Andy Ross Podcast

Hilmar Pétursson is CEO of CCP Games, creators of EVE Online—one of the longest-running MMOs in gaming history. Before CCP, Hilmar worked at Oz Interactive in the mid-90s, building metaverse concepts inspired by Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash, decades before it became a Silicon Valley buzzword. We talk about those early experiments, why they led to EVE's player-driven economy and hands-off governance, the decision that nearly killed CCP but defined the game's ethos, and why they're open-sourcing the Carbon engine to create virtual worlds that could last forever.

Jace Varlet is a solo game developer and content creator, best known for his work as community manager at Coffee Stain Studios for Satisfactory, which has sold over 5 million copies. We talk about the emotional toll of being the public face of a game, building trust through transparency, his journey from programmer to community manager and back to solo dev, and why he's now building his game in public.

Graham McAllister is an organisational psychologist who's spent his career figuring out how teams in the games industry actually work. He founded Player Research, which worked on over 500 games before being acquired by Keywords Studios. I wanted to talk to him because he thinks deeply about how to bridge that gap between vision and execution, and I thought his perspective would be valuable for anyone building a creative or technical product with cross-functional teams.

An introduction to this collection of conversations with leaders and professionals in gaming and tech. Recorded during my time running a video games headhunting firm, these interviews explore career paths, team building, product development, and the craft of making games and technology products. This is an archive—not an active podcast— the conversations offer valuable insights into how experienced professionals think about their work.

Arthur is the founder of Bloxd. With the help of a close-knit team Arthur has bootstrapped his multiplayer game creation engine to over 8 million monthly players. They’re profitable and growing with concurrent player counts regularly peaking in excess of 17k.

I’ve been helping Arthur with hiring over the last few months so I sat down with him to talk about the journey so far and his hiring philosophy as he looks to expand their founding team.

Bloxd.io

Software engineering hires - additional info

Bloxd - open roles

Hilmar has been part of the core leadership team at CCP Games since their inception first as CTO and now CEO. 

He is one of the pioneers of player-driven digital economies through CCP’s critically acclaimed science fiction game EVE Online, one of the games industry's longest-running MMO’s that’s been active for over 20 years. 

They are now backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Makers Fund and Bitkraft ventures to deliver a new triple AAA title and they’re open-sourcing their proprietary technology - the Carbon Development Platform. 

This is something I’m very excited about - I believe this will empower the next generation of game developers to create their own meaningful virtual worlds and inspire product developers to find new ways to incorporate the time-tested systems that led EVE Online to create globally impactful real-life experiences in new and unexpected ways. 

I caught up with Hilmar to learn more about the roots of EVE Online, the challenges of building a digital community that stands the test of time and why open-sourcing their technology will enable the EVE Universe to last forever.

Down The Rabbit Hole - Eve Online Documentary
Github - Awesome EveCarbon Engine

Carbon Engine

Quentin is an Amsterdam-based entrepreneur with 15 years of experience working at the forefront of immersive technologies across XR, gaming, and experiential industries.

His leadership in spatial computing has made significant contributions to global giants including Media.Monks, Netflix and WPP. He has delivered multiple critically acclaimed 3D projects for high profile brands in Chinese, European and North American markets.

Firtina is known for creating the React Three Renderer, a predecessor to React Three Fiber that gained significant community adoption. He is a London-based technologist with over a decade of experience in game development, 3D graphics, and creative technologies. 

His expertise spans across WebGL and cutting-edge 3D tooling. He’s made key product contributions to Electronic Art’s Need for Speed and Battlefield games series and also contributed as an engineer to the success of Unity Technologies in Denmark and Improbable in London.

Together they’re building Greybox. A platform for democratising access to 3D tooling for new concepts and prototypes - put simply - they’re building the Figma for 3D design. 

I caught up with them at the very beginning of this journey to learn more about their path to entrepreneurship and their goals for the next 12 months.

Greybox

I'm back with an end of year market update as I prepare for a line-up of exciting guests in 2025.

Tune in for news and hiring trends across games and tech with plenty of advice to help steer your next (or first) career move.
You can also get the latest on the projects I'm working on.
Thank you so much for the support this year and have a great festive break. I'll see you next year!

Bloxd.io

CATCHES

Funding announcement

Today's episode is a market update across video games and tech.

I pick up where I left off in March and cover off the rise in solo game devs along with the latest tech funding news and implications for the wider job market.

You can also get the latest on the projects I'm working on.

HELIX Team - Careers

MANUAL - Careers

Isaac Olander is a Swedish artist of Gambian heritage with a background in 3D character creation for video games and film.

He is the founder of Tallgran, a 3D character and production studio best known for the quality and cultural accuracy of their work.Isaac was a key contributor to Dove's Code My Crown initiative and delivered a solutions focussed presentation at GDC '24 about authentic representation of black hair in games. 

I talk to Isaac about his motivation for contributing to these 2 projects because I know first hand they have already inspired the next generation of independent video game developers and I for one cannot wait to see what they build.

Isaac Olander - Instagram

Code My Crown (includes open-source code to create your own characters)

Tallgran

⁠GDC Vault ⁠