From working on Halo Infinite and Age of Empires II to leading real-time research at Oscar-winning VFX studio DNEG, then founding Shiftstorm Entertainment and serving as Director of Engineering at ICVR, Luis Placid spans many creative industries. Luis joins Jase Lindgren to unpack the evolution of creative pipelines, the convergence of gaming and media pipelines, challenges re-educating artists on version control, and the power of failure as a learning tool.

Jase and Luis dive into:

• Luis’s career journey from Apple to ICVR
• How game engines like Unreal are transforming film and animation workflows
• The challenges of re-educating artists on version control and pipeline tools
• Why failure is necessary to innovation—and how to fail gracefully
• Automating repetitive tasks to free up creative energy
• The “stinky diaper” effect: how small frustrations snowball into major pipeline inefficiencies
• How to identify hidden workflow problems through observation and user empathy
• The importance of domain-driven design and stakeholder collaboration

This episode is a masterclass in creative tech leadership, packed with real-world stories, practical advice, and a few laughs along the way.

Resources mentioned:

Tools Tutorial Day: The System of Tools: Reducing Frustration in a Daily Workflow

Designing the User Experience of Game Development Tools

Speakers:

Jase Lindgren, Sr. P4 User Advocate

Luis Placid, Contract Engineering Director at ICVR, Founder of ShiftStorm Entertainment

Get In Touch:

• E-mail: [email protected]
• LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/jaselindgren

Find Us Online:

• Perforce.com
• Perforce.com/podcasts/p4/in-development
• Linkedin.com/company/perforce

In this episode, Sica von Medicus, CG Supervisor on Max & the Midknights at Nickelodeon, takes us behind the scenes of one of animation's most ambitious pipeline transformations.

Sica and Jase explore the messy reality of innovation, including:

• The leap of faith that led a traditional TV animation team to bet everything on Unreal Engine, despite having little experience with real-time rendering.
• Why everyone told them "don't use Alembics" – and why they had to do it anyway to preserve the expressive character animation they needed.
• How they invented a custom rim lighting shader when Unreal's limited light channels couldn't handle their complex character lighting needs.
• The creative workarounds for managing international vendor relationships without shared version control systems.
• What it really takes to maintain that "claymation" look in a game engine designed for photorealism.

This isn't a success story with a neat bow – it's the honest account of a team that chose the hard path, made mistakes, learned from failures, and created something unprecedented.

Speakers:

Jase Lindgren, Sr. P4 User Advocate

Sica von Medicus, CG Supervisor at Nickelodeon

Get In Touch:

• E-mail: [email protected]
• LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/jaselindgren

Find Us Online:

• Perforce.com
• Perforce.com/podcasts/p4/in-development
• Linkedin.com/company/perforce

In this episode, Stephen Post, Technical Director at VOID Interactive, joins Jase for a deep dive into the technical evolution of Ready or Not, the acclaimed tactical shooter game. Stephen discusses the complexities of expanding their fully remote, globally distributed studio—from a small team of 9 to more than 75—covering key challenges such as:

• The process of expanding their technology stack and operational processes to support a growing player base and development needs.
• The strategies and tooling needed to enable seamless local development across a remote team, including custom workflows and version control practices.
• Transitioning from a homegrown build system to leveraging Unreal Engine’s advanced tools—Unreal Game Sync, Horde, and BuildGraph—for automation, integration, and scalability.
• The evolution of their CI/CD pipeline, including improvements in branch management, build reliability, and debugging efficiency.

Whether you're a solo developer, technical lead, or project manager, this episode offers a candid and practical look at what it takes to scale a game—and a studio—without compromising on quality or agility.

Speakers:    

• Jase Lindgren, Sr. P4 User Advocate
• Stephen Post, Technical Director at VOID Interactive

Get In Touch:

• E-mail: [email protected]
• LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/jaselindgren

Find Us Online:

• Perforce.com
• Perforce.com/podcasts/p4/in-development
• Linkedin.com/company/perforce