Human first
AI Gaming

Made
for humans
by humans

We are the newest venture backed AAA games studio in London. Our founding team is a mix of AAA games experience and AI expertise with founders who have worked on games like GTA, Star Wars, Just Cause, Sleeping Dogs and more and developed cutting edge AI tech at DeepMind, Meta AI Research and more. We aim to be at the forefront of AI empowered games, bringing experiences to players that weren't previously possible and enabling a small team to deliver big titles.

At five, John made his first game on a Commodore PET. He’s worked at Ninja Theory, Square Enix, and founded Oculus/Meta's London office. He’s led engineering and design at various companies, including building autonomous vehicles at FiveAI.
Favourite games: Total War Warhammer, Baldurs Gate, Skyrim, Civilization, The Long Dark
Gameography: Heavenly Sword, Just Cause 3, Sleeping Dogs, Life is Strange
JOHN LUSTY
John Lusty Founder & CEO
After investing in over a dozen gaming and technology companies, Junaid jumped to the other side of the table to start Iconic after seeing a generational opportunity to play games at the office all day...
Favourite games: Just Cause 3, Sleeping Dogs, Life is Strange
JUNAID HUSSAIN
Junaid Hussain Founder & President
Martin Connor joined the industry as a fresh faced sixteen-year-old, back in the mid-90's! Since then, he’s been designing games in some of the best studios in our industry including Rockstar North, Guerrilla Games & Playground Games.
Favourite games: Mortal Combat, Half Life, Ico, CS, What Remains of Edith Finch
Gameography: Grand Theft Auto IV, Killzone 3, Forza Horizon 3
MARTIN CONNOR
Martin Connor VP Design
Kieran has over 20 years in the games industry, including 7 years at NaturalMotion working on generative animation for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed with LucasArts. Recently, he founded two games and VR companies.
Favourite games: Command and Conquer, Left 4 Dead, Skyrim, World of Tanks
Gameography: Star Wars Force Awakens, Force Unleashed 2, Sniper Elite
KIERAN DONALDSON
Kieran Donaldson VP Engineering
With 25 years experience in games and interactive software, Johnny has created works enjoyed by millions, such as Football Manager, SingStar, PlayStation Home, and EyeToy. He has also filed design patents for giants like Microsoft and Sony.
JOHNNY VEN
Johnny Venables VP Art
Prof. Andrew Blake was Research Dir. at The Alan Turing Institute and Laboratory Dir. at Microsoft Research. An academic for 18 years at Oxford, he pioneered theories and algorithms allowing computers to function as seeing machines.
ANDREW BLAKE
Prof. Andrew Blake Prof. of Machine Intelligence Uni. of Cambridge
Phil has 20+ years in the games industry from start-ups to multinationals. He was Eidos CEO in 2008 and led Square Enix’s western business until 2022. He’s now Chief Strategy Officer for Embracer Group and CEO of their 12th operating group.
PHIL ROGERS
Phil Rogers CSO Embracer Group
Michael built NBC Universal International Studios into a global content powerhouse. He was one of the original Executive Producers of Desperate Housewives and launched the multi-billion-dollar CSI franchise for CBS Entertainment.
MICHAEL EDELSTEIN
Michael Edelstein Former Pres. NBCUniversal
Chris has 20+ years in the games industry, leading Disney and NBCUniversal’s games businesses. He helped build franchises like Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and Jurassic World. Based in Los Angeles, he advises startups and major media companies.
CHRIS HEATHERLY
Chris Heatherly EVP The Walt Disney Co.
