Toomas Moskvinov | Game audio dev solutions for you!

Moving on in my game audio dev career

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What happened?

I decided to start out 2026 with leaving Massive Entertainment on the 1st of January after being offered to participate in a voluntary leave program back in 2025.

It was in the cards for me, given my seniority at the studio, and how things have evolved at Ubisoft over the last couple of years. It has definitely been one of the harder choices I've had to make in my career, since I had to give up a permanent position, and leave behind one of the best audio teams in the industry.

But now that I am reading all the recent news about Ubisoft going into large restructuring (with Massive having to lay off 50+ people), and more project cancellations, full return to office and several studio closures, I am certain it wasn't too bad of a time to clear my desk and go explore new options.

What now?

To be honest, I had a good run! I fulfilled a lifelong dream of working on Star Wars, I got to explore the fantastical world of James Cameron's Avatar, and I probably worked on the coolest pitch for a project that I sadly can't tell anyone anything about. And moving on now means that I've received a much needed opportunity to slow down, especially after working intensely for the past year on the latest expansion for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

The deal from Massive was fairly good, and I have the luxury of being on garden leave, which has graciously given me time to focus on improving my health, spending more time with my family and finding space to finish long overdue house projects. I also stepped up in my game as volunteer SysAdmin at my daughter's school, which has further improved my Linux skills, and I've finally dived back into my obsession with making deep Jungle music using only 90s rack gear and an Atari STE.

Next month, I will be participating in a sound design competition with some former colleagues, dive into more music making, focusing on my getting my Unreal skills into more advanced territory, and doing a week long game jam with some old boarding school friends that I've missed dearly. There are surely fun times ahead!

What's next?

I am in an excellent position, as I have financial backup to last me for the next half year, but obviously I am actively looking into new work. After being in‑house for my entire career so far, I’m taking this new adventure as an opportunity to explore freelancing within game dev. Surely an incredibly scary concept for someone with a family to feed - but equally very exciting at the same time!

It's an understatement that I am beyond grateful to already have people and former colleagues looking out for my back behind the curtains, putting in words with outsourcing companies and industry folks, and I've been very appreciative of already being in talks with some of them about future work.

Besides that I've been interviewing several times with the studio Rebel Wolves since December; unfortunately that didn't pan out in the end, although it definitely provided me with a confidence boost that helps to keep the mood positive going forward.

To give some additional context

I am only open to local or remote work due to being settled down with family - and relocation is not an option. The game dev audio field is already highly competitive, therefore any possibility to talk to someone is a good way to establish a relationship and potential work down the line.

Why am I on the Bear?

After being on WordPress and Wix in the past, I was simply looking for a static, fast, and no-nonsense lightweight solution to host a site related to work and also have a space for myself with an easy access to write a blog (which is frankly something I've wanted to do for a long time).

While I was initially looking into Hugo and self hosting, I came across Bear Blog, and I immediately fell in love with the concept and immediacy. It probably took less than a day for me to subscribe and support!

I am already getting inspired and subscribing to various blogs around the community here. I don't remember the last time I had this much fun creating a personal site (probably when I first learned about HTML and CSS back in the early MySpace days). And while I haven't written a blog in 10+ years then this is equally exciting as I have a lot of thoughts and things I'd like to share.

In the mean time, don't mind the mess or broken pages. It's all still very much in progress while I get settled in.

Who the hell am I?

Phew! I sincerely applaud you if you've gotten this far into my first blog post.

I am genuinely hoping to share more insights in the coming future and perhaps dive a bit into topics like game dev life and games, sound design, music, retro hardware/software and the likes.

Feel free to RSS sub for future posts and mail me for any questions!

#game dev #life