FarBridge’s 2023: A Year in Review
As the year comes to a close and we prepare for our holiday break, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on 2023 and everything we’ve achieved at FarBridge. We’ve been hard at work on some fantastic new games and we couldn’t be more proud of what our team has created these last 12 months. Most of our work has been under wraps, but keep an eye out for any upcoming announcements from our team in the new year.
The FarBridge Team Continues to Grow
The FarBridge team grew this year, and as of this blog post, we have team members in Texas, where we started, as well as California, Indiana, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, and Washington.
It’s a very strange thing to go from working with a handful of folks who could all share an Uber to events, to maybe needing two elevators to fit everyone, to needing to book out the top floor of a restaurant for a company party. This December Patrick “joked” about a future where we’d have to find even more space to fit everyone for our gatherings.
Jokes aside, growing the FarBridge team has been one of the most rewarding and fulfilling parts of 2023. Getting to work with these great people on amazing projects, and having everyone come together to contribute their fresh ideas and hard-won expertise is a dream come true.
Most of the FarBridge crew at our 2023 holiday gathering.
To our team, we want to express our evergreen appreciation. Your hard work, commitment to our shared goals and values, and dedication to taking care of yourselves and each other is truly inspiring. None of this would be possible without you, and it’s an honor to be able to work with such an amazing cadre of humans.
We’re so excited for the new journeys 2024 will take us on, together.
Industry Challenges
2023 also had its share of challenges, with many studios in the industry doing layoffs, restructuring, or closing entirely. While this hasn’t been the case at our studio, we’ve absolutely felt the impacts from our friends and colleagues. Our hearts go out to everyone affected by these changes. Making games is a community effort — and we’re unified by our love of making games, telling stories, and building something new where it didn’t exist before. We hope we can get through these choppy waters to brighter days ahead for everyone.
We traveled and shared our expertise on panels, podcasts, and with our community
The team traveled all over the USA and internationally — from Las Vegas for DICE, to San Francisco for GDC, to Cologne, Germany for Gamescom, to LA to visit partners and friends, and even a whole 20 minutes to downtown Austin for SXSW ;)
Donald, Pam, and Patrick at DICE
At the Game Developers Conference our Studio Creative Director, Richard Rouse III, hosted his annual “Rules of the Game” session. This popular session brings together game designers to talk about rules that are important to them, rules of thumb they use in making games, and other outside-the-box ideas. Richard will be returning to GDC in 2024 to lead the game narrative session “How Interactive Should My Game Story Be?”, make sure you check it out!
Richard leading “Rules of the Game” at GDC 2023
After GDC, Richard also participated in the fifth annual LudoNarraCon digital festival. This event celebrates narrative video games and the developers that make them. Richard spoke on the “Game Stories Told in Most Unexpected & Surprising Ways” panel where veteran writers and designers talk about all the unexpected ways game narratives work, from environmental narrative to marketing materials to character animation to stories told in-game mechanics themselves. You can watch the panel here.
In April, our CEO, Patrick Curry, was interviewed by fellow game dev veterans, Alex Seropian and Aaron Marroquin, on their podcast The Fourth Curtain. The podcast takes the audience “on a tour of the minds that create our favorite video games,” and covers the history of video games and the people who make them. Episodes featuring an array of amazing game devs are available on all streaming platforms and at thefourthcurtain.com.
Just before summer, we were ecstatic to join Latinx in Gaming’s CONEXION career fair for another year of networking and meeting other game devs. CONEXION was a week-long virtual career event in May focused on connecting the Latinx community to professionals in the industry with a career fair, panels, webinars, resume reviews, and networking opportunities. A few folks from FarBridge were invited to participate in the career fair alongside companies like Netflix, Blizzard, Niantic, Riot Games, EA, Unity, Iron Galaxy, and Brass Lion Entertainment.
Latinitas, an Austin-based organization that empowers girls to innovate through media and technology, invited folks from the FarBridge team to speak at their annual Game Chica summer camp for girls and nonbinary students ages 9–14. We had a blast presenting the campers with the different career options they can pursue within the industry and hosted an interactive activity using Twine.
Members of the FarBridge Team with Game Chica summer camp attendees
Last but certainly not least, we hosted a playtest session in the fall with the students of the Electronic Game Developers Society (EGaDS) at the University of Texas at Austin. We had a great time networking and chatting about the game industry with the next-generation game developers.
Networking with members of EGaDS at UT Austin
#SparkingCreativity, building a #GoodCommunity, and even telling some spooky tales…
Earlier this year we launched our #SparkingCreativity blog series where we share tips and tricks for hosting a game jam at your studio. Jam Days at FarBridge allows our team to have a space for creative and collaborative practice, and each month it brings home how inventive folks at the studio are. You can check out our latest blog post on the subject: Tips For Running Your Own Jam Day.
In our #GoodCommunity series, we highlight all the great organizations and companies we have had the honor of working with over the last five years. We continue to be committed to making a safe, welcoming environment for all humans we work and come into contact with, and the organizations we featured are shining examples of this cause.
We also told our own scary stories, featuring ghostly adventures and real-life encounters our team experienced! If you’re looking for some extra spooky vibes now that October is behind us (or if you want to share in the old tradition of partaking in ghost stories on Christmas Eve), we’ve got some spine-tinglingly scary tales for you on our blog on Medium.
Many get togethers were had!
With FarBridge continuing to be completely remote, making sure we can all gather together has become even more important to us. This year we committed to having an event each quarter where the FarBridge team could get the chance to spend time with one another. It’s important to us to create that sense of community within our team and make sure to play lots and lots of games.
February at Punch Bowl Social in North Austin
The team celebrated FarBridge’s birthday with some tomfoolery at Punch Bowl Social Club. Many games were played, and many songs were Karaoke’d that night!
May Heat Hangout
An early summer gathering nevertheless gave everyone a taste of true Texas summer — and some delicious brisket!
September Horror Trivia Hangout
The team gathered for tacos and trivia, featuring a horror quiz, prepared and administered by none other than our own Richard and Pam! Unsurprisingly, our resident horror expert team, Deathbed: The Bed That Still Eats, won first place.
Winter Holiday Party 2023
And we just had our end-of-year winter holiday party and hilarious White Elephant Gift Exchange.
Amongst the usual fun and/or funny gifts you’d expect at a White Elephant, a couple of truly touching gifts were in circulation. Some folks on the team made some incredibly special and unique mementos, some of which are related to secret projects, but we can share this one that Jen, our Director of Production, made:
“The Chronicles of FarBridge,” a handmade keepsake book, crafted from an upcycled hardcover, with hand lettering and careful re-surfacing to create a secret trinket space.
We’re looking forward to sharing the other handmade artifacts of awesome our team created, once we can ❤
Wrapping Up 2023….
As we count down the days to our studio’s winter break, we can’t help but look back on all the moments big and small that made 2023 so memorable — but more importantly, we can’t help but be immensely grateful to the people with us on this journey.
To our clients and partners, we are so thrilled to be able to work with you to make extraordinary worlds to get lost in.
To our advisors, we are honored and humbled to have your wisdom and guidance on our path forward through this wild reality.
To our team, we are beyond proud to be able to work together to make amazing experiences and community, together.
And finally, to friends and family, we want to extend our deepest love and gratitude. None of this would be possible without y’all.
Happy holidays, and onwards to 2024, together!
These wonderfully silly people!
Published December 19, 2023