future of its travel infrastructure). Where we might list the studios based in a region, or the games that have originated there (both of which Yorkshire has in abundance), what really marks the region out is a shared sense of success and interconnectedness, at the centre of which is the Game Republic network. Because it represents so many aspects of the gamedev community and works so hard to bring them together and connect them, and crucially, because the gamedev community is so strong and successful, it seems an inevitability that things can only get better. We said it before and we’ll say it again: Viva the Republic!
corporation tax benefits and higher videogame tax relief than the UK. Before the conversation becomes a parody of the
Four Yorkshiremen sketch, Revolution Software’s Noirin Carmody brings up the thorny subject of government investment, which over the years has shifted from Yorkshire Forward (which helped Game Republic get started) to the Department of International Trade and now the Department for Business and Trade. “The focus really shifted to international trade, so it was more outward looking rather than investing in the area itself, and I think we’ve never really recovered from that.” Remembering her time in the chair of the board
of trade body Ukie, Carmody recalls a succession of government ministers and a process of having to make the same arguments to different people time and again. “But on the positive side of that,” adds Barratt,
“with all the devolution stuff going on and central government letting us keep our money to spend on problems we need to solve rather than it going to a central pot for them to decide what happens... I think that could be massive for us. I’m quite bullish about that, but obviously we need to get through the next year or two, with the cost of living and everything else.”
FUTURE’S BRIGHT There are many reasons to be cheerful about the future for Yorkshire as a centre of game development excellence (certainly more so than for the
34 | MCV/DEVELOP December 2022
“You’ve got to bring the universities along, make sure we’ve got skilled people in the area and keep working together where we can to keep the
momentum going.” Nigel Little, managing director of Distinctive Games
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