Imagendary Studios has revealed the appointment of Jason Hayes as audio director and Matt Cordner as senior technical artist at the company’s Irvine-based studio.

Hayes has won multiple awards for his compositions and played a lead role in musical scores for World of Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo. Hayes has also worked as music director for Riot Games and his music has been performed by the LA Philharmonic orchestra among others.

Cordner’s previous work ranges from technical director, programmer and effects artist for Hollywood movies, such as 1997’s Godzilla, and with Sony Pictures. He has won an Academy Award for technical achievement.

A blizzard of experience

Both Cordner and Hayes have worked for Blizzard Entertainment, with Cordner having been the senior FX artist specialising in developing cinematics. They each have more than 20 years of studio experience.

"We’re so excited to have both Jason and Matt join our Irvine team at Imagendary," said Imagendary Studios studio manager Ryan Pollreisz.

"It’s such a privilege to be surrounded by multiple award-winning colleagues who are capable of delivering the most exciting projects and innovations. Imagendary’s goal is to grow into a truly global pan-entertainment company, and we continue to hire more exceptionally talented people to lead us forward into the future of entertainment."

The studio was founded in January 2021 and has since been acquired by FunPlus, with further expansion in the US and Asia following these hires already having been announced.

Recently, FunPlus partnered with visual and multimedia arts non-profit Creative Art Works for their second character design apprenticeship.