Andrew Sheppard
Welcome, Possibility Space
The team at Transcend have long admired the pioneering work of Jeff Strain, Founder and CEO of Possibility Space. Jeff has a storied, successful career in the games industry as the co-founder of ArenaNet (Guild Wars, acquired by NCsoft, 2002) and founder of Undead Labs (State of Decay, acquired by Microsoft, 2018).
Jeff and I first met over a decade ago when I was President of Worldwide Studios at Kabam. Jeff’s compassion, intelligence and business savvy permeate everything he does. He is a visionary that also knows how to build. We quickly became friends and have explored different ways of working together over the years.
Today Jeff announced Possibility Space as a studio built to create shared human experiences from a physically distributed team. Transcend is the only investor in Jeff’s new venture. We didn’t just invest in his vision for the future, but also the amazing team already gathering under this new studio’s banner.
Pulling talent in from all over the industry, Possibility Space’s early leadership and senior development team reads like a who’s who of video game industry veterans. Jane Ng (Campo Santo, Valve) joins as Visual Director; Austin Walker (Waypoint Media) is IP Director; Liz England (Ubisoft, Insomniac) is Simulation and Narrative Systems Director; Richard Foge (Undead Labs, ProbablyMonsters) joins as Design Director; Brandon Dillon (Oculus, Double Fine) is VP of Engineering; Leah Rivera (Undead Labs, ArenaNet) is Senior Narrative Systems Designer; Brian Jennings (NZXR, Magic Leap) is Technical Design Director; Charles Randall (Ubisoft, BioWare) and Erica Tam (Electronic Arts, Oculus) join as Senior Gameplay Engineers.
As a distributed studio based in New Orleans, Possibility Space is growing their already-impressive team by offering developers, producers, writers, and artists from all over the world the opportunity to join the studio. Between talent, vision, and industry-wide connections, this new studio is set to be the foundation of a new distributed gaming and tech ecosystem rooted in Louisiana.
As mentioned in their studio reveal IGN article, Possibility Space has big ambitious goals and the resources to match them. We’re excited for what Possibility Space is working on and can’t wait to see it revealed to the world when the team is ready to share it.
About Transcend Fund
Transcend is a top performing early stage venture capital firm that partners with the boldest founders in the industry to collaboratively build the future of interactive entertainment.
Founded in San Francisco by gaming veterans, the Transcend portfolio features a preeminent group of high growth digital entertainment companies around the world.
More information about Transcend can be found on our website. Follow us on LinkedIn for the latest news from around the Transcend ecosystem.
About Andrew Sheppard
Andrew is a strategist and seasoned executive focused on helping founders grow.
Andrew has over 20 years of experience building, managing and advising multi-billion dollar consumer businesses. Past employers include EA, Gamespot, Kabam and GREE. Andrew serves on the Board of Directors for Nexters and Rakuten Games. He has direct experience working in online media, social media game services, subscriptions, free-to-play, console games, online/PC games, mobile games and apps. His current focus areas include cross-platform games, Web3 and digital identities and communities.
Andrew is excited to put capital to work in service of companies that are passionate about reinventing the game.