Paul Marrable

❤️ Showing love to devs on Sorcery.gg ❤️ Portfolio highlights from Laurence J. Hester & Oliver Lawrence Laurence has 5+ years of industry experience working across some of gaming's biggest franchises. He spent 3.5 years as a Senior Associate Environment Artist at Sledgehammer Games, contributing to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Vanguard, leading outsourcing, building level blockouts, crafting environments for multiplayer maps, and mentoring junior artists. Since then he's worked at PlaySide Studios (UE5 PCG pipelines, terrain sculpting) and is currently at Oreville Studios as Level/General Artist, shipping work for Minecraft: Superman and the Actions & Stuff DLC pack in collaboration with Warner Bros. and Mojang. 👉 Check out his portfolio: https://lnkd.in/eduZ3tiq Oliver has 8+ years of dedicated Unity experience across mobile, PC, web, and VR, building everything from core gameplay systems to multiplayer architecture. His career spans an impressive range of contexts: Serious Games at VRSS (RPG-style training simulators for UK police and rail operators), hypercasual mobile at Neon Play (5 MVPs shipped in 6 months), multiplayer engineering at Radical Forge (syncing hundreds of networked objects for Southfield), and a Senior freelance role at Observer Interactive on Gorillaz Kong Studios. He now runs his own freelance studio, SupaSlab, where he's raised £20k in funding, maintained a live VR application, and shipped multiple titles. 👉 See his portfolio here: https://lnkd.in/exNdn3wB

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I’ve read through the latest GDC 'State of the Game Industry' report this week, and whilst a lot of it makes for a bit of a grim read, the data reinforces something we've been talking about at Games Leadership® for a while now: 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽. The GDC reports findings on layoffs, Industry disruption, and the rapid adoption of new technologies - and talking about leadership feels more relevant than ever. We’ve certainly experienced a LOT of disruption; rapid growth followed by contraction, studio restructuring, team layoffs, and technologies like generative AI rapidly entering our workflows. It's not surprising we're all feeling a bit raw and uncertain about what the future looks like. That’s why I keep coming back to this idea of 'Intentional leadership'. It means being deliberate about the environments we create for teams to do their best work. Not just reacting to change, but thinking carefully about the systems, culture, and decisions that are shaping and influencing our studios over time. If anything, the GDC data seems to be screaming for us to be more intentional in our leadership and in who we bring forward to lead. Leadership decisions are more impactful than ever for developers. The Games Industry has always been brilliant at innovation, and we now have an opportunity to adopt a similar approach to our leadership. I've been over here banging this drum for a while, but I'm curious to see if others are feeling the same? ❤️

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This is a real imposter syndrome moment. What we have here are two absolute procedural geniuses and one extrovert, delivering an introduction to the Apparance Runtime Procedural Generation System. In all seriousness, this is going to be an amazing workshop where we can cater for all skill levels, from absolute beginners who I can help get up to speed, to the artists looking to push their technical boundaries which Oliver Lawson will show the way through to the absolute wizard and creator of Apparance, Sam Swain to help the more experienced get the most out of the session.

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How can you prove your skills if you are just stating out? (or you never had to). In the context of applying for a job in video games. #gamesindustry #jobseeker #cv

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Most studios post a job advert and hope the right person sees it. That is luck, not strategy. A data-informed hiring strategy is the only way to truly understand the talent landscape. When we work with partners, we do not just look for candidates; we look for concentrations of talent. For example, if you are looking for a specific engine specialist, do you know if the supply is higher in Montreal or Helsinki? Our data shows specific talent pools in major hubs like Tokyo, Warsaw, and Madrid. We provide our clients with a market scan within 48 hours. This identifies exactly where the ideal profiles are located, allowing you to target your search efficiently rather than waiting for inbound applicants. Stop guessing. Use market intelligence to turn your recruitment into a precision operation. #DataDriven #RecruitmentStrategy #MarketIntelligence

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As someone who used to sit on the fence between both the Games industry and Music Industry, I understand where this comes from yet also see it as a potential negative that will only hurt both games publishers and ultimately music artists. A number of artists may no longer be considered for sync deals if the cost of including their music becomes too high. As someone who ran a couple of record labels and represented a number of bands / artists there were a couple of instances we waved rights to get tracks into Playstation projects that ultimately generated more from the initial sync deal than any PRS royalties that would come later on. Yet those same royalties had the potential to completely tank the game project if they were in place. I'm a firm believer "if it ain't broke don't fix it" and I think PRS could cause more trouble then good here. https://lnkd.in/eYrhuDhX

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loads of people have nuanced takes on the industry after GDC Festival of Gaming my take is getting to work in this industry is f*cking cool. maybe more insight to come later maybe just memes.

