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Nels is probably the only Canadian game developer who was born & raised in Wyoming. Now in Vancouver, he is Sonderlust Studios' Creative Director. He has been making games professionally for over a decade, starting as a gameplay programmer on DeathSpank before joining Klei Entertainment as lead designer on Mark of the Ninja. After finishing Ninja, he left to help start Campo Santo and create Firewatch. His Campo colleagues went on to join Valve while Nels started a new team that would become Sonderlust. He could not imagine being happier than with the team he gets to work with now.
Nels believes systems are the beating heart of games. And those systems can enable a unique collaboration between creators(s) and players. Games can invite their players to develop richer understandings of a complicated system's dynamics with clever metaphor and construction. They can put the player and their decisions at the centre of the experience. They can enable profound agency and plant the seed of empathy. They can empower by posing, "Here are the rules, now what do YOU want to do?" Nels believes Sonderlust's first game can capture these qualities in an exciting new way.
Nels also plays a whole heap of video games, board games, tabletop RPGs and he was really into Netrunner for a while there. He also loves history, baking and to ensure he remains a cartoonish parody of a Vancouverite, he's super into rock climbing, sushi and brews his own kombucha.
Thief, Bloodborne, Disco Elysium, Final Fantasy VI, Blue Prince
From the far away lands of Gaspésie, Pier-Olivier now lives in Montréal, where he works as Sonderlust Studios' Environment Artist. He's been working in the industry for the past 6 years on various IP adaptations, original mobile games, and a multiplayer-only PC title. P-O wanted to continue experimenting and working on something new, and when he saw the beautiful work, team dynamic, and values of Sonderlust, he found a team he wanted to be a part of.
Pier-Olivier loves to create colourful and stylized 3D environments to immerse players in the world with the right amount of details and familiarity.
Pier-Olivier loves getting/designing tattoos, going to live music shows way too often, and playing games. He’s also been known to dance rockabilly jive pretty okay!
Bloodborne, Shadow of the Colossus, The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker, Metal Gear Solid 3, Night in the Woods, Journey
Matt originates from across the pond but emigrated to Canada in late 2019 thanks to a rather divisive political campaign in Britain in 2016 that left him foreseeing a future he didn't particularly want to be a part of. Fortunately, he now works in Vancouver as Sonderlust Studios' resident Developer/Designer and assists the team members wherever possible.
Matt has been working in the games and film industry since he graduated university in 2013. In this time, he has directed and released two feature-length films, designed and developed a number of his own games, and worked as an Online Trainer at Unity Technologies. After leaving Unity, Matt continued work contracting as a freelancer and working on his own games, where he continued to build his generalist skillset. Eventually, inspired somewhat by his old job, he started a YouTube channel where he presented his findings as a developer, and set out to create informative and entertaining tutorials as "Game Dev Guide.”
Matt loves solving problems and loves being able to get stuck into both design and development aspects of games. His history as a filmmaker means that he's equally passionate about story-telling and narrative as he is systems and gameplay. Aside from talking passionately about games, he has a love for social psychology, movies, comedy and an almost overwhelming affection for ska music.
SimCity series / Cities Skylines, Theme Hospital, Persona 5, Yakuza Series, Final Fantasy X
Marri was raised in cloudy, quaint Victoria B.C., later pursuing a Master's degree in the history of medicine, of all things. They are now Narrative Lead at Sonderlust Studios.
After their post-graduate studies, they worked at a pharmaceutical industry eLearning company where they copy edited medical texts, designed gamified education modules, and used Twine to write interactive conversation models for soft skills training. (Like a branching dating sim, but for closing medical devices deals instead of landing a date.) After completing the Pixelles Writing Incubator, they joined Ubisoft Montreal and worked as a writer on Far Cry 5, Far Cry: New Dawn, and Far Cry 6.
Marri loves rich worldbuilding and character-focused stories that provide evocative, emotional memories for players.
You can find them playing D&D with their friends, goading those same friends into co-op horror games, cooking (and eating), worldbuilding and writing, and occasionally drawing.
Dance Dance Revolution, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Elden Ring, Yakuza 0, Nier: Automata, Outer Wilds, 80 Days, Shadow of the Colossus
Steve loves making things that people love, learning and building skills, and playing games with friends.
Born and raised in Winnipeg, the glorious land of potholes and honey dill. Where the weather is like the drivers… it can’t pick a lane. He’s loved games ever since he’s had the ability to form memories, and has had the drive to make them just as long.
Steve loves to bring people together and regularly plans events for his local gamedev community, and much of what he does is grounded in creating engaging social experiences.
He finds many, many things interesting and must experience them all. Whether it’s playing sports, cooking, dancing, or attempting to create the perfect kitchen experience, there just isn’t enough time in a day to cover it all for Steve!
All the board games**,** Magic: The Gathering, Elden Ring, Rocket League, Super Smash Bros, Chrono Trigger, Endless series, Harvest Moon, Undertale
Karla Zimonja is a Masshole by birth. She has marked more than 20 years in the game industry, working on such projects as Asheron’s Call, Zoo Tycoon 2, BioShock 2 (and its DLC Minerva’s Den), Gone Home, and Tacoma. She started out as an animator on Dr. Katz and Home Movies before being subsumed into games, eventually moving through a series of weird, poorly-titled positions to become a mishmash of skills and knowledge. Fortunately this gives decent stat bonuses in small indie companies, especially those which are design-centric and narratively substantial.
Karla puts most of her spare energy into her friends' D&D games (and sometimes other tabletop games), lifts the odd weight, reads less and watches fewer movies than she wants to. She's a sucker for the Pacific Northwest, a good woody perfume, post-punk and second-wave ska, and leather jacket weather.
Grim Fandango, Sam & Max Hit the Road, various Disgaeas, Ghost Trick, Dishonored, Gorogoa, The Return of the Obra Dinn, Night in the Woods, Disco Elysium
