Jon Burton

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

Jon Burton
Born
Winchester, Hampshire, England
Occupations
  • Video game designer
  • director
  • programmer
Years active1989–present
Employers

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

Burton founded Traveller's Tales in 1989. He worked as a designer on Puggsy, Mickey Mania, Sonic 3D Blast, the Lego Star Wars series, Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue, and A Bug's Life and has served as programmer for many of their early games.[1]

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.[2] 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, Burton worked as an executive producer for the Warner Bros. 2014 film The Lego Movie and as a producer of the 2015 war thriller film Man Down. 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,[3] 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.[4]

In August 2021, Burton co-founded 10:10 Games, a studio developing Funko Fusion, after he left Traveller's Tales in 2019.[5]

Personal life

He currently lives in Malibu, California.[6][non-primary source needed] 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 Game Role Notes
Director Designer Programmer Producer Writer
1991 Leander No Yes No No No
1993 Bram Stoker's Dracula No No Yes No No
Puggsy No Yes Yes No Yes
1994 Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse No Yes Yes No Yes
1995 Toy Story No Yes No No No
1996 Sonic 3D Blast No No Yes No No
1997 Sonic R No No Yes No No
1998 Rascal Yes Yes No No No
A Bug's Life Yes Yes Yes No No
1999 Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue Yes Yes Yes No No
2000 Buzz Lightyear of Star Command No Yes Yes No No
2001 Toy Story Racer No No No Executive No
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex Yes Yes Yes Executive No
2002 Haven: Call of the King Yes Yes No No Yes
2003 Finding Nemo No Yes No Executive No
2005 Lego Star Wars: The Video Game Yes Yes No No No
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Yes Yes No No No
2006 Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy Yes Yes No No No
Bionicle Heroes Yes Yes No No No
2007 Transformers: The Game Yes Yes No No No
2008 Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures Yes Yes No No No
Lego Batman: The Videogame Yes Yes No No No
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Yes Yes No No No
2009 Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues Yes Yes No No No
2010 Lego Harry Potter: Years 1–4 Yes Yes No No No
2011 Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars Yes Yes No No No
Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game No Yes No No No
Lego Harry Potter: Years 5–7 No Yes No No No
2012 Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes Yes Yes No No Yes
Lego The Lord of the Rings Yes Yes No No No
2013 Lego Marvel Superheroes No Yes No No No
2014 The Lego Movie Videogame Yes Yes No No No
Lego The Hobbit Yes Yes No No No
Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham No Yes No No Story
2015 Lego Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin Yes No No No No
Lego Dimensions Yes Yes No No Story
2016 Lego Marvel's Avengers No Yes No No No
2017 Sonic 3D: Director's Cut No No Yes No No Director's cut
2024 Funko Fusion TBA No No No No

Films

Year Title Role Notes
Director Producer Writer
2013 Lego Batman: The Movie – DC Super Heroes Unite Yes Yes Story Direct-to-video
2014 The Lego Movie No Executive No
2015 Man Down No Yes No
2017 The Lego Batman Movie No Co-producer No
2019 The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part No Co-producer No

References

  1. ^ Wallis, Alistair. "Playing Catch Up: Traveller's Tales' Jon Burton". Gamasutra. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
  2. ^ "Warner Bros. buys TT Games". Eurogamer. 8 November 2007.
  3. ^ Wales, Matt (3 October 2017). "How one Mega Drive dev cheekily slipped through Sega's certification process". Eurogamer. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  4. ^ Wales, Matt (13 October 2017). "Sonic 3D's original developer is creating an unofficial Director's Cut". Eurogamer. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  5. ^ Makuch, Eddie (25 April 2023). "Former Lego Devs Reveals Funko Mash-Up Game With Jurassic World, Back To The Future, And More". GameSpot. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  6. ^ https://www.facebook.com/jontt/about [user-generated source]
  7. ^ DidYouKnowGaming? (28 February 2018), Sonic R's Religious Easter Egg - Did You Know Gaming? Feat. Greg, archived from the original on 15 December 2021, retrieved 12 March 2018