UK development: Where next?

I think it's difficult. I'm not sure I think it's a bad thing. I pretty much do all my gaming these days on my iPad, and I never thought that would happen. I'm spending more on games on that, even at 59p, than I was on retail games at €80 or something. Now I'm spending £25 a month on getting games every day just to see what they're doing. I think that's good.

I think the problem we've come up against, and it's not going to go away, it's something that everyone needs to solve, is that if you want to hit as many platforms as possible then there are technical challenges, there are artistic challenges. Obviously you don't want to have to do all your art work eight times for all the different platforms. It's making us think differently about the different type of games we're going to be doing and how we're going to be implementing them, how we're going to get them on as many platforms as possible.

Some of the games we've done have been gesture-based. That initially limited it to the Wii, or the Eyetoy originally, but now there are three platforms we can do that on. That's good for us. It's a good challenge to have, but it is harder.

I hope so. I think it actually started to happen a few years ago, then it shrunk a bit and now it's started to grow again. I think it's probably fair to say that we're all much more focused on things like having flexible workforces rather than necessarily trying to secure full time staff. I think a lot of us have always had that intention but now it's become a necessity for our long term survival.

If we were in California, the whole of the south east, people would be saying it was a vibrant, bubble community

Nick Baynes, RoundCube

So obviously the more successful studios that are in close proximity, the bigger the core of talent that's able to work for six months at one studio and six months at the next - obviously you have your core in-house team, but you also need to grow and shrink based on the demands of the current projects. That needs a successful community and I hope it's going to grow.

It's sort of ironic, and I think reflective of the UK attitude - if we were in California, the whole of the south east, people would be saying it was a vibrant, bubble community. Because in the UK if you travel more than 20 minutes it's seen as a long commute, that's not the case. Really, we're all on each others' doorsteps.

Looking more broadly you've got the south east, with Guildford and London, and particularly Brighton, that's growing more and more. But I think it's less of a mentality shift for the studios, and more for the team members who are realising that actually, doing a six month contract here and a six month contract there isn't a bad thing. If the community you're in is a healthy one then it's no less secure than working in a nice, safe, full-time job for Disney. [laughs] Or anyone else for that matter!

Yeah, the industry has changed. Whatever your view on it, less games using 100 people over three years are being made. Things have to change anyway. I think that the best environment for the games that are being made now, which are shorter projects, smaller teams, is using a more flexible workforce. If there are, what, four or five developers working in that way in Brighton, well that sounds like a perfect storm for that set-up.

So while I'm sad to see the demise of a quality studio like Black Rock, what I hope for is something that's a little bit more future-proof. We've already had social events where we've been a bit more open about what we're doing, what opportunities are coming up. Saying to each other, "I know this great guy, I know he's coming to the end of a six month contract, you should speak to him, he'll be perfect for that." I think we can keep a level of openness between the companies, not completely but enough that we can work together. I think holding on to 100 plus full time staff isn't going to be the future for many UK developers.

Yeah, it's very relevant to us. I think this is the year which has seen the biggest change where we've been getting people on very short-term contracts. We've found people are much more willing to do that. Two years ago it was very hard to get people on a three month contract. This year we've found seven or eight people that way and they've been very happy to do that. They've seen that it's potentially the way that the industry is going. If we work that way it's likely to allow more companies to survive longer, if they've got that more flexible workforce. It's better for everyone.

I've seen it happening much more recently and that's really good for us. One of the good things about Brighton as a hub is that I think it's going to continue to be that way. We've seen a lot of changes here, companies closing and things like that, but the people who are going to work in London or Guildford are commuting up there and still living down here.

So we're finding that the talent, even when it's not working down here, is staying. It's definitely not shrinking down here.