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 active	1989–present
Employers	Traveller's Tales (1989–2019) 10:10 Games (2021–present)

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. He has received five British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards.

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. 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, 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.

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

Personal life

He currently lives in Malibu, California. Burton is a practicing Christian and included an Ichthys as an Easter egg in one of the tracks in Sonic R.

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

External links

• MobyGames profile
• Jon Burton at IMDb
• YouTube channel