New Contract Signed

 Just signed a new contract with Lost Boys Interactive. As usual I can't talk about what we'll be working on but really looking forward to the project.  

Lost Boys is an independent developer with two locations, Austin Texas and my old Raven stomping grounds Madison Wisconsin. But I'll still be working remotely here in Toronto under my company Dark Arts Development.

Goodbye to Squanch Games

As we approach March my one year contract with Squanch Games comes to an end.  It's been a pleasure working with the team there.  As you'd expect from a company created by Justin Roiland it was a lot of laughs.  Squanch has such a unique team whom certainly work by the beat of their own drum.

Squanch was my first excursion into the indie game dev space after 20+ years of AAA which was quite an experience.  My contract was a remote one that began before COVID even hit, so I was working remote before it was cool.  There was plans to go to LA and meet the team, which unfortunately was not able to happen.  It would have been nice to see everyone face to face.

So goodbye Squanch, I wish them great luck with their title and look forward to its release.  

LinkedIn Company Page - CHECK

 Finally put together a company page for Dark Arts Development Inc over on LinkedIn.  After a year of contracting it looks like I'm going to continue so might as well make it official.  

https://www.linkedin.com/company/dark-arts-development/

And to go with this I began the creation of an official Dark Arts Development web page.  It's currently under construction but it's a start.

Dark Arts Development Inc.

My Current Contract Information

 Hi! 

With the start of the new year I've been contacted by many companies asking if I'm interested in new roles.  My current situation is I'm under contract with Squanch Games until March 16th.  So far they have not expressed whether they are interested in renewing the contract or not.

Although my current contract does allow me to work with other companies I've found most prefer that I work exclusively with them so until March that would not be possible.

That being said feel free to contact me if your company is interested in working with me before my contract ends or if you'd like to talk about roles starting after March 16th.  

Thanks for your interest and have a great new year!

Chad

Squanch Games WON'T Be doing VR in the Next Game

Since I started working at Squanch I've been asked this question a lot.  Will the next game be VR.  Of course I wasn't allowed to talk about the project, but Squanch CEO Tanya Watson publicly gave the answer.  Nope.

There's no need for me to regurgitate the article so go read it for yourself.

Squanch Games Shelves VR

Farcry 6

Here is the project I was working on when I left Ubisoft.  In Farcry 6 you can expect the typical Farcry experience this time based in a Cuba-like world .  If you're a fan of the past Farcry games then here comes some more of it.  Glad to see people seem excited for it.

Ubisoft News & Recent Harassment Allegations

As I'm sure many of you are aware Ubisoft has had some issues come to light regarding employee allegations of harassment and poor management.  If not you can follow the link. HERE to learn more.

I worked at Ubisoft Toronto for 8 years and worked with some of the individuals in question.  That being said I do not find these allegations surprising. The writing was on the wall for a long time with this individual and no action was taken.  Seeing interactions between this person and others from the outside I couldn't tell if they were welcomed or not.  I suspected issues (from seeing him following various women around like a puppy) but I never witnessed more.  However I also didn't attended company social gatherings.

Ubisoft Toronto in my opinion spent WAY too much money on booze and parties.  They had an after hours party in the building once a month as well as individual team parties after most milestones.  With multiple team this was a lot of partying.  All parties included beer and many times hard liqueur. I rarely attended these because I had a long commute and could never see how I could party then drive the hour home.  I would much rather the money had been given as an employee bonus instead, so we all could enjoy the rewards.  Plus we now see that these parties gave potential office predators a prime hunting ground.

For me personally I found HR at Ubisoft to be a COMPLETE failure as a place to go when you're having personal or career issues.  For instance I entered the game industry to make games, not to become a manager.  However I found Ubisoft unable to handle a veteran developer uninterested in moving into management.   It seemed if you're content in your role you will be replaced.  I went to HR about these issues and look, I don't work there anymore.  Guess how that went?  Of course these issues I encountered are nothing compared to the sexual harassment others encountered working there.

So now that this dirt is all out there in the public eye, management is suddenly very concerned.  CEO Yves Guillemot made a statement about how shocked he is and how change needs to happen.  His statement HERE.

In closing I'm thrilled to no longer be employed at Ubisoft Toronto and am truly saddened to hear some of my co-workers had to endure this type of treatment daily. ALL events at Ubisoft Toronto were ravenously tweeted and posted on Instagram for the "Look how awesome we are." PR pieces.  I don't think an event would happen at UbiTor if it couldn't be part of a PR spin.  UbiTor worked hard to publicly created an image of being at the forefront of equality & LGBTQ issues in the gaming industry, but internally failed to uphold these beliefs.

UPDATE: And the news continues.  Serge and Yannis also stepped down as well as the head of HR Cecile Cornet.  Serge was the guy that made all the go/no go calls for most if not all Ubisoft titles.  Yannis was the president of Ubisoft Canada.  I would assume Cecile resigned for protecting them instead of taking action however that is just my speculation.

Read more HERE



NOTE: HR is there to help the company.  The company signs their pay checks, their job is to protect them.  They aren't there to help employees with their problems.  They're there to stop employee problems from hurting the company.  Be on your guard, question the things they say.  My girlfriend went to her company HR department about a harassment issue.  They express how important it was that she came to them and scheduled a meeting with her for the next day.  Magically she was "laid off" that afternoon.  Was it wrong and illegal?  Sure but it still happened and she didn't have the funds to fight it.  So really consider that before going to them with an issue.  I'm not saying don't address the issues with them, I'm saying be prepared.  HR is not your friend.