Ivan Van Norman Leaves Darrington Press

The company director leaves after several years.
van norman hed.jpg


Ivan Van Norman has departed Darrington Press after a four-year stint. The veteran game developer and director announced on LinkedIn that he had departed the company, having left sometime earlier this month. Van Norman was previously the company director, responsible for creative oversight, product development and team collaboration as well as providing a public presence for the company.

No reason was given for the departure, although Van Norman says that he'll be focusing on Hunters Entertainment as well as several other passion projects.

Darrington Press announced earlier this week that they had hired Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford as the Creative Director and Game Director for Darrington Press, working on both Daggerheart as well as other new games.

Van Norman's full post can be found below:

As people have been reaching out, I wanted to let everyone know that I am no longer working at Critical Role.

I couldn't be happier to have worked with such an excellent group of people, who have worked so hard and passionately to create great things. While I am proud of everything the Darrington team has accomplished over the last four years, I am excited to move on to new opportunities.

In the meantime, I will be using this time to focus on the company I started 15 years ago, Hunters Entertainment, as well as pursue a few passion projects that I now have time to put effort into.

I have always enjoyed new ventures, and Darrington was the largest one by far. There is no greater joy than bringing talented folks together and making games worth participating in.

I wish everyone at Critical Role and Darrington Press team all the luck with Daggerheart. It is an amazing game, and everyone who worked on it should be proud of what they’ve accomplished.

Onto the next adventure!
 

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Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer

I’ve worked in the entertainment industry for years as an executive, and I’ve seen this a lot… Especially with newer production companies. The principals hire someone in a VIP position for where they're at as a company (they're growing, looking for projects and investment)...and then they bide their time looking for executive talent that will lend expertise and legitimacy (and more investment)... and once they're found that, the first hire(s) are replaced. Sucks to be the one getting replaced but it happens and that's just the way these things work.

Besides any other products he oversaw, Daggerheart was created and shipped and is a huge success under Ivan's tenure so that's something he can be proud of and share credit for.
 

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To be honest, daggerheart is showing sold out. Can’t be sure they made enough or what their books look like, but selling out of a product is usually seen as a good thing?
Pre-orders on their website sold out, Amazon sold out of their pre-orders, and it was at one point ranking in the Top 100 books sold on Amazon overall I believe. I forget it's peak position.

But then Amazon sold out of their stock and needed a second shipment to finish fulfilling pre-orders. CR also sold out of their second batch on the website.

Demand seems pretty, pretty, pretty good.
 

I’ve worked in the entertainment industry for years as an executive, and I’ve seen this a lot… Especially with newer production companies. The principals hire someone in a VIP position for where they're at as a company (they're growing, looking for projects and investment)...and then they bide their time looking for executive talent that will lend expertise and legitimacy (and more investment)... and once they're found that, the first hire(s) are replaced. Sucks to be the one getting replaced but it happens and that's just the way these things work.

Is it also possible that Ivan has been planning to leave for a while but waited until his replacement was onboarded before he formally left?
 

Is it also possible that Ivan has been planning to leave for a while but waited until his replacement was onboarded before he formally left?

Possibly just that Ivan was there even initially because he's friends with the CR crew and was doing them a solid helping get Darrington off the ground. Once they have others to take over he felt more interested in going back to focusing fully on Hunter's.
 


I didn't even know he worked there.

I recognize the name and face because for a while he was in a bunch of youtube videos about roleplaying. I'm fuzzy on the details, and can't recall seeing him for several years now.
 



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