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So we're running another pitch session today with Jon Cartwright (and his "Iron FistTM hold over AU/NZ game development"). CODE runs the workshop with Jon three times a year as it not only helps with the quality of our applications, it helps set us up for success when it comes to the outcomes of CODE's international showcases and pitching events. On top of this, we were in a meeting with a partner helping out with an international trade intervention we're doing at a forthcoming event this year and a very senior staff member commented about how they regularly attend trade shows and the level of (un)preparedness it seems so many attendees have, even those who have been in business for some time. It seems obvious to some, but even in this day and age, in preparing to attend an event when you're pitching your game or service, don't leave home without: ➡️ Learning how to pitch effectively with someone who knows what they're doing and has experience doing so. It's a learnt skill, don't assume you can just wing it or whack together a slide presentation- you might not know what bases you're not covering. ➡️ Pitch deck(s) that you can deliver in ten minutes. Make multiple versions if you have to so you can tailor your presentation to the audience or the business interests of whom you are pitching to. ➡️ 10-15 minute demo of your game. No more-assume the people playing are time poor. Not just the first intro level, but something that shows off the core elements. ➡️ Trailers, teasers and a gameplay video if you have them. ➡️ Physical business cards. Yes, even in 2026 and especially if you're going to an East Asian event. You can whack a QR code on them for handy download links. ➡️ Maybe a company deck or appropriate deck if you are a service provider. If you are a company coming from an adjacent sector into games, you want to show material as game industry-relevant as possible. If you're a game studio doing this, it's a handy thing to have, but use it to demonstrate your capability, don't get too hung up on your values. ➡️ I like to make a crib sheet of three lines of research of everyone I'm meeting in a day, particularly for new contacts as things can turn into a blur. Check folks' profile out here, search their names and backgrounds. Remember this is all a dance or a game and it's easier to play if you understand the rules. Preparedness is everything.

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Unreal Engine's TakeRecorder allows you to create cinematic looking gameplay with only using existing assets. Hoping that it continues to get support, because there's so much potential in what you can accomplish with it! This was the first time I created a full 🎞️ cinematic sequence rather than just isolated shots, & had a ton of fun doing it.

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Improvement Coming To Games Org Support Posts In the next few days, we’ll publish Games Org support posts #126-#129 for ZeniMax Online Studios, aided by Game Director Ben Jones and with HR approval from Jamie Thornton. When I saw the list had over 100 people, I spoke with Ben about the best way to handle it. What I’ve learned is that larger posts, thankfully rarer lately, tend to lose impact once they go beyond 25–30 names. So here’s the new rule for everyone: if a Games Org support post has more than 30 people, we’ll split it up. ZeniMax’s will become four posts, organized by functional categories. I’m also making another important change. In the past, organizations could request a new Games Org support post only once every three months if more than three people were affected. I’m, effective immediately, waiving that waiting period as a one-time exemption. Starting now, any games organization affected by layoffs that wants a new Games Org support post, even if they’ve recently had one, can come back to me for another to help highlight those still searching. I'm doing this to be fair to everybody. This resource, like everything we do, isn’t magic, but the data shows it helps, sometimes more for some orgs than others. On balance, it moves the needle. Please keep your heads up for the posts coming soon for the wonderfully talented people at ZeniMax Online, and for this change that will benefit the whole community going forward.