Professor of Cognitive Robotics at Imperial College London, specialising in generative AI and philosophy of mind. He advised on Ex Machina and authored books like "Embodiment and the Inner Life" and "The Technological Singularity".
MURRAY SHANAHAN
Prof. Murray Shanahan AI Content Consultant
Alba graduated from Cambridge with a double first in Computer Science & Management. During her internship she worked on Returnal for PC and developed a real-time ocean rendering engine for her dissertation, earning a Highly Commended Prize.
Favourite games: Journey, The Last of Us
Gameography: Returnal
ALBA NAVARRO ROSALES
Alba Navarro Rosales Founding Engineer
He completed his PhD in ML at Imperial Coll. London, focusing on embodied AI agents. He led research at Sony AI and Meta, impacting gaming, autonomous driving, advertising and satellite imagery. He was named 35 Under 35 by Santander–CIDOB.
Favourite games: Mount & Blade II, The Witcher III, Total War: Warhammer, Skyrim
BORJA GONZALEZ LEON
Dr. Borja Gonzalez Leon Principal Scientist AI
Andy is a Senior Software Engineer with over 20 years professional experience in the games industry. He’s released dozens of games, working on everything from UI to AI to networking for pretty much every console and platform going.
Favourite games: Populous II, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The Secret of Monkey Island, WoW
Gameography: Black Hawk Down, Carmageddon Max Damage, Viva Piñata
ANDY EARLE
Andy Earle Engineer
Jeff, a Canadian who has lived in 10 countries, began his career at EA Games in Switzerland. After earning his MBA at London Business School, he worked at Lakestar, a top European VC firm, for two years before joining Iconic.
Favourite games: Runescape, WoW, Skyrim, Witcher 3 & Baldur's Gate 3
JEFF FORREST
Jeffrey Forrest Commercial Director
Mikel became the world’s youngest Kaggle Grandmaster at 17, then ranked the #1 data scientist in the UK. He graduated from Computer Science at the Uni. of Cambridge, where he achieved a starred first in his BA and a distinction in his MEng.
Favourite games: Life is Strange, Hades, Nier: Automata, Dishonored
MIKEL BOBER IRIZAR
Mikel Bober-Irizar Founding Engineer
Simon began his journey as a level designer at Rockstar, and over many, many years, he’s evolved into a creative-tech hybrid—balancing the art and science of game development with a hint of mischief!
Favourite games: Ico, Walkabout Golf, Fortnite & Minecraft
Gameography: Manhunt, GTA San Andreas & 4, Prince of Persia, Killzone 4 & Hitman 2
SIMON LASHLEY
Simon Lashley Principal Game Architect
With a blend of creative and technical skills, Brad’s background spans 3D artistry, game development, and AI simulation. Bridging artistic vision and technical execution, Brad specializes in shaders, graphics, and workflow optimizations.
Favourite games: Majora's Mask, Half Life 2, The Last of Us
BRAD SCOTT
Brad Scott Senior Technical Artist
Voldy began his journey in 2016, studying Games Development. He later earned a degree in Game Art from Escape Studios, specializing in Props and Environment Art. His final group project won Best Games Project of 2022 at Escape Studios.
Favourite games: The Simpsons Hit & Run, Persona 4 & Euro Truck Simulator 2
VOLDY TOMAS
Voldy Tomas Associate Artist
Marcus’ background is an eclectic mix of Game Development, Music, and Mixed Reality, spanning over 20 years in leadership roles at EA, SEGA, to Behaviour & Zynga, to being the founder of Microsoft’s Hololens studio in London.
Favourite games: HalfLife2, Limbo, Left4Dead, Portal, Dead Space, Horizon5
Gameography: Army of Two, Fallout Shelter, Ascent
MARCUS FIELDING
Marcus Fielding Advisor

