Julius Fondem   What production stuff has he worked on?

Second Extinction is an intense 3 player co-op fps game in which you fight hordes of mutated dinosaurs. Choose from a cast of distinct heroes and take on the monstrous dinosaurs with your friends.

On Second Extinction I was responsible for organizing the development team's daily tasks with Scrum, and currently I'm responsible for the console development team. I work together with our leads and stakeholders to determine sprint goals and long term scheduling to align on what we can deliver at key dates. This planning work involves scheduling, staffing and scope management.

I also ensure that we deliver our goals on time and quality, and that all of this is aligned with leadership and stakeholders. We have so far delivered our Steam Early Access, Xbox Game Preview, and Epic Games Store launches on time and on quality while working from home for the past 1.5 years.

Second Extinction was released on Steam Early Access on October 13th 2020, on Xbox Game Preview on April 28th 2021, and on Epic Games Store on September 30th 2021.

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Trials Rising is the newest iteration of Ubisoft’s gripping motorcycle platforming series. Combining the core gameplay and over-the-top action of the Trials franchise with all-new features, more competition, and a fresh visual look, Trials Rising is the biggest and most ambitious title in the series to date.

In Trials Rising I manage the 3D, 2D, Level Design and Audio teams at Ubisoft Redlynx, ensuring that we deliver quality assets on time for the launch, and post launch, of the game on 4 different platforms. I make sure that all the content teams can work smoothly, and that communication is flowing well between our studio and the studio in Kiev. I also plan the staffing of the project in the different phases of production together with the team leads, and identify ways of improving the our production pipelines to make the teams' work smoother.

I’ve also been designing the overall theme and content of the post launch content for Trials Rising. I work together with the content teams and the Creative Director to define the overall design for the content and when it will be released. I also represent the company at different events (such as E3, Gamescom and ChinaJoy) and show the game there to both press and players.

Trials Rising was released on PC, Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch on February 26th, 2019.

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Steep is an open world action sports game in which you can ride across the Alps, where the powder is always fresh and the run never ends. Defy and master the mountain alone or with friends on skis, wingsuits, snowboards and paragliders.

In Steep I was managing the character asset team, ensuring that we delivered assets on schedule and with quality for the main game, Winter Fest, Extreme Pack and Road to the Olympics. I made sure our character asset team could work as efficiently as possible by removing blockers, tackling problems, and exploring ways to improve the pipeline to make working even smoother.

On Steep it was also my responsiblity to make sure that we were producing our branded assets according to the guidelines from the brands, and that all of our assets were approved and signed off on time for each major milestone. I oversaw the approval process for each asset and made sure that any requests from the brands were taken into account and accommodated for within our schedule. We launched Steep with 16 brands in the game such as GoPro, Red Bull, The North Face and Salomon.

Lastly, I was in charge of ensuring that we release the PC version of the game simultaneously with the console versions (Xbox One & Playstation 4). We succesfully launched the game on time for PC by coordinating together with our team in Kiev, and making sure they weren't blocked by anything.

Steep was released on PC, Xbox One and Playstation 4 on the 5th of December 2016.

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Trials of the Blood Dragon takes you on an epic single player experience with the unique combination of competitive, precise, physics-based Trials gameplay, and rather less precise gun toting, balls swinging, neon-drenched Blood Dragon action. Journey through a colorful story with war zones in Vietnam, settling scores in Miami, confronting TV heroes in Tokyo and the odd detour into Space. Hell, you’re gonna go to Hell and back. The future is back. Are you ready?

In Trials of the Blood Dragon I was responsible for the game’s project management, together with our producers, by maintaining our Jira database, updating our dashboards and creating new ones as the project moved into different stages of development. I took care of monitoring our progress through Jira and unblocking our developers when possible. I also facilitated a productive co-development environment between our team in Redlynx and Ubisoft Kiev by ensuring smooth communication between locations and making sure that information flowed between locations.

In addition to the above, I was in charge of the game’s localization into 10 different languages. I coordinated the communication between the localization team within Ubisoft and the development team, and ensured that we were delivering features necessary for localization, master texts and localized texts on schedule. Lastly, I was also responsible for the outsourcing of 3D assets to Ubisoft Shanghai by coordinating communication between the development team and the outsourcing team, and making sure, together with our Lead 3D Artist, that the assets we outsourced were delivered on schedule, and met our guidelines and quality bar.

