Conan Reis

I want to demystify how ASGC tracks games industry job cuts so you understand what goes into the numbers The way we track industry reductions is far more rigorous than most people realize. I occasionally see comments wondering if we only use public announcements, WARN notices, or that we miss contractors, co dev teams, and non traditional roles. I understand why people might assume that, but that is not how our system works. Collecting jobs data is the most resource intensive process in our community because it shapes our support too. Step one is public information. We monitor news reports, company statements, WARN filings, and government notices. That is just the starting point. Step two is direct community reporting at scale. Every year I receive 5-10K+ messages, just related to job cuts, across LinkedIn, Discord, and email from people sharing what happened to them, their teammates, or their organizations. Much of this never appears in the press. It includes contractors, co dev partners, support studios, and indirect roles, not just FTEs at major publishers. Step three is individual signal tracking. I regularly review posts from professionals who are suddenly open to work or referencing team changes. These signals confirm patterns or reveal cuts that were not announced. All of this flows into a large internal tracking system that helps me understand not just how many roles were affected, but who was impacted, where, and when. That context allows our community to reach out and design support that matches reality rather than headlines. Is it perfect? No. I am still working to improve visibility in regions where transparency is lower. But I can say sincerely this process goes far beyond public records and is more comprehensive than any single external source. You may notice that, for a few years, I no longer publicly name organizations when cuts happen unless they request a Games Org support post. That is intentional. My goal is to avoid errors and avoid shaming, because I recognize that not every reduction comes from bad intent. Sometimes funding ends, contracts fall through, or projects conclude despite leaders trying to do right by their teams. Also, my approach is to build bridges and encourage quiet, meaningful accountability. I regularly hear that organizations know ASGC tracks layoff decisions and understand their actions will reach me, even with smaller or less visible cuts. That awareness, even without public callouts, can influence how situations are handled. Most importantly, workers know their experience is not invisible. Individual data is never shared publicly. People trust me with personal information, and I take that seriously. What I share are patterns, totals, and insights that help us mobilize support. So when we talk about industry cuts, please know this is not casual scorekeeping. It is the result of thousands of conversations and careful tracking to make sure every affected games person counts.

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🎉 Two New Career Resources Just Landed on Our Community Site - With Huge Thanks to Scott Millard and Tim C.! https://lnkd.in/d3z__2sV If you’ve ever wanted to understand how video game publishing actually works - not the surface-level stuff, but real, on-the-ground global strategy - you now have one of the best free guides in the world, permanently, thanks to Scott Millard. Scott is a veteran industry leader, best known for his time as Managing Director of Bandai Namco Southeast Asia and Korea. He helped launch Tekken, Dragon Ball Z, and even brought Skyrim to market in the region. His publishing knowledge spans regions, formats, and decades - and he’s gifted our community his Guide to Video Game Publishing for all to access at Amir Satvat's Games Community. Also, I’m thrilled to welcome Tim Cullings as a contributor - someone I’ve admired for years. You may know Tim from his leadership at Global Game Jam, Seattle Indies, or his earlier work with Oculus VR and in engineering. He’s kicked things off by sharing a curated list of top game dev events and jams - something many have requested. But this is just an amuse bouche. Tim has big ideas, and we’re excited to build this space with him and for him. We’ve heard your feedback loud and clear - you want more Tim in the community, and so do we. 🔹 In sharing these, I also want to recognize the 20 amazing individual contributors behind the career resources on our site, in addition to our Discord moderators and 2,400+ community coaches. I’m proud to say that 10 of the 20 are female - 50%, which is double industry gender representation. And we’re equally proud of the diversity across many other dimensions, which we take seriously in every aspect of our work. Here they are - please join me in thanking them: • Sarah Thomson (Mentorship Guide) • Alex Gombos (Interview Guide) • Jasmine Coppin (Art Portfolio Review Guide) • Hailey Rojas (#OpenToNetwork) • Mayank Grover (New Games Roles Partnership) • Eva Tucker (Support Your Indies) • Alexander Rehm (MVP Resources) • Johnathan Vance (Indie Marketing Guide) • Aïda Figuerola (Early Career Guide Lead) • Ali Farha (Early Career Guide Lead) • Chris Mayne (Games Art Resources) • Seth S. (Guide To Games Startups) • Corey Neuman (Homelessness Resources) • Michelle Fuzari (Mental Health Resources) • Jessica Lindl (Career Resources Suite) • Renee Gittins (Game Dev Foundry - External Resource Partnership) • Lex Parisi (Ask Lex Career Questions) • Tim W. (LinkedIn Premium Trials Resource Ownership) • Tim C. (Events And Jams; And More To Come) • Scott Millard (Guide To Video Game Publishing) • Thank you also to Fitzgerald Lewis, Tim Wood, Will Morgan, Max Bowser, Alex Gombos, and Michelle Voillot for their contributions to the Early Career Guide 💙 Never forget - this is a total team project of 10,000+ lifetime contributors. "We Help Gamers Get Hired. Zero Profit, Infinite Caring."

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As a freelance rigger, I need to make sure my builds have a lot of flexibility. So I've recently reworked my lid modules to add variable joint counts. By utilizing a curve-based output I can changed the amount of joints used based on the needs of the project. Higher joint counts for fidelity and control, lower counts for simplicity and optimization. Or I can test and iterate to find a happy middle ground. So animators using my rigs on film or game projects can enjoy the same features, such as: - Automated lid follow with eye movement - Main controls to position the lids through translation and sculpt the curvature with rotation/scale  - Secondary controls for finer detail (If there are enough joints to support it) - Manual or automated blinking. Animate controls, or activate the automated meet point between your posed lids for a perfect seal I've been using iterations of this system over my last few projects, both commercials and games. The core elements of this system have been floating around in my head since 2018, so it's been great to finally put it to the test. 

