Cliffhanger Profile: Matt Allen

Cliffhanger is home to not one but two Matt Allens, both of whom worked at Monolith before joining Cliffhanger during the studio’s earliest stages. Today’s Matthew Allen is our Senior Director of Technical Art and the proud leader of a growing team. If you’re interested in joining, see our Careers page for available opportunities!?

Career So Far

“Before Cliffhanger, I only ever worked at Monolith, so I had spent 25 years at the same place, which in games is a little weird, I think. But for me, being able to build teams and relationships so that they are continuous is a huge advantage. That’s one of the great things about Cliffhanger: some of those folks, like the guy who first hired me at Monolith, are on my team. The guy who was the lead engineer on my first project is the studio head. So it was always a no-brainer to work through any problems with these folks I knew rather than look around and be like, ‘Oh, it would be easier over there.’ It’s never easier. Games are hard, so make it work with these folks – and we did. In an industry where people are constantly moving around, I think that gives us a huge advantage.”

About Your Role

“I get to solve brand-new-to-the-world problems, like, every other day. It’s always new. The thing I like the most, and the thing that has kept me going, is that every day, there’s a problem I get to creatively solve with really smart folks. And that push, you know, never feeling comfortable but always feeling like you get to push and learn and build new skill sets – that happens all the time, and that’s huge for me. Hands down, that’s the thing I love about this.

I’ll dive into and try to fix anything – and it’s not just like, ‘Here’s a game problem, here’s a visual problem, here’s a design problem, here’s a technical problem.’ For a chunk of my life, I was a studio head and executive producer trying to solve team problems. And I still build teams. For me, it’s always been: if there’s an issue or something that can be fixed, I want to get in and fix it, and I want people on the team to feel responsible and feel able to fix anything they see. So I think those two things overlap quite a bit: the ‘always new problems’ that need to be fixed and a willingness to try to fix anything.”

Life At Cliffhanger

“The first CliffCon was incredible. My team is in Edmonton, Mexico City, San Francisco, LA... I’d never met members of my team face to face, and having this yearly convention where we all get together… it was incredible. The thing that’s been super great is people like Jeryce or Matt Aldridge or Ricardo or Taryn – these folks come in and are force-multipliers for the team. They bring a different viewpoint but also the same amount of passion that we have, and it’s just been really nice to be like, ‘Oh, it doesn’t have to be these folks I’ve worked with for 20, 30 years. Here are new folks who fit perfectly and are just as passionate and are just as wonderful to work with.’ And all of a sudden I’m a better developer than I have been in decades because of these adds. That’s been really pleasant.”

Thank you to Matt for speaking with us! As always, visit the Cliffhanger website to learn more about the studio and our open roles.