Jon Burton

Jon Burton is a British video game director, designer, writer, and programmer. He is the founder of development studio Traveller's Tales and its parent company TT Games.

For those of a similar name, see Jonathan Burton (passenger) and John Burton (conservationist).

Jon Burton
Born
Winchester, Hampshire, UK
NationalityBritish
Other namesJohn Burton, Jonathan Burton
OccupationVideo game designer, writer, director, programmer
Years active1989–present
Known forTraveller's Tales
Notable work
Puggsy, Lego Star Wars
Net worthGB£80 million[1]
Websitettjontt.wixsite.com/gamehut/

Burton founded Traveller's Tales in 1989. He worked as a designer on Puggsy, Mickey Mania and the Lego Star Wars series, and has served as programmer for many of their early games.[2] He has received five British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards.

Career

Burton founded Traveller's Tales in late 1989 and served as creative director of the games. His first game as designer, Leander, was in 1991; next was Puggsy in 1993. The game enabled Traveller's Tales to expand the company and develop games with bigger companies. In 1994, Traveller's Tales developed Mickey Mania for Disney, initiating a long relationship with the company; Disney later hired them to develop tie-in games for many of its properties. Starting in 1995, Sega contracted the company to develop two Sonic the Hedgehog games, Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic R. He also served as creative director and lead designer of Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex. Next, he was served as creative director, lead designer, and writer of the action-adventure video game Haven: Call of the King, which sequels to the game was planned to be a trilogy, but it was cancelled due to the game's commercial failure.

Burton announced in 2005 that Traveller's Tales would merge with Giant Interactive Entertainment to form parent company TT Games. He served as creative director of the Lego Star Wars series based on the toy line of the same name and the film franchise. In 2007, Burton and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced that they had purchased TT Games and Traveller's Tales for an undisclosed amount as part of their expansion into the video game industry.[3] Burton served as creative director for both Lego Batman: The Videogame and its sequel, Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes. In 2013, Burton wrote the original story for, produced, and directed Lego Batman: The Movie – DC Super Heroes Unite based on the Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes video game. He also wrote the story for Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham alongside David A. Goodman, which was released in November 2014. Also in 2014, Burton worked as an executive producer for the Warner Bros. 2014 film The Lego Movie. He was a producer of the 2015 war thriller film Man Down, starring Shia LaBeouf, Kate Mara, and Gary Oldman. His latest game, Lego Dimensions, was released on 27 September 2015; Burton served as creative director, lead designer, and co-writer on this game.

In 2017, Burton began uploading videos demonstrating programming tricks and early prototypes of games that he worked on to his YouTube channel, GameHut.[4] and has since created a new channel called Coding Secrets for the same content, in 2020. In October 2017, Burton announced that he would be creating an unofficial director's cut of the Sega Genesis version of Sonic 3D Blast, which was released in December 2017.[5]

Personal life

He currently lives in Malibu, California.[6] Burton is a practicing Christian and included an Ichthys as an Easter egg in one of the tracks in Sonic R.[7]

Works

Video games
Year Title Notes
1991 Leander Designer
1993 Bram Stoker's Dracula Programmer
1993 Puggsy Designer
1994 Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse Designer
1995 Toy Story Designer
1996 Sonic 3D Blast Programmer
1997 Sonic R Programmer
1998 Rascal Director, designer
1998 A Bug's Life Creative director, designer, programmer
1999 Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue Creative director, programmer
2000 Toy Story Racer Executive producer
2000 Muppet RaceMania Programmer, executive producer
2001 Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex Creative director, lead designer, writer
2002 Haven: Call of the King Creative director, lead designer, writer
2003 Finding Nemo Concept consultant
2004 Crash Twinsanity Lead designer, programmer
2005 Lego Star Wars: The Video Game Creative director, designer
2006 Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy Creative director, designer
2006 Bionicle Heroes Creative director
2006 Super Monkey Ball Adventure Concept consultant
2007 Transformers: The Game Concept consultant
2008 Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures Director
2008 Lego Batman: The Videogame Director
2010 Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 Lead designer
2011 Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars Creative director
2011 Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game Director
2011 Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 Lead designer
2012 Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes Creative director
2012 Lego The Lord of the Rings Creative director
2013 Lego City Undercover Special thanks
2013 Lego Marvel Superheroes Lead designer
2014 The Lego Movie Videogame Director
2014 Lego The Hobbit Director, designer
2014 Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham Writer
2015 Lego Jurassic World Director
2015 Lego Dimensions Creative director, designer, writer
2016 Lego Marvel's Avengers Director
2016 Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens Concept consultant
2017 Lego Worlds Concept consultant
2017 Sonic 3D: Director's Cut Programmer
TBA Untitled video game Creative director, lead designer, writer

Films
Year Title Notes
2013 Lego Batman: The Movie - DC Super Heroes Unite Director, producer, original story with David A. Goodman (direct-to-video)
2014 The Lego Movie Executive producer
2015 Man Down Producer
2017 The Lego Batman Movie Co-producer
2017 Viewpoint Director, writer (short film)
2019 The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part Co-producer

References
  1. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-04-30-uks-wealthiest-games-developer-revealed
  2. Wallis, Alistair. "Playing Catch Up: Traveller's Tales' Jon Burton". Gamasutra. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
  3. "Warner Bros. buys TT Games".
  4. Wales, Matt (3 October 2017). "How one Mega Drive dev cheekily slipped through Sega's certification process". Eurogamer. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  5. Wales, Matt (13 October 2017). "Sonic 3D's original developer is creating an unofficial Director's Cut". Eurogamer. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  6. https://www.facebook.com/jontt/about%5B%5D
  7. DidYouKnowGaming? (28 February 2018), Sonic R’s Religious Easter Egg - Did You Know Gaming? Feat. Greg, retrieved 12 March 2018
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