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The delay of GTA VI to May 26, 2026 will have a number of impacts. Among them: - Revenue projections for the industry were based around the launch of this massive game. It’s exceedingly rare that a single title delay will have a tidal wave impact on the entire space. - Fall 2025 is suddenly a safe(r) moment to launch. The unknown of the specific release date was causing marketing challenges. - There is kindness in the delay coming with a specific release date. This is ultimately very helpful for the industry in planning for calendar 2026. - Take-Two investors have had to recalibrate since the Zynga acquisition. There was a level of expectation around this fiscal year’s performance (ending March 31, 2026). It will be interesting to see how investors react. Ultimately, this will yield a better GTA VI (which is the only thing Rockstar and Take-Two can and should be expected to prioritize). It will cause some additional industry-wide adjustments with regard to financial expectation. The firm release date is so helpful, however, that any downward effect can be mitigated in the long term as GTMs can now fully contemplate the biggest challenge in the release calendar.

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Curious: Nintendo's initial reveal of the Switch 2 touted 4K, 120FPS, and VRR support. However, a notable change has been spotted on several of Nintendo's official regional websites: the removal of VRR mentions. Digital Foundry's Oliver Mackenzie highlighted this on the Canadian, US, and Japanese sites. As of posting this, the European site still includes this feature at present, suggesting a potential ongoing update across all Nintendo platforms...

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We've been implementing Neural Texture compression in #Assassinscreedmirage. The overall benefit results in better quality textures for less GPU memory usage (links in the first comment). If you followed the topic since our GDC2024 presentation ,this a very practical application of La Forge's mission to bridge the academic world with Ubisoft. #ubisoft #ubisoftlaforge #innovation 👇 "If you've been thinking, like I have, that we're still some way off seeing AI being used in games for more than just upscaling or frame generation, then it's time to think again" (...) "Enter stage left, neural texture compression to cut down on that memory demand. Given the state of the DRAM and SSD market right now, you can bet your last dollar that a whole heap of game developers will be looking closely at what Ubisoft has done to see if it can help out in their games, too"

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At 45, you're too old to learn game development. I once believed this myth. We spent 8 weeks teaching him Unity. He taught us perspective. When this 45-year-old former IT manager joined our early cohort, I couldn't help but be skeptical. He had never coded for a game before, yet here he was, diving into Unity while surrounded by twenty-somethings who grew up gaming. His first week was painfully slow. While others raced ahead, implementing features and showing off their progress, he methodically worked through each concept, asking questions that made me wonder if he'd stick around. By week three, something unexpected happened. Where younger students rushed into implementation, he would first sketch his approach on paper, breaking complex problems into logical components. His debugging wasn't chaotic—it was surgical. He didn't randomly change code hoping for different results; he traced execution paths with patience I rarely see. In our group mentorship sessions, his questions became surprisingly insightful. Not because he was technically advanced, but because his methodical approach helped everyone think differently about the challenges they faced. During our final project review, I realized what made him different—his relationship with failure. When something didn't work, he never said, "I can't do this." Instead, his response was always: "I haven't figured this out yet." The game he built wasn't flashy, but it was remarkably stable and thoughtfully designed. Quality over speed. His journey challenged a bias I didn't know I had — that technical skills like game development belong to the young. The truth is, beginners of all ages struggle. It's your relationship with that struggle that determines success. Later, he shared something I'll never forget: "Every day I spent thinking I was too old to start was a day I could have been building." If you're telling yourself you're too old, inexperienced, or missed your window, perhaps today is the day to put down that story and simply begin. PS: I clicked this photo of the Tenzing Norgay Memorial Statue during my trek to Everest Base Camp. --- We at Outscal have introduced a free trial for everyone to start building games, from beginner basics to advanced concepts. So go ahead, start your free trial today - https://lnkd.in/gCBuPJXU

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For everyone who is not attending GDC: Relax. It’s not a big deal. You’re not missing any "incredible opportunities." Your opportunities come from how great and desirable your products are, not from the conferences you attend. Networking matters, but it’s not just about party invites. Your online presence is just as powerful (if not more). P.S. And yes, I'm not attending GDC either. Instead of spending days on flights and nights in overpriced hotels, I’d rather get some work done.

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Just found this undocumented feature added in UE5.5+ which allows standard Editor Utility Widgets to be dockable as a main tab instead of requiring it to be nested. This is especially helpful for those making widgets that require larger real estate or embedded viewports. I was digging in C++ source the last little while to see how to achieve this but looks like it was added in a different, and more accessible form, for newer versions of the engine already.

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A fair few folks I spoke to at PGC said they're skipping GDC this year. Mostly not for broader political reasons, but a mix of border risk and cost. Many basically don't want to risk either being turned away or being questioned because they feel in either event it harms their ability to visit later down the line. A few also cited being unsure whether GDC was "the place to be" any more, preferring to focus on Gamescom and its Dev arm. I also noticed that many aren't aware of the revised ticket structure for GDC. This is the part that I'm most excited for, as although it's more expensive to the Expo-only crowd it means most attendees can gain access to talks and panels in a way that they haven't been able to for many years. We may finally see some cross-pollination between the different camps of GDC, which I think can only be good for the conference (and the attendees) overall.

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