Ruckus Games

We're #hiring experienced developers to join our studio! 🕹 Senior Game Designer 🔮 Technical Artist ✨ VFX Artist We're a tight knit, passionate team that's hard at work on an exciting cooperative game where players will Smash, Grab, and Grow! Interested in learning more? Visit https://lnkd.in/g6n55KzU for info!

We're excited to announce that we're looking for a 🕹 Community / Public Relations Manager 👾 to join our team! We're looking for someone that is passionate in community building, charismatic, energetic and wants to be as close to the game as they are to the community around it. Read more @ https://lnkd.in/gt2KsNg6

Thank to Andrew and the whole Transcend team. Just great people to work with who've been instrumental to our efforts.

Ruckus Games is happy to say that Director of Business at Ruckus Games - Alexandra Takei has made Forbes 30 under 30 list. https://lnkd.in/gJfBCg5u Way to go Alex!

🎸Ruckus Roster Spotlight!🔦 The squad of engineers at Ruckus is deep! Dustin Yost joined Ruckus in June of this past year and is critical not only to feature development (character abilities, screens, and more) but also in 📊 optimizing production processes. Dustin got started in game dev in high school -- self taught in Java and modding in Minecraft. He earned a B.S. in computer science, and before joining the Ruckus, was at Proletariat as a game engineer. 🎙 What is your favorite part of the game you've worked on so far? "Without divulging spoilers, my favorite sections of the game I've worked on have been our gameplay and how the player interacts or affects the world around them. I've always enjoyed the kind of feedback loop games create as players change their world and the world changes around them - whether that's ensuring the world feels alive through story, autonomous creatures or in what tools the player has at their disposal. That said, good tooling makes all our lives more pleasant during development so I've also enjoyed upgrading tools (or contemplating new tools) that we can use to speed up our progress on the game." Outside of games, Dustin is the KiNG of HobBies. He's got a swath of side projects (often built in Rust, which is ofc, is all the rage), and is an active member of the RPG tabletop community. He cooks and bakes 🥖 (recently having discovered a wonderful sourdough bagel recipe). He also rock climbs, roller blades, and...(you guessed it)...cycles 🚵♀️. All in all, he finds joy in the small things in life. We have a great team!👉 https://lnkd.in/eH3wHRUG #engineering #games #team

🎸Ruckus Roster Spotlight!🔦 #HOWTOPIVOT. Who can build games and how do you start? Jason Miletta always had a strong desire to make games as a kid -- it's an itch he got to scratch making custom maps for Warcraft 3 and Counterstrike, but like many, didn't know he could make a career out of it. Jason joined the Ruckus from ThE WorLD of BIG TECH 🎛, spending the first part of his career as a Software Engineer at Salesforce and Twitch. On the side, he built up a portfolio of games and it, along with his extensive software background, impressed the members of the Ruckus so much, we just had to let this 🎸rockstar engineer on board. Today, Jason is critical to the engineering velocity of our project, and we're proud he's building his game dev chops in the Ruckus backyard. 🎙 If you had to live in one video game world, what would it be, and why? "Pokemon! Compared to most video game worlds it seems pretty chill and lacking in the life-threatening monsters/catastrophes department." 🎙 What's been the most surprising difference between game development and bit tech software development? "The extent to which different competencies collaborate has been interesting to see in action, partly because of how much more is required for a game versus databases or webservices. In my past work, teams have been relatively siloed. You get what you need, implement things, then send it off to the next team. At Ruckus, everyone is fairly hands on, and I personally enjoy the exposure to all the moving parts. It's been fun to work closely with audio, animation, art, you name it." What is not surprising is that Jason is continuing the Ruckus rave for biking 🚲. Jason, though not as hardcore, bikes a ton to get around the city of Milwaukee. He's also recently taken up paddleboarding if the weather in Wisconsin accommodates it. He tries to get away from screens 🖥 , but he's not sure how successful he is at it. Interested in joining our squad and staying up to date? Follow us here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eH3wHRUG #engineering #games #team