Launching 2025

Awaiting transmission...

Spaceship ext lr

Be Iconic

An AI first games studio
We embrace AI to enhance creativity, not replace it. We're a small studio with a vision of delivering bigger, better games with unprecedented experiences. We've formed a team of AAA developers and AI/ML specialists to make this a reality.
Every employee is an owner
We believe in fairness and ownership. Every employee has skin in the game and shares in the company. When we're successful, everyone shares in the rewards. We operate profit-sharing schemes so everyone benefits on our collective journey.
London’s newest AAA studio
We are a hybrid workplace valuing flexibility, but game creation thrives on collaboration. Our offices are designed for us to meet, collaborate and unleash creativity, with break-out areas, consoles, retro games and a stocked snack kitchen.

Principal Technical Designer

We’re looking for a Principal Technical Designer to join our team. You should have a passion for building and playing games and extensive, broad and deep understanding of the design and technical aspects of their creation.

Responsibilities

  • Work closely with the design team, contributing to the game design.
  • Identify technical challenges and opportunities to innovate.
  • Champion the use of generative AI to enhance rather than replace human creativity in the studio.
  • Rapidly experiment and prototype to prove new features and gameplay.
  • Support the engineering teams and help to devise truly innovative and new types of gameplay to our players.
  • Mentor, coach and guide juniors in the studio.
  • Use Unreal Engine 5 to design, whitebox, validate, iterate, and polish game worlds that deliver valuable experiences to players.
  • Regularly play the game and provide constructive feedback to other members of the team.

Experience Wanted

  • Shipped at least two prominent titles.
  • Well developed communication skills.
  • Boundless creativity and strong visual aesthetic.
  • Strong critical and analytical thinking.
  • Strong knowledge of game design, design theory, existing game mechanics, and how they interact with level design.
  • Ability to learn new tools and workflows.
  • A passion for games and for making games. With a wealth of knowledge across a wide range of games.

Bonus Points For

  • Experience working on open world games.
  • Shipped a title using Unreal Engine 5.

About Iconic Games

Iconic Games are a new AAA studio funded by venture capital and angel investors. Founded by veterans of AAA games and AI experts. We’re seeking to be the first adoptees and proponents of generative AI to allow a small team to dream bigger and deliver amazing experiences to our players. We’re a hybrid company that cares about it’s people. We have offices in London and most of the team come into the offices at least three times a week.

We offer all our employees:

  • Equity, every employee owns part of the company
  • Generous bonus scheme that sees game profit shared with the team
  • Comprehensive health, vision and dental insurance
  • 25 days a year paid holiday
  • Contribution to pension scheme
  • Hybrid flexible working
  • An incredible collaborative team

APPLY AT HELLO@ICONICGAMES.AI

Principal Technical Designer

Senior Game Engineer

As one of the first engineers in a small but growing team you’ll have the opportunity to work across the game as we build the first proof of concept. You’ll be able to contribute not just technically but creatively too in a studio that doesn’t just talk about collaboration in job interviews. We value proactivity and as a senior engineer you’ll design and take game systems from concept to release as well as helping to shape engineering and company culture.

Responsibilities

  • Working mainly in C++ to deliver game systems.
  • Champion a strong and practical software engineering approach.
  • Own complex initiatives spanning, leading from start to finish.
  • Advocate for the adoption of AI in ways that help enhance human creativity, not replace it.
  • Understand the full game dev process, and flexibly fill gaps.
  • Collaborate with your cross-disciplinary peers. Communicate clearly both synchronously and asynchronously.
  • Coach and mentor junior staff.

Experience Wanted

  • Demonstrable C++ expertise.
  • Worked on at least 3 shipped games.
  • Ability to understand the technical requirements for the game and deliver them.
  • Great communication. Comfortable specifying a task with designers, collaborating on a shared codebase with engineers, giving and receiving feedback.
  • Understand when a rapid prototype is needed to quickly test an idea and when a system needs detailed planning and design.
  • An understanding of the human elements of software engineering: empathy, compassion, and patience.
  • A curiosity for learning new tools, technologies, and ways of working.
  • A love of video games.

Bonus Points For

  • Knowledge of multiple game systems and their potential advantages and pitfalls.
  • Shipped titles on UE4/UE5.
  • Worked on at least one open world title.

About Iconic Games

Iconic Games are a new AAA studio funded by venture capital and angel investors. Founded by veterans of AAA games and AI experts. We’re seeking to be the first adoptees and proponents of generative AI to allow a small team to dream bigger and deliver amazing experiences to our players. We’re a hybrid company that cares about it’s people. We have offices in London and most of the team come into the offices at least three times a week.

We offer all our employees:

  • Equity, every employee owns part of the company
  • Generous bonus scheme that sees game profit shared with the team
  • Comprehensive health, vision and dental insurance
  • 25 days a year paid holiday
  • Contribution to pension scheme
  • Hybrid flexible working
  • An incredible collaborative team

APPLY AT HELLO@ICONICGAMES.AI

Senior Game Engineer

Game Designer

We’re looking for an Open World Designer to join our team in London. You will need boundless creativity to fill our game worlds with believable and exciting content, creating unforgettable gaming experiences for our players. You will be responsible for designing and implementing open-world environments that align with the game’s creative vision and technical requirements.

