ABOUT US
A STRONG FOUNDATION.
OUR TEAM
Founded in 2014 by an experienced team of industry veterans, Disbelief has offices in Boston, MA and Chicago, IL. We’ve since helped multiple titles ship on Console, PC, VR, and Mac.
We care deeply about quality. We strive to be responsive to client needs and anticipate future problems. We approach problems with a steady hand and try to reduce the chaos of game development, not increase it. We value ingenious solutions to our clients’ problems and work beyond the limitations of off the shelf technology.
Our founding team has had a lifelong passion for working on video game technology. Before we formed Disbelief, our core team was the Core Technology Team for BioShock Infinite at Irrational Games. Earlier than our stint at Irrational games, we were the core of the programming team for John Woo Presents Stranglehold at Midway Games. Members of our team have also worked on Injustice 2, Mortal Kombat X, Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, Disney's Guilty Party, World Of Tanks and more.
OUR LEADERSHIP
Experienced team of industry veterans.
STEVE ELLMORE
Company President and Co-founder
With more than 25 years experience in the games industry, Steve Ellmore has had direct involvement in over a dozen shipped titles, with indirect involvement in many more. He has been a speaker at GDC, as well as at the Havok Developer Conference. Steve handles management and business development for the company, but he still regularly gets his hands dirty with down-to-the-metal optimization.
STEVE ANICHINI
CTO and Co-founder
Steve Anichini has worked on many titles throughout his 24 year career including Borderlands 3's PS5/XSX ports, Gears 5, BioShock Infinite, and John Woo Presents Stranglehold. He worked on tools and systems used in Blitz: The League, Psi-ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, and Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. At Disbelief Steve focuses on systems and graphics programming, training, recruiting, and company strategy.
Leonie Manshanden
CRO
Leonie has over 20 years of global experience working at Blizzard Entertainment, Proletariat, Irrational Games, Ghost Story Games, Midway Games and Activision as well as serving as an advisor to independent studios. She has launched AAA campaigns, led studio operations, and covered external development from the client-side. At Disbelief, she handles business development and strategic opportunities.
Kris Munson
Tech Director
Kris Munson has worked in the games industry for over 20 years and has been doing low-level engine programming in Unreal for his entire career. Kris is one of the original members of Disbelief, and worked at Irrational Games and Midway Chicago before that. Kris has shipped games on nearly every major console platform from the original Xbox and PS2 up to the current generation.
Dan Nikolaides
Tech Director
Dan has worked on tech in games for nearly 20 years, and has been working in the Unreal ecosystem nearly the entire time. He has previously served as the CTO of Phosphor Games and Studio 369, and was previously at WB Games and Midway Chicago. Dan has experience with tech team leadership and programming across many domains, including physics, networking, AI, gameplay, online/backend, platform support (including mobile and VR), and low-level systems programming.
SPENCER LUEBBERT
Art Director
Spencer Luebbert has worked in the games industry for over 15 years at companies including Day 1 Studios, Irrational Games, and Wargaming.net. With his 4 years of experience as a production artist, in multiple disciplines, and 10+ years of technical art experience collaborating with rendering, tools and core tech engineers, he is a true bridge between the art and engineering departments. At Disbelief Spencer leads our team of Tech Artists to help our customers make content, tools, and feature decisions that hit their production, performance and visual targets.
Gabe Bott
Art Director
Over his 25 year career, Gabe Bott has worked for developers such as Wargaming, High Voltage Software, and Day 1 Studios, shipping titles in every console generation since the original Playstation. He has spent over a decade leading tech art teams as well as collaborating across disciplines to find practical solutions to technical problems. Gabe brings to Disbelief his extensive experience in content creation, art pipelines, optimization and multi-platform console development.
Matt Monforte
Design Director
Matt Monforte has worked in the games industry for over 18 years at companies including Wargaming, Day 1 Studios, and Activision. With hands on experience with proprietary and industry standard technologies, Matt knows what it takes to pull a project together throughout different stages of development. Matt bridges the gap between Game Design and the other disciplines of game development to push projects and ideas forward. At Disbelief, Matt leads a technical savvy Design team advocating for our customers and their players.
JENNIE MORSE
Director of Production
Jennie Morse has over 20 years of production experience having started her career in VFX within the film industry. She has since spent the last 13 years in the games industry having worked at Irrational Games, Ghost Story Games, and The Molasses Flood. At Disbelief, Jennie brings her breadth of knowledge and passion for efficiency to lead the production team and foster client relationships.
OUR OFFICES
Chicago, Illinois