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Following up on my previous post about using Modular Rig for simple environment animation, but this time focusing on a mechanical prop. This prop uses slightly more complex module than the previous one, and the results were honestly a bit surprising (in a good way). ➤ What worked well ✅ Moving beyond single-joint motion is doable, as long as the prop parts are spitted with animation in mind. ✅ Building a skeleton and painting skin weights directly in Unreal works well for this prop, which has a moderate complexity. ✅ Mechanical modules like Hinge and Piston are already well supported out of the box and easy to reason about. ➤ Where friction shows up ⚠️ This still isn’t a full DCC replacement. The quality of the result depends heavily on how well the asset is designed and segmented upfront. ➤ Bigger takeaway For me, this reinforced that Modular Rig lowers the barrier to keeping work entirely in-engine and expands what environment art and level design can include, especially for smaller projects where DCC round-trips aren’t available or are too costly. On top of that, it could potentially enable iteration to happen directly in the level. Still exploring, but I’m curious how others are thinking about where this kind of workflow fits into their pipelines. 🤔 #UnrealEngine #UE5 #TechnicalAnimation #GameDev #TechnicalArt #LevelDesign #ControlRig #AnimationPipeline

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The 'Unreal' barrier is one I've seen a lot. If someone is an experienced engineer, especially talking in the double-figures of experience, then Unreal is 'just another engine' or 'just another editor'. Don't pass over hires (especially if they've got years custom engine experience) with blanket requirements around specific toolsets.

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Games, Grants and VGEC I had an excellent meeting today with Andrew Lewin MP for Welwyn Hatfield. We discussed last week's exciting announcement about the increase in grant funding for games. The UK Games Talent and Finance Community Interest Company will be administering three new funding tracks: 🔹 An Entry Track, with grants of up to £20,000 available to newly formed companies with limited track records but strong potential for growth. 🔸 An Emergent Track, with grants of up to £100,000 for prototyping new games. 🔹 An Expansion Track, with grants of up to £250,000 – the largest ever provided by the government – available to take games forward to completion and enable studios to scale up. For more information on the Government's announcement see: https://lnkd.in/euwZTEfN We also considered the challenges facing the UK video games industry, including TIGA research that showed: 1️⃣ employment in the sector falling for the first time in 14 years; 2️⃣ a decline in start-up numbers; and 3️⃣ the fact that the UK is not competing on a level international playing field. We had a good discussion about TIGA's proposals to enhance the existing Video Games Expenditure Credit (VGEC). Our report on VGEC with the University of Portsmouth, authored by Homagni Choudhury, Joe Cox and Alan Leonard showed, for example, that a higher rate of relief on games with budgets of up to £23.5 million could: ✅ create almost 7,000 jobs; ✅ help more small studios to scale-up and grow; and ✅ be revenue positive for the Government. Thank you Andrew Lewin MP for your time and interest in TIGA and the UK video games industry.

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The lovely Jon Ingold and Sagar Beroshi were kind enough to have me on their excellent Game Narrative Kaleidoscope podcast talking about, well, yes, game narrative and the Tina Fey Hat Problem. Fair Warning: I have two interview modes. “Defend The Thesis”, wherein everything is constantly, exhaustingly related back to the topic and “Time Is Short, I May Die”, whereby everything even transiently relevant is crammed in, also to the exhaustion of all present. This 'un is very much in the second mode.

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I've written for games in a number of genres at this point and am always thinking about the differences in what the gameplay needs from the story. This certainly isn't an exhaustive list, but a few thoughts on several of the most popular genre's we've had experience work with @ Pergamon Narrative #narrativedesign #gamegenre #gamedev

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Newzoo's latest 2026 PC and Console Report is out, and it shows that new releases account for a low 13% of total playtime—despite 20,000 new games launching on Steam alone last year. https://buff.ly/kTnpX8Q

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The new £30M funding package for the UK's #games sector is an incredible support framework, but it's only part of the solution. Business creation, tailored business support and connecting the games education pipeline into the industry have to be part of the bigger picture. Thankfully #Scotland has a plan to deliver just that. #GamesActionPlan

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Denshattack will launch on PC and consoles in June https://lnkd.in/e2Xt5qPq @techmashcouk #Denshattack #FireshineGames #Undercoders #greatesttraindriver #toptrainbattles #games #gaming #gamers #platformgames #gameplay #demogames #videogames #arcadegames

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