Climax Studios appoint new Technical director

Climax has announced the appointment of a new technical director at the group's Action Studio to oversee development on a series of next-generation titles.

Taking the place of current technical director Chris Keegan, who is moving on to the oversee the company's handheld studio, Julian Rex will assume responsibility for ensuring that Climax's advanced tools and technology are put to best use in current and forthcoming projects. Working on current and next-generation platforms, one of Rex's first jobs will be to oversee the technical development of an undisclosed original action game for the next-generation consoles.

Formerly employed at Sony, Rex served as lead programmer on Cambridge Studio's GhostHunter for PS2 and the BAFTA award-winning PSone title Medievil 2. Most recently, he was overseeing work on another undisclosed next-gen title. Prior to joining Sony, Rex worked at Millennium Interactive for many years.

Simon Gardner, president of Climax's Action Studio, commented: "I worked closely with Julian at Sony Cambridge and am really pleased to have him onboard. As we move towards the launch of the next generation consoles and the enormous technical leap forward they represent, his experience and expertise will be invaluable. He will be an important cog in the development wheel and I know he's going to make an excellent Technical Director. All the games we have in development are in very capable and committed hands and his input will help us fully realise their potential."

"I'm thrilled to have joined Climax and, on a personal level, am particularly excited to be reunited with Simon Gardner again," Rex added. "Simon showed a lot of faith in me when he made me Lead Programmer on Medievil2 and I'm delighted to be working for him again. On a professional level, I'm just really pleased to be working for a company that recognises the importance of technical innovation and is prepared to invest the requisite time, effort and resources to create genre-defining games."