Studio
Meet the team of Cardboard Utopia, a merry mélange of AAA veterans and passionate indie devs!
Welcome to Cardboard Utopia!
The Studio
Cardboard Utopia was born in 2014 in Montreal, the game development capital of Canada. Counting several veterans of the AAA game industry in its ranks, the studio strives to produce memorable, high quality games.
Putting the skills of our experienced designers and programmers to good use, we aim at creating engaging experiences through technical game design that translates into deep mechanics for the players to obsess over. We also founded Cardboard Utopia on the belief that the best, most cherished games are the ones that generate thoughts & emotions. To do so, we want to exploit the storytelling power of the video game medium and craft original, rich stories with diverse characters which will resonate with a wide range of players.
Children of Zodiarcs is Cardboard Utopia’s first project.
The Team
Cardboard Utopia’s team is made of passionate, talented and experienced developers, many of which have known the AAA blockbuster trenches. We've worked on games such as the Assassin's Creed franchise (Brotherhood, Recollections), Far Cry 3, and Rainbow6 Patriots.
JASON KIM,
Founder & Creative Director
Jason has been working in the games industry since 2004, were he has been a level designer, a game designer, a lead level designer and a game design team lead and worked on console and AAA projects such as Far Cry 3, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, and the Rainbow6 franchise. Two of his proudest career achievements are placing Scooby-snack pick-ups in Scooby-Doo: Unmasked, and writing a silly placeholder line that ended up being recorded by Elijah Wood in the Happy Feet game.
In 2014, ready for new challenges and aching to work on his very own projects, Jason recruited a team of talented devs and founded Cardboard Utopia. On Children of Zodiarcs, Jason maintains the direction of the project, making sure everything stays true to the game’s vision.
DAMIAN EBANKS,
Game Designer
Damian has been a part of the games industry since 1998, as an Artist, Game Designer and Scriptwriter. He made his game dev debut on the cult-classic Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem with Silicon Knights, then moved on to Rockstar Games where he helped shape The Warriors and Bully: Scholarship Edition among other titles. Heeding the call of poutine and smoked meat, he moved on to Ubisoft Montreal where he had the opportunity to work on Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 and the Far Cry franchise.
Damian enjoys storytelling in all media-forms, long walks on the beach and referring to himself in the third person.
LOUIS SCIANNAMBLO,
Lead Artist
Louis has been working in games, primarily in the indie scene, since 2014. As a freelancer, he's worked on nearly every aspect of art production including concept art, animation, UI and Art direction for clients such as Kitfox Games, Minority Media, Behaviour Interactive, and Warner Montreal. As Lead Artist, Louis is eager to bring his many hats to bear on Cardboard Utopia's exciting projects and prototypes.
If you have a lot of time to kill, you can always ask him about his garden or pet birds. (<?)
ANDRÉE BOUTIN,
Business, Operations & Communications
If you have ever visited us at an event, chances are you saw Andrée. In charge of "all-that-is-not-development" (much easier to say than explain all what she does), she is nonetheless passionate about the games we make and will get you psyched to play before you even touch the controller.
Andrée has many past professional lives that made her the expert information-gatherer and problem-solver she is today. Still a part-time master's student (because let's face it, she's a hopeless school addict) who *happens* to be researching indie devs, she also uses her job as a cover to study her colleagues. But shhhh, don't tell them.
ANNA DE CICCO,
2D Artist
Prior to Cardboard Utopia, Anna was a freelance artist working a variety of projects across publishing, film, and marketing. Today, she couldn’t be happier creating art for games that inspired her so much in her youth … and (realistically) adulthood. Her blood type is probably coffee at this point.
MIKAËL GOYETTE,
Programmer
Mikaël started his career in video game development in 2014 by founding his own company, Rodz. Being project leader, game designer and programmer, he spent three years developing Zarya and the Cursed Skull before publishing it on Steam. After a well-deserved break (nah, just kidding), he then decided to join Cardboard Utopia in order to share his programming skills with a team as passionate as him.
Former members
Cardboard Utopia wants to thank all of its former members for their amazing work!
| Denis Dufour | Erica Lahaie | Camille Matéo | Axel Baldoni | Samuel Daher | Michael Winder | Brittni Martin |
|---|
Development contributors
These fine folks have their own office, but they're like family!
VIBE AVENUE
Music & SFX
Vibe Avenue is a music & audio production studio comprised of amazingly talented and passionate folks, located right here in Montreal. Vibe spotted Children of Zodiarcs on its very first public showing, the 2015 Montreal DemoNight, and immediately saw the potential to create epic musical pieces and a rich audio environment, true to the tradition of tactical and eastern-style RPGs. Shortly after, Cardboard Utopia officially hired Vibe to take care of everything that will enter your ears while playing Children of Zodiarcs. You can have a taste of their fantastic creations right here.
Partners
As a small studio, Cardboard Utopia has to deal with the challenge of making great games with limited ressources. Fortunately we are lucky enough to be able to rely on the support of great partners and contributors:
Square Enix Collective*
Our adventure with Square Enix Collective started in September 2014, when we pitched Children of Zodiarcs (back then "War of Zodiarcs") on the Collective's curated feedback platform where we received 93% positive feedback from the voters. A year later, we lead a Kickstarter campaign, again with the support of Square Enix Collective. This campaign again exceeded our expectations, allowing us to collect five times our initial target.
Recently, we brought our long-standing relationship with the Collective one step further, by signing a publishing agreement for Children of Zodiarcs. Considering that this is a game crafted with love and care to recapture the spirit of the tactical RPGs of our youth, the same kind of games Square Enix has been publishing for decades, we believe we could not have found a more fitting partner to help us bring Children of Zodiarcs to market!
SQUARE ENIX, the SQUARE ENIX logo, SQUARE ENIX COLLECTIVE and the SQUARE ENIX COLLECTIVE logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Square Enix Holdings Co. Ltd
Execution Labs
Execution Labs is a "hands-on early stage investor in game studios". Back in 2015, Execution Labs recruited Cardboard Utopia in a 3 months incubator and provided the studio with its first professional investment capital. Execution Labs helped us grow as a company, providing us with coaching and sharing their strong expertise in various business-related areas.
Canada Media Fund
The Canada Media Fund (CMF) is an organism which uses the financial contributions it receives from the Government of Canada and Canada’s cable, satellite and IPTV distributors, to "[foster, promote, develop and finance] the production of Canadian content and relevant applications for all audiovisual media platforms".
The generous contribution of the CMF has been critical to make the production of Children of Zodiarcs a reality.
Fondation Montréal Inc.
Fondation Montréal inc. is an organization that supports Montreal's startups and young entrepreneurs through grants, support services and networking.
Cardboard Utopia became a Fondation Montréal Inc. laureate in 2016.