THE BRIT LIST: DEVELOPMENT
JESSICA CURRY, THE CHINESE ROOM
JASON AVENT, NATURAL MOTION
FORMERLY of Disney’s Black Rock studio, Avent founded Boss Alien in 2011 with Tim Swan. The duo went on to develop the hugely successful CSR Racing–a title that helped to put the studio on the map. Avent’s creation was so successful that the company was eventually acquired by Natural Motion, before Zynga swiped both companies.
NOT only is Curry heading up one of the UK’s more successful indie studios, which in recent years has produced the likes of Dear Esther and Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, but she is a world class composer. She has written two critically acclaimed soundtracks and is a judge for BAFTA and Music and Sound. Under her guidance she has grown the studio from a team of modders to an award-winning outfit, which recently signed with Sony for an exclusive PlayStation 4 title.
JON BURTON, TT GAMES,
THIS three-time BAFTA award- winning developer has helped put the UK games development scene on the map with his firm Traveller’s Tales and the now-famous LEGO series of games. This series has also helped to increase Warner Bros’ market share exponentially since it purchased the studio in 2007. In addition to working on games, Burton has also tried his hand at film direction, working on LEGO Batman: The Movie.
MARK GERHARD, JAGEX
DURING the five years for which he has held the role of CEO at Jagex, Gerhard has maintained the success of online title RuneScape, and has had four number one mobile titles. In addition, he is vice president of trade body TIGA, and is passionate about improving the standing of the British game development scene. In addition, he is on the Board of GamesEden, the regional industry body for Cambridge and the East of England.
MARK MORRIS, INTROVERSION
THE Early Access business model is in vogue right now, but Mark Morris’ Introversion was one of the first to use it with Prison Architect – a title that is still in alpha in spite being released in 2012. Morris and Introversion have been described as the original indie developers, leading the way for the current influx of smaller studios in the market.
MILES JACOBSON, OBE, SPORTS INTERACTIVE
FOOTBALL MANAGER has long been a cultural phenomenon. At the heart of the game’s studio – Sports Interactive – is Miles Jacobson. He oversaw some big success for the series last year, increasing the studio’s size, and even revealing some astonishing facts about illegal downloads during last year’s London Games Conference.
MIKE BITHELL
IF his Twitter activity is anything to go by, Mike Bithell is an amazingly productive man. The mind behind the now famous indie title and BAFTA- winning Thomas Was Alone– a title that saw gamers emotionally connecting with a group of squares – is working on another title called Volume.
A vocal supporter of indie development, Bithell is something of an indie dev hero.
18 March 28th 2014
PAUL WEDGWOOD, SPLASH DAMAGE
SPLASH DAMAGE’S founder and CEO Paul Wedgwood began his career as a network engineer – servicing the likes of the Home Office and 10 Downing Street. That’s before he opened Splash Damage in 2001.
Since then has gone on to support the work of other great studios, doing multiplayer for the likes of Doom 3 and Batman: Arkham Origins.
LESLIE BENZIES, AARON GARBUT, DAN AND SAM HOUSER, ROCKSTAR
BAFTA normally inducts individuals into its Hall of Fame, but in order to get the notoriously reclusive Rockstar geniuses to attend this year’s event, they had to induct all 900 of its employees. So that’s why we’ve bundled these guys together. Benzies is the studio president of Edinburgh-based Rockstar North, the team behind last year’s award- winning and record-breaking GTA V. Garbut is the art expert behind the title, while Dan and Sam Houser are the brothers that co-founded the studio and script the GTAgames.
PAUL GOUGE, PLAYDEMIC
THE Manchester-based Playdemic has seen huge success with Facebook and mobile games such as Crossword Buddies, and attracted the attention of Zynga, which acquired the firm in 2012. It is the latest in a string of studios created by Gouge, who has previously founded Ironstone Partners and Rockpool Games.
PAULINE JACQUEY, UBISOFT REFLECTIONS
LONG-TERM Ubisoft employee Jacquey heads up the publisher’s UK-based Reflections studio, and she has had quite the time there. In 2013 she supported the launch of Just Dance 2014, and going into 2014, her studio is hard at work on the highly anticipated Watch Dogs, as well asTom Clancy’s The Division and racing title The Crew.
www.mcvuk.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52