Support & Help

How to use The Hatchery talent explorer

Navigation

Sub-nav

Switch between four views using the gold bar: Skills (skills as primary nodes), People (developers as primary nodes), Companies (studios from work history as primary nodes), Locations (countries as primary nodes with cities).

Filter bar

Filter by node type (Skills, Developers, Companies, Locations) to focus the visualisation. Use Open to Work and Freelance filters to show only available talent.

Type in the search box to find people by name, role, skill, or company. The visualisation highlights matches and dims everything else.

Interacting with the Visualisation

Click

Click any node to open its detail panel in the sidebar. Skills show matching developers, Companies show their team, People show their full profile with video, experience, and stats.

Hover

Hover over any node to see its name and highlight its connections. Related nodes stay bright while unconnected nodes dim.

Drag

Click and drag any node to reposition it. The network adjusts around it in real-time.

Zoom

Scroll to zoom in and out. Click and drag the background to pan around the network.

Node Colours

Skill — disciplines, tools, and areas of expertise

Open to work — actively looking for opportunities

Freelance — available for contract and project work

Employed — currently in a role

Company — studios and organisations

Game — shipped titles from credits

Country — geographic grouping

Developer Profiles

Profile

Video showcase, role, location, years of experience, bio, skills, shipped titles, social links, and availability preferences.

Experience

Timeline of work history sorted by date, with studio, role, project, and duration. Current roles are highlighted with a gold dot.

Stats

Quick overview: years of experience, games shipped, number of skills, and companies worked at.

Editing Your Profile

Click Sign in to edit in the nav bar (top right). Enter the email you registered with and we'll send you a magic link. Click the link in your email — it will sign you in and open your profile in edit mode automatically. No password needed.

Edit

If you're already signed in, click your name in the visualisation to open your profile, then click Edit. You can only edit your own profile.

Fields

Edit name, location, status, bio, disciplines (with area of focus), skills, tools, shipped titles, video URL, social links, and work history. All fields match the intake form structure.

Add / Remove

Disciplines, shipped titles, social links, and work history entries can be added with + Add buttons and removed with the × button on each row.

Dates

Work history uses month and year dropdowns for start and end dates. Leave the end date blank if it's a current role.

Save

Click Save Changes to push updates back to the database. A status indicator shows saving progress. The visualisation rebuilds automatically after a successful save.

Cancel

Click Cancel to discard changes and return to the profile view. Unsaved edits are lost.

Session

Your edit session lasts 1 hour. After that, request a new link. You can sign out at any time from the nav bar.

Contact

For questions, issues, or to request your profile be added or removed, email woundedbirdgames@gmail.com

The Hatchery

Be seen for the work you've actually done.

A free, visual talent network for the games industry. Explore the people, skills, studios and shipped titles as one living map, not a stack of CVs. Here's what you can do with it.

For everyone

Explore

The whole industry as one living map

Skills, people, studios and shipped games are nodes you move through, not rows you scroll. See who overlaps with whom, and why. It reads the way the work actually connects people, so the right person is something you find, not a keyword you guess.

Pick a view from the gold bar, then click any node to open it.

The Hatchery network map: a cloud of connected nodes for skills, people, studios and games.

Find people by what they can do

Search by name, role, skill or studio and the map lights up the matches, dimming everything else. Click one skill and everyone who has it appears.

Type in the search box, or open Search for a focused view.

Profiles that show the real thing

Every profile carries a short video, role, location, experience, shipped titles and links, the context a CV keyword can't.

Click anyone in the network to open their full profile.

See who's available at a glance

Availability is colour-coded across the whole map, so you can filter to just the people who are actually open before you spend a second reading.

Green is open to work, gold is freelance, grey is employed.

For developers

One link that looks the part everywhere

Post your profile anywhere and it unfurls into a proper preview card on LinkedIn, Slack and the rest, so people see who you are before they even click. Free, no install, no new password. Add a video and your links and you're findable for the work you've actually shipped.

Open your profile and hit Share to copy your link.

