Jon Burton is a British video game designer, director, and programmer. He is the founder of development studio Traveller's Tales and its parent company TT Games.
Jon Burton | |
|---|---|
| Born | Winchester, Hampshire, England |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1989–present |
| Employers |
|
Burton founded Traveller's Tales in 1989. He worked as a designer on Puggsy, Mickey Mania, Sonic 3D Blast, the Lego Star Wars series, Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue, and A Bug's Life and has served as programmer for many of their early games.[1]
Career
editBurton founded Traveller's Tales in late 1989 and served as creative director of the games. His first game as designer, Leander, was in 1991; next was Puggsy in 1993. The game enabled Traveller's Tales to expand the company and develop games with bigger companies. In 1994, Traveller's Tales developed Mickey Mania for Disney, initiating a long relationship with the company; Disney later hired them to develop tie-in games for many of its properties. Starting in 1995, Sega contracted the company to develop two Sonic the Hedgehog games, Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic R. He also served as creative director and lead designer of Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex. Next, he was served as creative director, lead designer, and writer of the action-adventure video game Haven: Call of the King, which sequels to the game was planned to be a trilogy, but it was cancelled due to the game's commercial failure.
Burton announced in 2005 that Traveller's Tales would merge with Giant Interactive Entertainment to form parent company TT Games. He served as creative director of the Lego Star Wars series based on the toy line of the same name and the film franchise. In 2007, Burton and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced that they had purchased TT Games and Traveller's Tales for an undisclosed amount as part of their expansion into the video game industry.[2] Burton served as creative director for both Lego Batman: The Videogame and its sequel, Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes. In 2013, Burton wrote the original story for, produced, and directed Lego Batman: The Movie – DC Super Heroes Unite based on the Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes video game. He also wrote the story for Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham alongside David A. Goodman, which was released in November 2014. Also, Burton worked as an executive producer for the Warner Bros. 2014 film The Lego Movie and as a producer of the 2015 war thriller film Man Down. His latest game, Lego Dimensions, was released on 27 September 2015; Burton served as creative director, lead designer, and co-writer on this game.
In 2017, Burton began uploading videos demonstrating programming tricks and early prototypes of games that he worked on to his YouTube channel, GameHut,[3] and has since created a new channel called Coding Secrets for the same content, in 2020. In October 2017, Burton announced that he would be creating an unofficial director's cut of the Sega Genesis version of Sonic 3D Blast, which was released in December 2017.[4]
In August 2021, Burton co-founded 10:10 Games, a studio developing Funko Fusion, after he left Traveller's Tales in 2019.[5]
Personal life
editHe currently lives in Malibu, California.[6][non-primary source needed] Burton is a practicing Christian and included an Ichthys as an Easter egg in one of the tracks in Sonic R.[7]
Works
editVideo games
editFilms
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director | Producer | Writer | |||
| 2013 | Lego Batman: The Movie – DC Super Heroes Unite | Yes | Yes | Story | Direct-to-video |
| 2014 | The Lego Movie | No | Executive | No | |
| 2015 | Man Down | No | Yes | No | |
| 2017 | The Lego Batman Movie | No | Co-producer | No | |
| 2019 | The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part | No | Co-producer | No | |
References
edit- ^ Wallis, Alistair. "Playing Catch Up: Traveller's Tales' Jon Burton". Gamasutra. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
- ^ "Warner Bros. buys TT Games". Eurogamer. 8 November 2007.
- ^ Wales, Matt (3 October 2017). "How one Mega Drive dev cheekily slipped through Sega's certification process". Eurogamer. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
- ^ Wales, Matt (13 October 2017). "Sonic 3D's original developer is creating an unofficial Director's Cut". Eurogamer. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
- ^ Makuch, Eddie (25 April 2023). "Former Lego Devs Reveals Funko Mash-Up Game With Jurassic World, Back To The Future, And More". GameSpot. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
- ^ https://www.facebook.com/jontt/about [user-generated source]
- ^ DidYouKnowGaming? (28 February 2018), Sonic R's Religious Easter Egg - Did You Know Gaming? Feat. Greg, archived from the original on 15 December 2021, retrieved 12 March 2018