UK-based mobile games firm Lockwood Publishing has revealed the appointment of three strategic hires: James Cox, Rob Hendry, and Chris Tilston.
Stepping in as VP of engineering, Cox joins Lockwood from NaturalMotion, and has previously held roles at Playstation and Konami.
At Lockwood Hendry will oversee client, server, systems, and tools development for Avakin Life. Additionally, Hendry will oversee QA and liveops for Avakin Life and drive R&D initiatives for its new metaverse products.
Hendry will assume the role of VP of production and will work closely with the executive team and developers to craft and deliver strategies to shape Avakin Life and the company’s future development projects.
Prior to Lockwood, Hendry was an executive producer at Jagex, focusing on Old School Runescape. Hendry has also held various positions throughout his 25 plus year games industry career, including head of studio at Marmalade and NaturalMotion.
“Big-hitting triumvirate”
Tilston is joining Lockwood as studio design director and will be responsible for building an in-house design team, as well as the monetisation and “fun” in Avakin Life. Prior to Lockwood, Tilston has held roles at Rare, Dice, Konami, and was most recently head of design at Smilegate Barcelona.
“Being able to attract such amazing talent to Lockwood is a testament to our ambition in an industry that’s only really now catching on to the immense possibilities that games such as Avakin Life have in the metaverse,” said Lockwood Publishing CEO Halli Bjornsson.
“James, Rob and Chris bring to Lockwood a combined 80 years’ experience in the games industry. That kind of talent is invaluable to our company’s maturation and transition plans to be market leaders in the web3 space. We’re confident that this is just the start of a massive year for Avakin Life and for Lockwood, both of which are evolving at pace.”
The firm came under fire last December for laying off 10 per cent of staff, which the CEO claimed was due to the effects of COVID-19 slowing the company’s growth trajectory.