Responsibilities

  • Maintaining the highest possible quality of open world content and fixing reported bugs.
  • Champion a cohesive design vision that upholds the game’s pillars.
  • Develop and oversee the rules and metrics for gameplay spaces.
  • Cooperate with other departments.
  • Create and maintaining documentation.
  • Use Unreal Engine 5 to design, whitebox, validate, iterate, and polish game worlds that deliver valuable experiences to players.
  • Regularly play the game and provide constructive feedback to other members of the team.

Experience Wanted

  • Shipped at least two prominent titles.
  • Well developed communication skills.
  • Boundless creativity and strong visual aesthetic.
  • Strong critical and analytical thinking.
  • Strong knowledge of game design, design theory, existing game mechanics, and how they interact with level design.
  • Ability to learn new tools and workflows.
  • A passion for games and for making games. With a wealth of knowledge across a wide range of games.

Bonus Points For

  • Experience working on open world games.
  • Shipped a title using Unreal Engine 5.

About Iconic Games

Iconic Games are a new AAA studio funded by venture capital and angel investors. Founded by veterans of AAA games and AI experts. We’re seeking to be the first adoptees and proponents of generative AI to allow a small team to dream bigger and deliver amazing experiences to our players. We’re a hybrid company that cares about it’s people. We have offices in London and most of the team come into the offices at least three times a week.

We offer all our employees:

  • Equity, every employee owns part of the company
  • Generous bonus scheme that sees game profit shared with the team
  • Comprehensive health, vision and dental insurance
  • 25 days a year paid holiday
  • Contribution to pension scheme
  • Hybrid flexible working
  • An incredible collaborative team

APPLY AT HELLO@ICONICGAMES.AI

Game Designer

Principal Technical Artist

As the Principal Technical Artist you will be responsible for analyzing game content and levels from a performance standpoint and setting budgets, standards, and best practices for cutting edge real-time projects resulting in the highest quality content running at target framerates on target hardware. Everyone who joins Iconic becomes an owner of the studio with a meaningful percentage of company stock, giving you real skin in the game!

Responsibilities

  • Drive improvements and maintain the toolchain for art asset creation and optimization that meet the team’s needs.
  • Innovate techniques in asset creation that get the best visual results from the target platform.
  • Instigate high-level art-related decisions throughout the development cycle regarding art-related project risks.
  • Train other artists in best practices, tools and processes.
  • Optimize scenes and assets and find creative solutions to ensure an optimal player experience.
  • Research and implement technical improvements to our pipeline.
  • Advocate for the adoption of AI in ways that help enhance human creativity, not replace it.
  • Provide technical tools and guidance to ensure art assets meet performance and quality standards.
  • Coach and mentor junior staff.

Experience Wanted

  • Shipped at least one title as a technical artist.
  • Worked on at least three AAA titles.
  • Strong foundational artistic skills.
  • A portfolio of work demonstrating artistic direction and high competency creating asset for AAA games.
  • Strong communication skills.

Bonus Points For

  • Shipped titles on UE4/UE5.
  • Worked on at least one open world title.

About Iconic Games

Iconic Games are a new AAA studio funded by venture capital and angel investors. Founded by veterans of AAA games and AI experts. We’re seeking to be the first adoptees and proponents of generative AI to allow a small team to dream bigger and deliver amazing experiences to our players. We’re a hybrid company that cares about it’s people. We have offices in London and most of the team come into the offices at least three times a week.

We offer all our employees:

  • Equity, every employee owns part of the company
  • Generous bonus scheme that sees game profit shared with the team
  • Comprehensive health, vision and dental insurance
  • 25 days a year paid holiday
  • Contribution to pension scheme
  • Hybrid flexible working
  • An incredible collaborative team

APPLY AT HELLO@ICONICGAMES.AI

Principal Technical Artist

Principal Animator

Responsibilities

  • Collaborate closely with the Creative Director, Art Director and wider team to define the animation style of our game.
  • Set a clear animation vision as well as quality targets, leading with hands-on craft and providing feedback and notes as needed.
  • Embrace AI as a way to enhance human creativity, not replace it.
  • Explore and define animated action sequences with cinematic camera work.
  • Create animation assets for highly iterative gameplay prototypes.
  • Develop and refine Style and Process Guides
  • Constantly champion animation as a way to enhance the player’s experience, always seeking new, innovative ways to push the envelope.
  • Coach and mentor junior staff.

