"Volition, the studio behindAgents of Mayhem, laid off over 30 people this week including general manager Dan Cermak, three sources tellKotaku. The studio previously had around 200 employees.
These layoffs come one month after the release of Agents of Mayhem, an action game set in the same world as Volition’s longrunning Saints Row series. Sources say that Deep Silver, the publisher and parent company of Volition, was unhappy with Agents of Mayhem’s sales"
That's right folks, I was chosen to be laid off today at Volition. No hard feelings, I understand what and why this happened. Its tough tho, 34, good hard working people lost their jobs as well. AOM is an interesting project to say the least, I cant get into so much because of my NDA, but the tires were loosing air on take off with this project simply put. It's rough having that position and trying to work my way up the ranks for years. However we spoke about this day often at work and we all kinda saw it coming. I don't hold any grudges on anyone or anything. That's just life. Like Frank Sinatra said,
"Your riding high in April, shot down in May, but I know I'm gonna change that tune, when I'm back on top, back on top in June. I said that's life."
My only worry is just my financial situation. I hope I can hear back from people and move forward with my life. I wish everyone a good life and good luck. I'm not going anywhere, I'll be around internet. Stay classy.
Hello internet and welcome to yet another fantastic blog post. Today's post is going to be different. You may or may not know, but I am on many forums for UDK and Unreal 4. I'll post my materials or comment someones questions. One day I revived a message from someone in the Philippines, his name was Mathew Martin. At the time I believe he had a question regarding matinees and cameras in the UDK engine. I shortly prompted my knowledge on Matthew and we were both on our way. Well a few days later I received more messages from Mathew. He needed more help, he needed more people on his team, he need audio. Now Mathew is relatively young in early 20's (if that) so he may not have had all his connections yet. Me being the nice guy I am I helped Mathew and his small team.
Early Mansion screenshot
Main Menu
What we needed first was some kick ass music for the Main Menu. Well luckily me being a terrific producer, I already has someone in mind. Ryan Cawley and I have worked on a few smaller projects made in UDK and Unreal 4 in the past. Basically the dude is an audio genius. Ryan records all of his own sounds and composes sweet music and SFX out of his recordings. So I showed him a few screen shots and he then provided the audio. Take a look below.
After some great progression Lobby Tech was looking to branch out and expand. They worked from a small room with PC's and a few young guys. After the Mansion they guy decided what would be best was to take what they had from the Mansion project, and move on so they did. Sometimes creating a game can me a hard process. The theme doesn't come alive, your team members might be too small, or even financially getting the game out there can be impossible. When these problems arise my advice would be: Don't look at it as a failure. Your tired something and went for it. That is terrific. Take what you learned from the project and apply its lessons to the next project. That is exactly what Lobby Tech Studios did. From the ashes of the Mansion came heinous.
A birds eye view
Doing work as we say in America.
So Lobby Tech has started a new project.
The concept of this game is much hilarious and scarier than the old concept. This concept will take more time for us to finish everything, we will also raise a crowdfunding site for us to be able to get funds for the project and we can support the project, we might also need sponsors and partners for the game. Also, our target date for the demo release will be this April, well, see you gamer's and conquer your fear inside THE MANSION of HEINOUS.
- Matthew Martin
We need your help. You can see the trailer below.
We have started a Kickstarter to attempt to fund the project. Kickstarter link can be found below. Also check out our budget chart. I'll be working closely with Matt and the team to ensure this project goes smoothly. So If you have some time check out the page and donate now. Leave a comment with any question you may have.
Wow hello everyone! Its been a busy crunch and release of AOM, please excuse my lack of posts. Having said that yes I can say Agents of Mayhem is finally on shelves. It's been a long project life cycle and one I am completely proud of. This was the longest I've been involved on a project and I learned a ton! It was great working along side programmers and designers on the boss fight team. It was so rewarding to actually affect game-play. Anyway I have future side projects I'm working on and other stuff here at Volition. I'll post when I can. Have a good one. Oh here are some pics from the game I shot. Enjoy!
Hello the internet and welcome back to my blog. Actually I'm welcoming myself back. It's been almost 3 weeks since I've been at work. So I'm just getting familiar with our project and work hours again. I'll update you on any Volition news when I hear hear it. I'm thinking I need a new side project this year. Time to start brainstorming.
