London Inc. February 2022 - 22

10 Minutes With
THE NEXT INSTALLMENT
Game developer and owner of The Mana Lounge,
Jeff Evans chats about the strategic evolution,
naming a company and all things nerdy and cool
LATE LAST YEAR, Jeff Evans sold Tiny Titan Studios, the mobile video
game maker he founded in 2014, to Trophy Games Development of
Denmark. Prior to Tiny Titan, he co-founded Antic Entertainment. Both
companies created games primarily for mobile devices.
He then started a new, yet-to-be-named company with the same 12
employees to create console and PC games.
Evans, 40, came to London from hometown Waterloo in 2003 to
work at video game creator DICE. He and his partner have three kids, a
dog and a cat. As a kid, his favourite game franchise was The Legend
of Zelda. " You can see it influences the games I later created, " he says.
When not working, he likes hanging out with his family and watching
movies. He also plays poker and rides his BMW R1200GS Adventure
motorcycle.
Congratulations on the sale of Tiny Titan Studios.
After seven years of growing the company, was
that a difficult decision? Thanks! It's always difficult
making a decision of that magnitude, but we felt like
it would be a good strategic move to shed the past and
solidify our movement into the console and PC market.
Having to worry about any updates or bug fixes to the
mobile titles was a distraction we wanted to leave behind.
Why the switch to console games? What's
coming first? Mobile development was initially
seen as a steppingstone. At the time it seemed like
a more accessible barrier of entry when it was just
me in the basement, but as we grew, the viability of
creating full-scoped premium console and PC titles
was becoming more and more realistic. It also aligned
with the development team much better, as those are
the types of games we play significantly more. We're
currently working on Ember Knights, a 16-bit rogue-like
hack and slash releasing on Steam in early access late
Spring this year. We're still trying to figure out a new
company name.
Do the console makers insist on exclusivity
when you develop a new game? Some games
are on multiple platforms, but others are not.
How does that work? Exclusive titles can certainly
happen for the right products, although they aren't as
22|londonincmagazine.ca|FEBRUARY 2022
common anymore. Those products are usually deemed
as 'console selling' titles by the manufacturers and deal
proposals are negotiated to compensate for the more
narrow platforms. The console makers hope it will
drive new unit purchases to their machines, and the
developers hope that the console maker's interest in
promoting it more heavily to recoup costs will justify
the exclusiveness.
How has your own job changed since you started
Tiny Titan in 2014? Originally, I did most of the entire
process. From design, to code, QA, sound and art. As we
grew, I was able to hire more specialized people to take
those tasks from me so I could focus on the business
direction as a whole. Now, I'm primarily game direction
and business operations.
What prompted you to create The Mana Lounge?
Is it fair to call it a passion project? Yes, that's
absolutely fair. I'm a long-time player of the game Magic:
The Gathering, having played it off and on since '94. My
friend got me back into it in 2019 and I noticed there was
a lack of a quality play space. Often you were playing in
cramped quarters or old basements. I saw an opportunity
in the back half of the office at the time, so within a
week we set up the original version of The Mana Lounge.
It hit the ground running and within a few months we
had the biggest play space in town. That was a good test
London Inc. February 2022

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