The Founders of Worldspark Studios
When I originally began work on Edenbrawl 5 years ago(then ‘Circuits and Shields’), I honestly thought we would spend ~$25,000 and a year creating a prototype, run a Kickstarter campaign, and go from there if it was successful. A lot of experienced game devs are probably reading that and thinking I’m crazy and they’re 100% right. I began this project out of passion and understood nothing about the industry or how games get made.
Fast forward to today and Edenbrawl has had significantly more invested than $25k, but the lessons learned over the last five years are priceless to our journey. About 12 months ago, I realized that our model of trying to squeak by into Kickstarter just wasn’t doing it, and we needed to get serious if we ever had any hopes of making this work. We completely re-architected our entire technical backend, switching to Unreal’s GAS system and re-worked countless art assets including models, sounds, and even the entire map. To put things in perspective, I invested more time and money in Edenbrawl in the last 12 months than I did the first four years combined.
The good news is it worked! Issues that plagued us for years suddenly began to fade away and the game suddenly became… fun. Full of confidence, we began the journey of investor pitches, finding moderate success, but unfortunately unable to close a deal. The reasons for this were twofold: 1. Our previous “Modern MOBA” angle didn’t resonate (and we’ve since switched to Mobrawler and couldn’t be more happy we did!) and 2. the team was nonexistent and therefore, felt far too risky.
Everything to date had been done entirely by a myriad of 200+ individual freelancers. There was no “team”. Knowing this feedback point needed to be addressed, I spent the next several months living on LinkedIn, sending cold intros to hundreds of industry veterans trying to convince them to not only be a face on a pitch deck, but to truly join in on our vision.
It’s been a journey, but as the dominoes slowly fell into place, we’ve finally put together an absolutely incredible founding team that not only adds some much-needed expertise on the industry, but also aligns with our core values as a studio and our goals to push the world forward, namely around youth education and social interactions. These individuals bleed passion and I’m more than excited to create the future of Worldspark beside them.
Sebastian Cardoso — Production Director
Sebastian was the first domino and incredibly integral to the entire process of putting this team together. After our first couple calls, I noticed I suddenly had a Trello board full of action items and he’s ripped apart everything I thought was in good shape. That’s the beauty about Seb though, he’s so nice about all of it, you don’t notice or care!
Seb has made stops as a Senior Producer at Riot, Crytek, and EA, while also trying his hand with a few startups, so he more than knows the challenges we’ll face along the way. Given the amount of work we have ahead, it’s reassuring to know someone like Seb is behind us, filling in the gaps and keeping us on the right path.
On why Seb joined Worldspark: “From the moment I first spoke with Chandler, I was blown away by the ambition and determination to create a game truly in service of what players want and need. Worldspark is a company committed to its community, with transparency, honesty and a highly-collaborative approach at the center of its values, which I deeply appreciate.”
Matthew Garcia-Dunn — Lead Narrative Designer
I’ll be honest, I was looking for ANY writer with experience at a big name (Bungie, Riot, Bethesda, etc), but on my first conversation with Matt he asked me who my favorite champions in League were from a story perspective. I answered as anyone should with “Kindred” and followed up with “but I also really like Ekko and Jhin’s backstories”. It’s then when I realized I hit the jackpot when Matt revealed he was the writer behind all three of those.
Matt spent major time worldbuilding for Riot and now both teaches at a university and writes for Firaxis. Given our huge focus on the World of Eden and the idea of building a long-lasting IP full of nuanced characters, I couldn’t be more confident in our ability to deliver knowing Matt is behind it.
On why Matt joined Worldspark: “Worldspark offers the rare opportunity to create a new IP, and with it, the chance to build story and narrative into the very foundation of the game. I personally seek to create a diverse roster of characters to flesh out a new world mythology inspired by our world; where we’ve been, where we are now, and where we are going. These are characters facing different types of collapses in their own worlds, and I cannot wait to see how they escape or face their fates.”
Joseph Marin — Lead Programmer
One of the sole constants in a sea of rotating freelancer contributions, Joseph has been working on Edenbrawl for over three years. He quickly became our go-to programming resource when I’d ask “Hey do you have any experience doing X?” and it felt like the answer was always yes.
Joseph has worked in some form of Unreal for nearly 15 years, contributing to a multitude of indie projects. He was the first to truly see the vision, working for… let’s just say significantly less than he should be to ensure the prototype got to where it needed to be!
On why Joseph joined Worldspark: “I’ve done a ton of freelance work over the years, but by far Edenbrawl is the one I’ve enjoyed working on most and I actually enjoy playing it, not something I can say for my other projects! Working on the game has been intense and even stressful at times, however, I’ve made every play test because seeing the community’s reactions to every new build makes it worth it (even the buggy ones).”
Chandler Thomlison — CEO
I grew up IN games, I wasn’t just a player. I was one of the first individuals to “professionally” sell World of Warcraft accounts (sorry Blizz!) and the lessons I learned from that along with being a Guild Master in multiple games through my formative years helped shape me to who I am today. It taught me social skills, economic knowhow, and most importantly, how to collaborate with strangers on a singular goal. It‘s the nerd version of book-smart vs street-smart and I was fortunate enough to get a healthy dose of both.
I went to university planning to make games for a living, but after my first programming class, quickly realized that wasn’t for me. A few years after beginning my career in consulting, I had a little too much time and a little too much money on my hands (something I have neither of now!), and the game dream finally came to life. Not having direct experience in the industry has presented its challenges for sure, but the unique perspective and skills I’ve acquired in my consulting career and throughout this game dev journey make me just dangerous enough to understand every piece in the puzzle. That knowledge combined with the wealth of expertise from my co-founders has Worldspark primed for success and I’m excited to create games and worlds that help shape today’s players just as I was shaped 15 years ago.
Additional Team
Outside our founding team, Worldspark has a core team full of additional all-stars. With even more former Rioters, the core team is also joined by a pair of programmers that have been with us for several years and even some former developers from Stunlock Studios, makers of Battlerite. Our advisor team possesses a wealth of knowledge across all of game-dev, supported by former entrepreneurs, industry veterans, and believe it or not, a few former world champions from Battlerite, HotS, and MxM!
It’s been an absolute journey to say the least, but I couldn’t be more excited about our future Worldspark team, both the individuals themselves and what I know we’ll create together!
