Matthew Hemby Email & Phone Number

Austin, Tx, Us

Austin, Tx, Us

B-Corp XR startup in stealth mode.

Concord, Ma, Us

Promoted to Project Director, assuming ownership of the business unit for Thick As Thieves. Responsible for the successful execution, deployment, and operation of our game and live service, while managing the development staff.Led a major reboot of our game's positioning from PvE to PvPvE, adapting stakeholder feedback into strategy, and aligning the project team's vision for success.Demonstrated exceptional leadership during times of staffing shortages, effectively doubling the team's output and helping to elevate the overall quality and consistency of their work.Overhauled our game's LiveOps and monetization foundations, strengthening the franchise's overall business case.Orchestrated pitch materials and presentations to potential partners, supporting the strategic acquisition of our studio by Aonic AB in June 2023.Led the development of a comprehensive cross-discipline Job Family Architecture and job role definitions for the studio, while playing a key role in the reboot of our recruitment and staffing operations.

Concord, Ma, Us

Took charge of production operations for Thick As Thieves, an original stealth-action immersive-simulation IP, drawing inspiration from the acclaimed Thief series of games.Implemented a matrix model update to our organizational structure, enhancing support for the development staff and game projects.

Brighton, East Sussex, Gb

As General Manager, led and oversaw the UK-based studio of BossAlien, an integral part of Zynga's global network of studios.As Studio Head for BossAlien UK from 2017 to 2021, played a pivotal role in revitalizing and expanding the studio's reputation and success.Served as Franchise Game Director, with responsibility for shaping the vision and creative identity of the Star Wars: Hunters original franchise. Working closely with Lucasfilm, we supported partnerships to integrate trans-media elements and consumer product tie-ins, extending our unique expression of Star Wars into the real world. Worked to negotiate and secure a watershed partnership with Nintendo to launch Star Wars: Hunters as Zynga's first ever cross-platform title.Championed the development of innovative product initiatives and business strategies, creating joyful and engaging experiences that provided honest and fair value to our players.Cultivated a distinct studio brand and culture, emphasizing the creation of delightful experiences that truly valued player patronage.Prioritized the well-being and growth of creative staff, supporting a progressive studio culture that placed employee wellness and collective excellence in balance with business KPIs.Co-founded our expansion into Austin, TX, growing the studio from a team of 35 (in 2017) to nearly 200 talented individuals distributed across the UK and North America.

Allen, Texas, Us

Took on an expanded role encompassing production, operations, and staffing oversight for all projects in development at our dynamic Austin studio.

Allen, Texas, Us

As a Co-Founder of Boss Fight Austin, spearheaded principal sourcing and recruiting efforts, assembling and developing a highly skilled team of 15 developers working on two in-house projects.Played a key role in guiding business development for two unannounced products, collaborating with major IP owners worldwide to forge strategic partnerships.Cultivated a strongly collaborative, transparent, and predictable development culture that prioritized rapid prototyping, setting the "gold standard" for our organization.Lead a small core team responsible for conceiving and implementing Social and Monetization featuresfor Dungeon Boss, a top-grossing, multiple Editor’s Choice-winning RPG for iOS/Android.Effectively managed facilities, operational, and administrative functions, along with IT services, toaccommodate the growth of our talented team.

Independent developer creating virtual reality business solutions and middleware for the Samsung Gear VR.

Edmonton, Alberta, Ca

Oversight and management of Star Wars: The Old Republic's game updates and expansions, supporting a team of over 150 developers.Managed our team of Development Directors across internal and external development.Helped to steer to studio fiscal and business planning, live services, and development processes.

Edmonton, Alberta, Ca

Led creative development on core gameplay and user experience.Supported a strike team developing technology to support 12v12 free flight space combat, with expansive customization and progression options for players.Expansion launch significantly increased subscriber acquisition and retention, while bolstering revenue through new microtransaction channels.

Edmonton, Alberta, Ca

Expansion provided significantly increased revenue during FY12, and correlated to increased engagement and retention of our most valued elder-game subscribers.

Edmonton, Alberta, Ca

Built a small team responsible for radical reinvention of SWTOR’s business, away from a subscription model towards a hybrid free-to-play platform supported by microtransactions.Recipient of EA’s global 2012 team-nominated values award - “Act With Integrity”.F2P conversion lifted a failing product into a 9-figure annual business, via an influx of new, sustained players as well as significantly increased revenue per-player.

Edmonton, Alberta, Ca

Producer for post–launch technology and major game updates.Executed on a frequent and normalized cadence of exciting new features and content.

Edmonton, Alberta, Ca

Architected and oversaw SWTOR’s private and public Beta testing programs.Managed the launch of SWTOR, which achieved record-setting stability and uptime within EA.

Boston, Ma, Us

UNANNOUNCED PROJECTCoordinated and managed co–development efforts between internal and external teams.Supported all partners via ensuring continuous build stability and feature parity on all platforms.Owned agile processes and best practices for the studio.ROCK BAND 3Pioneered agile production techniques to Harmonix. Principal in developing and evangelizing studio-wide Scrum training and roll-out upon joining the company.Operated RB3’s Net and Live Ops Teams, including large-scale cloud-based simulation testing.Assisted in founding our Shared Technology team, focused on engine and tools development.Partnered with our Executive team to architect, design, and deploy our internal wikis to support growth and outsourced development.

Us

Produced Wolfenstein and The Beatles: Rock Band (Wii).Provided production support on Quake Arena Arcade and Bomberman Battlefest.THE BEATLES: ROCK BANDLaunched The Beatles (Wii) simultaneously with next-gen platforms, a franchise first.Hired and trained QA Testers on the Wii’s functional and certification requirements.Worked closely with Nintendo to ensure on-time certification and release.Owned the production plan for over 50 engineers, artists and testers.WOLFENSTEINLead a team of 30 developers in building the first and final chapters of the game.Pioneered iterative design processes for conceptualizing and developing core mechanics.Maintained highly detailed roadmap, milestone submission, and asset report documentation.

Us

Worked on Age of Mythology, AoM: The Titans & Age of Empires III.AGE OF EMPIRES IIILead a realignment of our testing team to focus increasingly on automation and tools, hiring and training our first team of Software Development Engineers in Test.Defined and managed execution of all test cases/suites for the product.AGE OF MYTHOLOGY and AOM: THE TITANS (EXPANSION)Responsible for testing, analyzing and generating qualitative reports on unit combat AI.Partnered with our Technical Director to guide an aggressive reboot of our unit pathing system.Produced suites of game scenarios designed to expose and break specific functionality.

Authored content webcam–based interactive video greeting cards.Directed and acted as technical coordinator for a team of contract 2D and 3D artists.

Us

* Designed and executed test plans for in-house software products and point-of-sale hardware. * Duties included Help Desk support for developers and clients as well as routine maintenance of our server population.

Generated daily posts and editorials for several network sites, including Quake2.com, PlanetQuake.com, PlanetHalfLife.com, Ritualistic.com and BoatRocker.com.Created a long-running interview series with Dallas-area game developers.