Experience Wanted

  • Shipped at least one title as a animator.
  • Worked on at least three AAA titles.
  • Strong foundational artistic skills.
  • A portfolio of work demonstrating artistic direction and high competency creating asset for AAA games.
  • Strong communication skills.

Bonus Points For

  • Shipped titles on UE4/UE5.
  • Worked on at least one open world title.

About Iconic Games

Iconic Games are a new AAA studio funded by venture capital and angel investors. Founded by veterans of AAA games and AI experts. We’re seeking to be the first adoptees and proponents of generative AI to allow a small team to dream bigger and deliver amazing experiences to our players. We’re a hybrid company that cares about it’s people. We have offices in London and most of the team come into the offices at least three times a week.

We offer all our employees:

  • Equity, every employee owns part of the company
  • Generous bonus scheme that sees game profit shared with the team
  • Comprehensive health, vision and dental insurance
  • 25 days a year paid holiday
  • Contribution to pension scheme
  • Hybrid flexible working
  • An incredible collaborative team

APPLY AT HELLO@ICONICGAMES.AI

Principal Animator

Keep updated

We'll let you know of any announcements

News

04.29.2024

Martin joins the team

A momentous day as we welcome player 9 to the team. Martin Connor started as a fresh-faced 16-year-old in the mid-90s! He’s designed games at top studios like Rockstar North, Guerrilla, & Playground Games. Recently, he co-founded Sharkmob London, growing it to 100+ developers. Welcome to Iconic, Player 8!

02.19.2024

Say hello to Borja

We're delighted to announce that Borja González León will be joining us in the new year after completing his PhD in Machine Learning at Imperial College London, with a focus on embodied AI agents. Alongside his doctorate, Borja spent much of this year working on in-game AI as a research scientist at Sony AI, following a stint at Meta in applied ML research. Welcome, Borja!

01.11.2024

Welcome Player 6!

Mikel has been part-time with us while traveling the world. In January, he joined full-time! A Cambridge grad with a starred first in Computer Science BA and distinction in MEng, he's interned at Apple, Jump Trading, and ForecomAI. At 17, he was the youngest Kaggle Grandmaster. Welcome, Player 6!

12.08.2023

Welcome aboard Alba!

Iconic’s first founding engineer, Alba, joined us in December after graduating from Cambridge in Computer Science. She won a highly commended award for her final year project on a rendering engine and water simulation system for games. Alba also worked on Returnal at Climax. Welcome aboard, Alba!

09.22.2023

Unveiling our advisors

Announcing our Board of Advisors! Join us in welcoming:
Andrew Blake - machine intelligence pioneer and Microsoft Distinguished Scientist
Phil Rogers - Chief Strategy Officer at Embracer Group
Chris Heatherly - former gaming SVP at Disney
Michael Edelstein - former President of NBCUniversal International Studios

07.15.2023

Piotr joins the team

Piotr joins Iconic full-time as a founder and VP of Applied AI. He’s led AI and animation for The Witcher II at CD Projekt Red and worked on reinforcement learning at DeepMind and Meta AI. At Iconic, he heads applied AI, enhancing developer workflows and player experiences. Welcome, Piotr!

05.01.2023

Kieran joins the team

After 22 years at Rebellion, Kieran is now leading his own venture as a founding member of Iconic, a studio set to disrupt the AAA games space. He’s had an illustrious career, working on core AI and generative animation at NaturalMotion and games like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Welcome, Kieran!

03.23.2023

Iconic founded

Iconic was founded to create a new kind of game studio, using AI to enhance human creativity. Despite doubts at GDC, where many said a new AAA studio would need $100M and that AI wouldn’t change anything, we believed otherwise. We aim to lead this change, offering better games and real ownership for developers.