Our Mission

Feature Creep. Hiring. Crunch. Burnout. Bugs. Delays. Layoffs.

We know the score. The game industry is plagued by some contentious issues. This is not fine.

Many of these problems appear to be solvable by growing your team, but that also comes with some pretty big risks. Not to mention that hiring the right people is a time consuming process.

Keep your internal team lean and mean. Shipwright's expert resources will make it possible to accomplish your goals in a way that is sustainable for your company in the long term.

Customer Focus

Our client relationships are our top priority. That’s why they trust us for our attention to detail and ability to identify common pain points before they become an issue. Our clients keep coming back because they know they can count on us. 

keep it relevant

Our customers make games. Part of understanding what they need is being familiar with their products, competitors, and influences, as well as staying on top of industry trends and new titles. We play games. We watch movies. We discuss the fine points of popular media. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

Eye On The Prize

We take pride in our work and we're always looking for opportunities to impress. We identify areas where we can be of further assistance, and always go the extra mile to win hearts and blow minds. We demonstrate value every chance we get.

Meet The Founders

3 veterans. 25 titles. Over 50 years of experience.

Joe Russo

Beginning his career at Sony Online Entertainment, Joe cut his teeth on Everquest, working his way up through the ranks to become a Lead Systems Designer on Everquest II. After spending some time at n-Space, he eventually landed at CCP North America where he put his considerable talents to work as a Senior Technical Game Designer on World of Darkness and Sparc. When the opportunity to build something new presented itself, he jumped in with both feet. If you ask his kids, you’ll find him in such leading roles, as “Head Designer” on Maneater.

David Dearing

Starting as a Programmer in 2002, David spent Act 1 of his career in the Los Angeles area, shipping several titles including Call of Duty: Finest Hour with Spark Unlimited, and The Saboteur for Pandemic Studios. In Act 2, he joined CCP North America in 2010 where he worked on the never-to-be World of Darkness MMO. At Xaviant, he pitched The Culling and saw it in to Steam Early Access before departing to build something he could call his own with Shipwright.

Jim Weinhart

Starting in QA at High Voltage Studios, Jim quickly distinguished himself and moved into Design. After shipping an impressive list of titles, he eventually made the move to Xaviant where he blossomed from Lead Systems Designer to Lead Gameplay Programmer during his time working on Lichdom: Battlemage. In 2016, he finally jumped ship in order to found Shipwright. Long walks on the beach are off the menu, but you’ll either find him in the hot tub, or in the basement keeping busy with one of his many hobbies.

Moral Compass

STEM fields are notoriously unwelcoming for many demographics, but women and minorities are notably underrepresented in game industry as a whole, and game programming in particular. As a small business owned by three white men, we are not blind to the luxury of being able to keep our “politics” separate from our work, as well as personal lives. But for many of our friends and colleagues, “politics” are not some easily ignorable distraction.

As an industry, we can do better and we must.

While we don’t have the power to change the industry as a whole, we do have the power to change the way we conduct our business with it. We are ready to put our money where our mouth is and lend our voice to further causes that promote diversity and inclusion, preferring to work with clients working towards the same goals which only serve to enrich the industry to which we have devoted the entirety of our careers.