Atomhawk 2024: exciting horizons ahead

Atomhawk’s central purpose is to deliver stunning creative solutions that are faithful to our clients’ IPs. Over the past few years, our service lines have been expanding. Our offering has grown, and so have our long-term projects. Increased collaboration across our services means more capacity with internal teams linking up fluidly, meaning fewer delays and feedback loops.

This year, all three studios saw the release of our work in major titles including Helldivers 2, Beat Saber, Age of Mythology: Retold, Warframe: Koumei & the Five Fates, Still Wakes the Deep, EvilVEvil, DC Universe Online, Everquest II, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Deathsprint 66, and Stampede: Racing Royale. The Design team at our founding studio worked with 26 clients, established and new, across a total of 43 projects, with many more delivered out of Atomhawk Canada and Atomhawk Advance.

We work on over 30 projects simultaneously. That makes scheduling our team’s time like a game of Tetris.

Identifying every project’s specific needs, we make sure the right specialists on our team are available to answer the brief (before their talents are inevitably needed elsewhere!).  Each producer clearly lays out priorities for each team member, every day.  Live trackers, updated daily, allow us to foresee anything that might jeopardise deadlines, and step in early to mitigate risk.

Our production teams are, simply, world-class. Projects are delivered to a consistently high-quality. That’s testament to their dedication and the sheer pride they take in exceeding expectations, again and again, always pushing that bar higher. Having worked closely with clients to scope and qualify the job in hand, they pick the best team for the task and get to it with energy, talent, and skill.

This year we wanted to give them a shout-out – without them Atomhawk would not be the name it is.

Over the past two years, Atomhawk Canada has gone from strength to strength on a strong, cohesive mission and a brand-new LinkedIn page to share the team’s stories.

The Canada team is passionate about generating new knowledge to enrich Atomhawk’s output and client offer.  Working on multiple R&D initiatives, they devote a significant portion of their time to generating innovations that will improve creative solutions and real-time support for clients. Their learnings are the groundwork for progress across our teams, in Canada, UK, and beyond.

Project Rainfall is an example of the Canadian team’s quest for knowledge. Born of a desire to offer insight and advice to the creative community, as well as spark passion and personal growth within their own team, the initiative is a great example of Atomhawk’s pioneering position. You can learn about Project Rainfall on our Resources page.

We’ve attended many inspiring and thought-provoking events this year, including our annual trips to GDC, Develop: Brighton, XDS, and Develop: North. At these industry events we engaged in some great conversations, particularly around developing long-term partnerships to create sustainable and collaborative creative relationships.

Atomhawk Advance presented talks and hosted roundtables at the Games Accessibility Conference, Develop: Brighton, and Devcom.

We also continue to engage with local, national, and international colleges and universities, nurturing creative talent to help prepare students for their professional lives, on top of the fundamentals they are traditionally taught. Notably, we Teesside University, Darlington College, and New3dge, as well as Interactive Futures’ Industry Day.

2024 has seen the beginnings of an exciting new joint venture in education. Atomhawk Design is collaborating with Escape Studios to launch a new undergraduate degree in concept art from 2025. Working in tandem with these two partners, this will be an Atomhawk-endorsed course run in a fantastic location, fostering UK talent.

We work on different projects every day, interacting with new clients, and learning fresh ideas all the time. But some things stay the same. Hawks always love hanging out for team meet-ups, dinners, socials, sketch meets and game nights.

Along with our summer get-togethers and Christmas Parties, we also hold department dinners, movie nights, life drawing, and project launch parties. Then there are the fun annual events like our Valentine’s Day potluck, Easter egg painting, Pancake Day, pumpkin carving, and Halloween activities. And the occasional axe-throwing!

Atomhawk connects digital professionals from all over the world. Investing in our strong internal community continues to be a top priority. As well as combating social isolation within the workplace, it strengthens team bonds, making work more fun, and outputs infinitely better.

Connecting with local and international causes through charity and advocacy work is a key component of how we operate at Atomhawk. Here’s a snapshot of what that looked like for 2024:

• Atomhawk Design has continued its support of Great North Children’s Hospital Foundation (GNCHF), including sending care packages, art supplies through a tombola and raffle donations.
• A £750 donation to GNCHF, which was put towards buying TheRockinR Gaming Cart for Ward 8.
• Two Cake Sales to fund an arts and crafts donation for GNCHF, as well as a drive to donate 53 pairs of pyjamas and £240 of toys.
• £250 donated to the Make a Wish Foundation through our Festive Artwork initiative.
• Atomhawk Advance raised £2,744 for Mental Health Awareness Week with their 4666 Meaningful Miles Challenge.
• Four Hawks participated as mentors for the Limit Break Mentorship.
• Hawk participation in a BSL lesson, hosted by the British Deaf Association as part of Sign Language Week.
• Atomhawk Canada made a number of charitable donations across the year, including BC Children’s Hospital, SPCA Montreal, David Suzuki Foundation, Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada, Salal (SSVSC) and many more.

Our core mission is unchanged; to be the go-to creative and technical partner for games. In 2025, we’ll be focusing on art, design, and technical advancements, streamlining production processes, an enhanced learning and development programme, and advances in R&D.

Stay up to date. Follow our studio LinkedIn pages at Design, Canada, and Advance.