Vincent Scheurer
Vincent Scheurer
Vincent is a qualified lawyer and started his career in video games as in-house counsel at Europress Software Ltd. He then went on to leading international firm, Osborne Clarke, working on their games industry client roster, before starting his own firm, Sarassin LLP, in 2004, specialising in business and legal advice for games companies, including Rebellion, NaturalMotion and Avalanche. He is one of the founders of TIGA. In 2013, Vincent co-founded Payload Studios, a British award-winning independent games studio with Russ Clarke to develop the ultimate exploration sandbox game – TerraTech. TerraTech is an open-world, sandbox adventure game, where you design and build your own creations through a mix of crafting, combat and discovery. Russ and Vincent now lead a team of 40+ passionate developers with an even mix of new graduates and industry veterans, with a strong track record in PC, console and mobile. In February 2021 Payload Studios announced that Tencent, a leading internet and technology company, has invested a minority stake in Payload. This investment will support the growth of the team and development of future titles. Vincent was instrumental in creating The Tentacle Zone, an independent developer network created by Payload Studios in 2015. The Tentacle Zone offers shared office space to game businesses in the Payload offices in Farringdon, London, as well as a programme of support for residents including weekly talks, events, networking sessions, and access to Payload’s award winning incubator programme for underrepresented groups. The Tentacle Zone now boasts 8 full-time residents including Spilt Milk Studios, Marvelous Games and Robot Squid, as well as a number of virtual members. Payload Studios recognises its responsibility to improve diversity in the UK games industry. In 2019 the studio launched Game On, an initiative aimed at promoting positive change, both within Payload Studios and the wider industry. Since then the studio has organised dozens of free-to-attend industry events, attended by over 200 different studios, welcoming experts and the voices of diverse leaders, to facilitate knowledge sharing and accelerate progress throughout the industry. In 2021, Payload Studios launched the Tentacle Zone Incubator for early stage founders from underrepresented groups. The first programme welcomed 12 founders onto the 4 month virtual incubator, providing weekly networking and talks across 4 tracks - business and finance, design, development and production, marketing and pr, and pitching and public speaking. The incubator went on to win numerous awards such as the TIGA Diversity Award, MCV’s IRL Diversity Champion Award, and was a finalist in the 2021 Develop:Star Awards.