🎸Ruckus Roster Spotlight!🔦 #HOWTOPIVOT. Who can build games and how do you start? Jason Miletta always had a strong desire to make games as a kid -- it's an itch he got to scratch making custom maps for Warcraft 3 and Counterstrike, but like many, didn't know he could make a career out of it. Jason joined the Ruckus from ThE WorLD of BIG TECH 🎛, spending the first part of his career as a Software Engineer at Salesforce and Twitch. On the side, he built up a portfolio of games and it, along with his extensive software background, impressed the members of the Ruckus so much, we just had to let this 🎸rockstar engineer on board. Today, Jason is critical to the engineering velocity of our project, and we're proud he's building his game dev chops in the Ruckus backyard. 🎙 If you had to live in one video game world, what would it be, and why? "Pokemon! Compared to most video game worlds it seems pretty chill and lacking in the life-threatening monsters/catastrophes department." 🎙 What's been the most surprising difference between game development and bit tech software development? "The extent to which different competencies collaborate has been interesting to see in action, partly because of how much more is required for a game versus databases or webservices. In my past work, teams have been relatively siloed. You get what you need, implement things, then send it off to the next team. At Ruckus, everyone is fairly hands on, and I personally enjoy the exposure to all the moving parts. It's been fun to work closely with audio, animation, art, you name it." What is not surprising is that Jason is continuing the Ruckus rave for biking 🚲. Jason, though not as hardcore, bikes a ton to get around the city of Milwaukee. He's also recently taken up paddleboarding if the weather in Wisconsin accommodates it. He tries to get away from screens 🖥 , but he's not sure how successful he is at it. Interested in joining our squad and staying up to date? Follow us here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eH3wHRUG #engineering #games #team

🎸Ruckus Roster Spotlight 🔦 ... Founder Edition!🏆 Ruckus Founder Recipe: Get yourself a character artist! Kevin Penrod, Character Art Director at Ruckus Games, noticed a trend in gaming bloat -- studios with production output that didn't match the increase in headcount -- and decided to embark on a journey with a talented crew of co-workers to redefine what it takes to build AAA games. Kevin's first job in college was animating 2D sprite mobile games. With a background in the fine arts and a love for sculpting characters, he joined Vigil Games as a character artist and later Gearbox Software as an environment artist (though after quickly realizing he had a unique knack for people, he was moved back onto characters expeditiously). Kevin takes the EdGeS ⬜ out of 3D poly as he's incredibly well rounded in the space of 3D modeling. Kevin also coined our studio's name. A man of many talents. 🎩 🎙 What is a character artist that you admire the most in the industry? "Gio Nakpil is an amazing character artist and teacher as well. I was previously lucky enough to take classes from Gio and his talent level as an artist was equal to his talent level as a teacher." 🎙 What is the best day of the week and why (and it can't be Saturday or Sunday)? "Always Friday. Every morning when I wake my youngest daughter up she asks "Is today Friday?" Even she knows that Friday is the best day of the week." Outside of games, we are 4/5 on members of the Ruckus's ridiculous obsession with bikes 🚵♀️. Kevin road bikes, mountain bikes, cross country bikes, enduro bikes, and trail bikes in the back country. He also is also a victim of the marketing machine, consuming AG1 Greens 💚 daily to keep himself in PRIME SHAPE. He is the proud father of two daughters who equally enjoy his love for the outdoors. RAUCOUS! Follow us here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eH3wHRUG

🎸Ruckus Roster Spotlight!🔦 What’s it take to build a game? ENGINEERS! Alina Christenbury joined the Ruckus way back in November 2022 and has been making the coding machine go brrr! 🔢 Alina is the epitome of self starter and "do whatever it takes to get into game development". She started with designing platformer levels and characters in middle school, self taught herself game engines in high school, and then moved on to the University of Delaware where she received a Masters in Computer Science and pursued studies across game development, AI, VR, AR, and spatial computing. Fun Fact: She hosted a Ted Talk on these topics here: https://lnkd.in/eY5qUGyq. She's now fully engrossed in building out technical aspects of our first project. 🎙 What is your favorite game? Why does it matter to you? "One of the games I come back to a lot is What Remains of Edith Finch, the way it blends the narrative and mechanics is excellent, and the storytelling is really well done. A more recent favorite of mine is Cult of The Lamb, I love work that hits that spooky-creepy-cute-spoopy vibe just right." Outside of making the coding machine go brr, Alina has a dog named Megaera (#labradoodle) whom she takes on long bike rides (Megaera runs alongside her, or, if she's lucky, gets to ride in the doggy backpack 🐕). Alina also loves to cook and is especially good at whipping up yummy veggie based recipes. 🖥 What does your monitor set up say about you? https://lnkd.in/etGakRaU Interested in joining our squad and staying up to date? Follow us here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eH3wHRUG #engineering #games #team