Join in two minutes, free

No install, no new password, no cost. Add your profile, drop in a video and your links, and be findable for the work you've actually shipped, by recruiters, studios and other devs.

Click + Add Profile and fill in the form. That's it.

Sign in with a link, keep it current

No password to forget. Enter your email, click the link we send, and your profile opens ready to edit. Update your work, skills and availability whenever you like.

Click Sign in to edit, top right, and check your inbox.

Your data stays yours

Entered by you, controlled by you, never scraped. No LinkedIn import — your profile represents you. Your email is only ever used to sign in, and you can edit or remove your profile any time.

For recruiters

Shortlist from people, not paperwork

Build a shortlist straight from the network, add private notes, and see the shared studios and games that suggest someone's the real deal. Export it as a clean PDF when you're ready to share.

Recruiter access is coming soon — get in touch if you're interested.

Real overlaps, not degrees of separation

We surface earned connections, the studios and titles people actually worked on together, over collected contacts. Two people who shipped the same game have real common ground.

Click a game or studio to see everyone connected to it.

Looking for someone specific?

Start from a skill or a shipped title and let the network do the narrowing. It gets richer every time a new developer joins.

About Wounded Bird Games

Together we rise.

Our Mission

Wounded Bird Games is building a global community to amplify the talent in the game industry and help connect developers with other developers, players, and recruiters. We are looking to demystify the games industry and make it easier for developers to find jobs, studios, collaborators, and projects that they love.

The Hatchery

The Hatchery is our talent platform — an interactive tool that maps the skills, experience, and connections across the games industry. It gives recruiters a visual way to find the right people, and gives developers a way to be seen beyond a CV. Submit your profile, record a short video, and join the network.

Meet the Team

Lauren Stone

Lauren Stone is the Creative Director of Wounded Bird Games. She is a freelance writer and director represented by Linx in the UK and has been described as a physical manifestation of militant decency.

Lisa Dovichi

Lisa Dovichi is Lauren's Chaos Coordinator. A Jane of all trades, she is an excellent artist, writer and editor.

Will Musson

Will Musson is the production and tech wizard you never knew you needed. An industry vet, producer and programmer with over 30 years in games, there's no problem too impossible for him to solve.

Contact

woundedbirdgames@gmail.com

Last updated: May 2026

Who We Are

The Hatchery is operated by Wounded Bird Games. This policy explains how we collect, use, and protect personal data submitted through the platform.

What We Collect

When you submit a profile, we collect: your name, email address, location (city and country), professional biography, work history, skills, tools, shipped titles, social/portfolio links, availability status, and an optional video URL. Your email address is used solely for authentication (magic link sign-in) and is never displayed publicly or shared with third parties.

How We Use It

Your profile data is displayed on The Hatchery to help recruiters, studios, and other developers discover talent in the games industry. This is the core purpose of the platform. We do not sell your data, use it for advertising, or share it with third parties beyond what is visible on the platform itself.

Lawful Basis

We process your data based on your consent, given when you submit your profile through the intake form. You can withdraw consent at any time by requesting removal.

Data Storage

Profile data is stored in a Supabase database (Postgres) and served via a Netlify-hosted web application. Authentication tokens are temporary (1-hour expiry) and stored in the database. Your browser's session storage holds only a reference to your active session.

Your Rights

Under UK and EU GDPR, you have the right to access, correct, or delete your personal data. You can edit your profile at any time by signing in with your registered email. To request full deletion, email woundedbirdgames@gmail.com and we will remove your data within 30 days.

Cookies & Local Storage

The Hatchery uses session storage for authentication state and local storage for a one-time welcome message dismissal. We do not use tracking cookies, analytics, or any third-party tracking scripts.

Third-Party Services

The platform uses Supabase (database hosting), GeoNames (location autocomplete), and may embed videos from YouTube, Vimeo, or Google Drive when provided by developers. Magic link emails are sent via Gmail. These services have their own privacy policies.

Contact

For privacy-related questions or data requests, email woundedbirdgames@gmail.com

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