game engine enticing for young programmers and developers? It's a chance to create technology that touches so many people and is used for many types of games as well as
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outside the games industry – with different scopes, challenges, markets, and so on. You are building technology and
contributing to a purpose that has revolutionised how people create and distribute games – and intend to continue to do so for many good years ahead.
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