Creative and Strategy support for indie game studios and startups, by the Creator and CEO of gamedevmap.

I’m Gaurav Mathur, a creative game development professional with thirty years of experience.I’ve built and managed collaborative teams known for quality and innovation. My work connects people and products, drawing on a career that includes critically acclaimed titles such as Grim Fandango and Psychonauts, the beloved Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, and the bestselling Skylanders series, which created the Toys-to-Life category of video games.

Availability

I’m available for short-term consulting on specific topics, as well as longer-term fractional support. Let’s begin with a 30-minute video call to discuss your needs, then set a regular meeting schedule to help you and your team strengthen the business and organizational side of your creative work.

Services

Art and Creative Direction

I was the Founding Art Director at Penumbra’s Virtual Reality studio. We created Happy Valley, a stroke rehabilitation therapy game. Our goal was to build a warm and engaging world, with friendly characters and clear progression systems to support patient recovery.To guide this work, I studied academic research and current therapy practices. A unique collaboration between developers and therapists led to several patented “only in VR” approaches that connected clinical goals with art and game design decisions. I'm listed as a co-inventor on the patent Systems and Methods for Physical Therapy.

Build Reviews with Itemized Feedback

As Creative Director for External Studios at Penumbra, I took projects from original concept to launch readiness. I gave clear, prioritized build feedback on a sprint schedule, with attention toward the technical needs of virtual reality games.I've provided similar build feedback to a variety of projects since then, including late-stage feedback for DeepWell DTx’s breath-based action game Zengence.

Business Development

I’ve supported Vismaya with guidance on meditation games in B2C and B2B contexts. This began with Playne in 2020 and continued through the successful Playne Mobile Kickstarter in May 2024.I launched gamedevmap.com in 2005 as a passion project with help from friends. In 2015, I formed ilovegamedev, LLC to provide more structure to gamedevmap and expand into other positive impact projects. In 2025, I’m operationalizing gamedevmap as a nonprofit with the support of a volunteer team.

Creative Discovery and Scouting

Decades of research for gamedevmap and my role as a Judge for the Independent Games Festival give me insight into what makes games stand out. With this perspective and my professional network, I help clients find opportunities, refine their vision, and position their work for impact.

Creative Research

During preproduction on Never Alone 2, I studied the Iñupiat and Yup’ik cultures of Northern Alaska. I looked at how traditional skills and subsistence practices could shape open-world gameplay and level design. Cultural research papers and stories like the Epic of Qayaq supported the concept of a Sacred Landscape that connected the spirit world to a survival gameplay experience.I used maps, photos, and scientific articles to build a sod house village and its surroundings in Unreal Engine 5. I also created a Cultural Artifacts reference board from museum collections to guide the team, and built these objects for in-game use using Modo. Sharing this research helped ensure our design choices were respectful and meaningful for our Alaska Native partners.

Partner Development

My Manager and I developed the Second-Party publishing initiative at Penumbra. In addition to training our internal Legal team and others on process, I created materials to explain the REAL System’s therapeutic potential to game developers. I embedded with Penumbra's Marketing Department to document health conditions in language that game developers could understand. These resources were shared with potential codevelopment Partners.I guided selected Partners and Penumbra's Product Managers through the Immersive Healthcare development process we were co-creating. With my background as a game developer and my role on the Partner Development Team, I was able to find a balance between Partner needs with Penumbra’s goals as Publisher.

Project Management

At Toys for Bob, I was the Senior Artist with Production and Art Direction duties for thousands of interactive objects on the $3.5 billion Skylanders franchise. The series launched the Toys-to-Life genre and later inspired a Netflix animated show.Designers would provide me with object lists and coarse specifications, which I refined with support from the Environment Art Director and Concept Artists. I guided these assets through the pipeline from concept art to final in-game implementation, often building first-pass models for my Props team to finish.I also worked with engineers on an Asset Management tool that made it easy to create placeholder assets from templates and rename art assets to meet project standards.

Talent Sourcing and Portfolio Reviews

I was Factor 5’s Art Department Director as the studio grew to take on multiple projects. Our Art Department went from five people to over forty across Concept Art, Character Art, Environment Art, and Animation. We assembled a talented crew from the film and game industries, hiring extensively from abroad. I hired, onboarded, and managed this team with the support of two Associate Producers. I also ran an internship program for students from San José State University and the Academy of Art.As a portfolio review panelist, I've given feedback, career guidance, and encouragement to hundreds of aspiring game artists and level designers in one of the most heavily attended sessions of the annual Game Developers Conference: "Killer Portfolio or Portfolio Killer".

Advisor Testimonials

Taralumen Games has had the extreme fortune and great pleasure of working with Gaurav since spring of 2024. It is hard to find a more insightful, dedicated, talented and deeply kind professional. He brings a wealth of experience and expertise to his role as advisor to our studio. We could not recommend him more highly as an addition to any team!
-- Erin Shaver, CEO of Taralumen GamesGaurav has been and still remains a steady, trusted voice in Navigame's journey. He helps us stay true to our vision and values when it matters most, giving the expertise and support only decades in the industry can bring. I’m genuinely grateful for his clarity, calm and ongoing support.
-- Katie Binns, CEO of NavigameGaurav has been instrumental in guiding me towards success with my mindfulness-based game Playne. As someone with a deep experience and love for the game development process, Gaurav has been able to nudge me away from hurdles and towards paths that have led me down to success. His approach to giving me feedback and guidance is creative and wholesome. He has a knack for identifying the core truth of what I'm trying to express and helping me focus into this truth. Gaurav has also been an inspirational figure, encouraging me through the massive 'dips' of the development cycle. I am deeply grateful for the time, wisdom and friendship that Gaurav has given me and the influence that he has had on my games.
-- Krish Shrikumar, CEO of Vismaya

In Closing

Arthur Ashe's words have guided much of my professional work:"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can."I meet my clients where they are, provide actionable experience-based guidance, and do what I can to help them achieve their goals.

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