WISH YOU WERE HERE? SPOTLIGHT ON THE CANARY ISLANDS


The Canary Islands is one of Europe’s most popular year-round holiday destinations, but the autonomous region of Spain (that is closer to Africa than it is Europe) has in recent years attracted the curious eye of a gaming industry looking to explore new horizons. Richie Shoemaker talks to four studios that have successfully settled in the sun.


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n terms of population, area and the size of its economy, the Canary Islands are smaller than you might think; comprising half a Yorkshire. In terms of geography and climate, of course,


the two regions couldn’t be more different. Only one half of Yorkshire has beaches (20 of them in total) and the county has less than half of the number of rain-free days in any typical miserable, cold January. Meanwhile, it’s T-shirt weather pretty much the whole year round in the Canaries – unless you’re visiting one of the islands’ 500 beaches, where most forms of clothing are of course unnecessary. But you pretty much knew that already. What perhaps you didn’t


know is that the Canary Islands are becoming something of a game development global hotspot (if you’ll excuse the obvious pun), with


36 | MCV/DEVELOP December/January 2024


the established creators of games such as Human Fall Flat – which has outsold anything to have come from Yorkshire aside from perhaps tea or chocolate oranges – being joined by the studios behind other modern indie classics like Blasphemous. They may need a few more studios to join them before the


Canary Islands can really call itself a world-leading development hub, but there’s no lack of desire on the part of the government to attract new businesses to the region, thanks to favourable tax rates (corporation tax is set at 4% for new arrivals) and a generous 45% tax rebate for any investment into the tech and creative sector. I spoke to the heads of four studios that were either established


in the region, or well on the way to becoming so, to find out what other delights the Canaries have to offer.


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