We’re pleased to announce the appointment of Darren Yeomans as Studio Director of Atomhawk UK. Darren will support Tim Wilson, Atomhawk MD along with Chris Rowe, Studio Director of Atomhawk Vancouver as the company continues to grow in the digital entertainment sector.
We caught up with Tim and Darren to talk about this exciting new role!
What makes Darren the right fit for the Studio Director role in the UK?
TIM: Darren joined Atomhawk back in February 2018 as our Art Manager. We’d previously collaborated with him as a client and he had been great to work with, so we knew that we were bringing someone in who matched our own culture and values. Over the past two years he’s been a positive driver within the studio and has overseen the growth and development of the studio’s art team. In his new remit he’ll be able to focus on all other elements of the UK studio, giving him a more holistic overview.
Congratulations on the new role, Darren! Please flesh out a bit more of your career experience in games.
DARREN: I started as a Junior Artist back in 1992, my first experiences was working in Deluxe Paint on an Amiga 500 so you can imagine the changes I’ve seen in the last 28 years! I made my way up to a Lead 3D art position; in 2007 I switched roles to become an Outsource Manager as the complexity of making games had grown so much that external help was now needed to create a AAA title. In 2010 I moved to Newcastle (for the first time) to have my first experience of being an Art Manager for an internal team.
Since then I’ve had similar roles in different dev studios. My path crossed again with the team at Atomhawk during my time in a dev studio in Stockholm and I was very happy to have the opportunity to join them back in the North East in 2018.
Your previous role as Art Manager means you worked on training and development programs with artists. What has been one of your proudest moments in that area of your work?
DARREN: It’s been great overall to see the response of the team to training, whether it was through an official scheduled training session or an individual wanting to push themselves in their own time.
We have a world class team at Atomhawk and it constantly amazes me that this talented group just keep pushing to get better and better not only in their own speciality but trying something well out of their comfort zone.
You do a lot of work with minority communities to help bridge the ethnic gap that we see in game development and art in the UK. Please share some thoughts with us about promoting diversity in the industry?
DARREN: It’s something that’s very important to me. When I was growing up there were no mentorship programmes or help to get you into a creative industry and my work with schools, colleges and universities have shown me that while it has moved on it’s far from the level we should expect in todays society. In addition to this there’s still a major gap in encouraging people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups to even start to contemplate a career in the creative industries.
There’s been a lot of great work in recent years to encourage more Women to look at creating games as a career; this has proved to be very successful and is changing the dynamics of the industry in a positive way.
I’m hoping that BAME students will get the same push and investment as the Women in Games movement and we’ll see more positive diversity in the near future. I’ve had a career for the past 28 years and have managed to get to the position of Studio Director so I’m hoping that will inspire others from a similar background to forge their own path in the Games Industry.
What is it about the Atomhawk culture that stands out to you?
DARREN: Atomhawk was set up as a creative business by creative people who understood the importance of giving an artist the tools to succeed.
This ethos has continued and along with a true family feel to the office it makes a great place to work. We have a good mix of nationalities who have come together for one simple reason; to create great art. It’s the people that make Atomhawk what it is.
What’s the future for Atomhawk?
TIM: We continue working with great partners and creating awesome art for games! It’s exciting times as our brand new office in the UK should be completed in the next few weeks and the Vancouver team are also in the process of moving into a larger studio, so there is positive change on both sides of the Atlantic. I’m looking forward to working closely with Darren and the Atomhawk management team to write the next chapter in our adventure.
