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Leaving Vanguard Games, joining Ubisoft Massive

April 26, 2014 | News

After working at Vanguard Games for almost seven years, half of which was while it was still called W!Games, I am leaving the company. This week, I sent out the same type of e-mail I’ve been reading every time a former colleague announced his departure and I’m having mixed feelings about the upcoming goodbye gathering and speech, to be held on my last day of work at Vanguard.

Ubisoft Massive

I’m incredibly proud of the games we’ve been making together at Vanguard and I’ve worked with a lot of talented people there, some of which have become good friends. Being hired by what was then still W!Games was a turning point in my life, both professionally and personally, and it has been a great start of my career in the game development industry. I have to admit that I’ve been keeping an eye out for something new for quite some time, because I’ve always wanted to work abroad and also experience working at another studio. Starting and finishing Halo: Spartan Assault was very important to me and wrapping that up was a good moment for me to actually make a switch. So what am I going to do now?

Halo: Spartan Assault announced for Xbox One and Xbox 360

October 29, 2013 | News

Today Microsoft officially announced that Halo: Spartan Assault is coming to Xbox One and Xbox 360 in December. It will be available as a downloadable title.

Halo: Spartan Assault on Xbox One and Xbox 360

This console version of Halo: Spartan Assault includes Operation Hydra, which was free DLC for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. The biggest addition are all new co-op missions that put players up against The Flood, armed with new weapons, abilities and upgrades. Of course, there will be new Achievements as well.

Halo: Spartan Assault now available on Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8

July 22, 2013 | News

On Thursday July 18, it was announced at Comic-Con in San Diego that Halo: Spartan Assault would launch at 4:00 PM (PST). That’s 1:00 AM (GMT) on July 19, our local time in Amsterdam. So when we all got up in the morning to go to work on Friday, the game had launched.

Halo: Spartan Assault

Of course, this is a very exciting time for me and my colleagues, as reviews start popping up and people are talking about the game both online and offline. To celebrate, we ate a custom Halo: Spartan Assault cake made by my sister, based on the model of the grenade case as it appears in our game. Instead of grenades, a tablet with a very detailed Spartan on top of it was placed inside the case.

Vanguard Games and 343 Industries announce Halo: Spartan Assault

June 4, 2013 | News

Today marks an important moment for Vanguard Games and me personally. After working in secret for quite some time, our project Halo: Spartan Assault has finally been revealed.

Halo: Spartan Assault

Of course, I’m incredibly proud to be part of such a high-profile and important project. In short, it’s a top-down action shooter for touch-based devices, set in the Halo universe and taking place between Halo 3 and 4. To see more of the awesome visuals and action-packed gameplay, take a look at the announcement trailer.

JARRR develops General Conflict at Utrecht School of the Arts

January 12, 2011 | News

Students of the Utrecht School of the Arts, the school I also attended and graduated from, recently did a project with Vanguard Games as a client. The team, consisting of eight people, called itself JARRR and the game they made is called General Conflict.

A trailer for the game can be found here. Maybe it’s a little too chaotic to notice what’s actually going on, but I can assure you it’s very easy to pick up this incredibly fun and competitive game. The project’s main supervisor was Vanguard’s producer René Derks, who recently let the JARRR students pass their final exam with flying colors.

Vanguard off to a good start, Greed Corp continued

November 20, 2010 | News

After a long time of relative silence, the last two weeks have been full of announcements and good news coming from W!Games. Or Vanguard Games, which is now officially our new name. Now that we can finally talk about everything that’s been going on, I thought it would be nice to give an overview of the most interesting developments and provide some background information for those who are interested in reading more.

Receiving an award for Greed Corp out of the hands of legendary Katamari Damacy designer Keita Takahashi (now officially named Katamari-san, thanks to my colleague René) was just one of the highlights. In the above picture, from left to right: fellow game designer Harry van Mierloo, creative director Marcel du Long, producer René Derks, the legendary Katamari-san, and me.