Trials of the Blood Dragon was released on PC, Xbox One and Playstation 4 on the 14th of June 2016.

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Critical Ops is a fast paced competitive online multiplayer FPS, tailored for touch devices, which delivers the nostalgic Counter Strike experience with two teams fight for dominance. The game is currently in open alpha on Android, iOS and Facebook.

During the game's preproduction, I was in charge of the project management, scheduling, leading and managing the development team, coordinating communication and development efforts between the on-site and off-site teams, PR & marketing, showcasing the game at Slush 2014, communicating with the players on the game's forum and social media channels, and securing smooth day-to-day operations.

Critical Ops won the Slush 2014 Big Indie Pitch! I pitched the game to 4 sets of judges, having 3 minutes of time to convince each set before receiving a minute of feedback and moving onto the next one.

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Company of Tanks brings competitive multiplayer tank shooter action to an online environment! Play real-time together with your friends or against them online on various battlefields and game modes. Customize and upgrade your tank to your liking and roll out onto the battlefield!

In Company of Tanks, I worked on bringing the game to Windows Phone 8. I was in charge of the project management, scheduling, reshaping the team's project management with Scrum, making sure the game's quality is up to industry standards with the available resources, planning PR & marketing activities for the Windows Phone 8 launch, communicating with the players on the game's social media channels, and handling day-to-day operations.

Company of Tanks available for free on Google Play here and Windows Phone 8 here.

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Critical Strike Portable is the most popular FPS game on mobile with over 30 million total downloads on Android alone! The game features customizable touch controls and cross-platform first-person shooter action against other players on Web, iOS and Android. Find out more at criticalstrikeportable.com!

I was responsible for the project management (Scrum) and scheduling for the game's post release updates, and organizing the CSP ESL Kick Off Cup Series and communicating with the players on the game's forum and social media channels.

Critical Strike Portable available for free on Google Play here, Apple App Store here and Web here.

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Huge Seal (a pun on the word “sale”) was a week long promotional campaign organized by Frozenbyte in which users could sign in to www.hugeseal.com with their Steam accounts and pick Steam Discount Coupons for 5 games from a list of 35 indie games.

I lead Huge Seal and was the producer, I approached and secured 26 internationally renowned indie developers, and communicated with them for codes, contracts, any questions etc. I also scheduled and handled the project management (Scrum + Hansoft), planned & executed the marketing strategy, interacted with our users via social media channels and email, and dealt with customer support.

The campaign was a great success for Frozenbyte and all the developers involved!

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Post Mortem

Trine 2: Complete Story is a physics based platformer with heavy emphasis on story book like aesthetics and stunning visuals. In the game you set off on adventure with the Three Heroes: Amadeus the Wizard, Pontius the Knight and Zoya the Thief. Each character has their own abilities to help solve the game's puzzles in different ways.

I was a Marketing Developer for the PS4 version of Trine 2: Complete Story which entailed showcasing the game at DigiExpo 2013, the biggest game expo in Finland (55 900+ visitors). I also worked on the marketing materials for the PS4 launch (screenshots, marketing assets, trailer), planned and executed the marketing strategy, and communicated with players on social media channels and with press close to the release of the game.

Trine 2: Complete Story was a PS4 launch title in both US and Europe and it has gotten a great amount of attention thanks to the stereoscopic 3D support and stunning visuals! It's available for PS4 here.

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Nordic Game Trip Organizer: I organized the trip to Nordic Game 2013 and 2014 for a group of game development students from our university. I contacted several game companies and secured funding for the trip, arranged flights and accommodations, secured a booth for us and oversaw that everything ran smoothly at the booth.

Finnish Game Jam Organizer: I was the head organizer of Finnish Game Jam 2013 at our site in Kajaani. I gave all relevant information regarding the game jam to the participants, communicated with the other organizers and jam sites, organized food and secured sponsorship for said food, organized the work spaces, coordinated the event supervisors and arranged the showcasing of games at the end of the game jam.

I was also an organizer in Finnish Game Jam 2014 and Finnish Game Jam 2015 at our site in Kajaani.

Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2014 Volunteer: I was a volunteer at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2014 where I helped organize the event, guided visitors to talks and set up the I Love Indie Showcase and assisted the indies showcasing their games there and got them anything they needed.