Fortnite Layoffs Included Artist Who Designed Jonesy, The Face Of The Game

Epic Games recently conducted mass layoffs affecting 1,000 people at the Fortnite studio, and the cuts included the character artist who created Jonesy, one of the most recognizable characters in the game.

Vitaliy Naymushin said on LinkedIn that they were part of the cuts. The developer had worked at Epic Games for more than 11 years. "It's been a wild ride. Lots of ups and downs," the artists wrote. "Seeing Fortnite from pre-launch to today and being a part of making that happen was the experience of a lifetime."

Naymushin created not just Jonesy, but also Ramirez, Penny, and the majority of the game's original cast of characters, he said. He rose up to become the director of character art for Fortnite, and in that role, he hired and onboarded new artists and leads on Fortnite and also personally directed the art for 15 seasons of Fortnite.