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BETA | SCOTLAND FOCUS
THE REALITY OF Was Realtime Worlds’ demise a moment that REALTIME typifies the Scottish games sector, on an exceptional case? Scotland’s industry insiders have their say
CONTACT BOOK Looking for contacts in the Scottish games industry? Develop has it covered DENKI Specialty: Game development Key products: Quarrel, Denki Blocks Tel: +44 (0)1382 308 645 Email: denki@denki.co.uk URL: www.denki.co.uk UNIVERSITY OF ABERTAY Specialty: Games development education Tel: +44 (0)1382 308000 Email: institute@abertay.ac.uk URL: www.abertay.ac.uk
“What happened at Realtime Worlds is not a Scottish problem but an industry-wide one. The list of studios with the continued capability to fund, develop and deliver truly triple-A titles is shrinking all the time.” Sean Taylor, Producer, Denki “I think the circumstances and the outcome of that story are very much exceptional relative to the industry at large, let alone the Scottish industry.” Douglas Hare, Co-Founder, Outplay Entertainment “What happened was very much an exception – Realtime Worlds was a symptom of the changing landscape, from big games on console and PC through to much lighter development for handheld, mobile and social gaming platforms. “ Dr Louis Natanson, University of Abertay “Realtime Worlds is an exceptional case. Of course, Scotland has seen its various low points with studios going under. However, Realtime Worlds had a high-risk project and it didn't work out. What's really exciting is the amount of companies appearing from the ashes of these studios.” Colin Riley, Games Technology Director, Codeplay
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“Realtime Worlds was indeed an exceptional case, built inside a $100m bubble of unreality. Whilst its demise serves as a humbling lesson to us all, it had very little in common with the structure, products, business models and process you see at most of the Scottish studios.” Paul Farley, CEO, Tag Games “The decline of Realtime Worlds was a sad story for the UK industry and of course Dundee as they where based here, but the sector has gone through a number of cycles before. We believe with the talent pull, skills and infrastructure this sector will survive and evidence of this has been shown by the number of new spin outs and start-ups created from the ashes of Realtime Worlds” Alan Dobson, Business Development Officer, Dundee City Council “As far as I am aware, no other independent Scottish developers have taken that level of investment so I think I am safe in saying it was an exceptional case. Unfortunately the ramifications of their decline does seem to be used a fair bit when games and Scotland are mentioned, especially by the local and national press who don’t seem that interested in the successful and growing independent studios we have up here.” Lol Scragg, Founder, Gamify Consultancy
CODEPLAY Specialty: Tools Key Products: Offload Compiler Tel: +44 (0)131 466 0503 Email: info@codeplay.com URL: www.codeplay.com AXIS ANIMATION Specialty: Animation Key Projects: The Dead Island trailer Tel: +44(0)141 572 2802 Email: enquiries@axisanimation.com URL: www.axisanimation.com GAMIFY CONSULTANCY Specialty: Consulting Tel: +44(0)7738 960492 Email: lol@gamifyconsultancy.com URL: www.gamifyconsultancy.com OUTPLAY ENTERTAINMENT Specialty: Game development Key Product: Word Trick URL: www.outplayentertainment.com SPECIALMOVE Specialty: Recruitment Tel: +44 (0)141 530 4555 Email: admin@specialmove.com URL: www.specialmove.com TAG GAMES Specialty: Mobile games development Key Products: Car Jack Streets, Doctor Who: The Mazes of Time Tel: +44 (0)1382 220925 Email: info@tag-games.com URL: www.tag-games.com OTHER USEFUL CONTACTS: Dundee City Council: www.dundeecity.gov.uk Interactive Tayside: www.interactivetayside.com NEoN Digital Arts Festival: www.northeastofnorth.com Scottish Development International: www.sdi.co.uk Scottish Enterprise: www.scottish-enterprise.com Scottish Gaming Blog www.scottishgames.net