Tag Games Off and Running!

Tuesday 30th October 2007

Dundee, Scotland

A leading-edge Dundee games company is set for expansion following a successful drive to raise investment.

Tag Games Limited - whose founders have helped create and develop titles such as Grand Theft Auto and State of Emergency - has raised "significant funds" from a variety of sources.

In particular, the company has attracted the interest of leading Scottish technology entrepreneur Bill Dobbie, as well as funding from the Scottish Enterprise Seed Fund. The company is now looking to recruit six new members of staff.

Tag Games is just a year and a half old, but has already been trading profitably for several months. It was founded by three experienced games industry veterans, Managing Director Paul Farley, Creative Director Jamie Bryan and Technical Director Robert Henning. The three founders have funded the business to this point.

Paul Farley said: "The business has established an outstanding reputation by designing, developing and delivering great games on time and on budget. Our portfolio includes both original and licensed titles, all of which feature the same focus upon innovation and game-play quality."

The company now plans to expand that innovation into new areas. He added: "The investment will be used to expand our product development teams, to diversify onto new platforms including a repositioning of the company as a casual/downloadable games company rather than being mobile specific."

Activity will include corporate re-branding, marketing, greater licensing activity and tool and technology investment.

Paul added: "Attracting this level of funding at such an early stage in our development is of huge benefit. We are every bit as delighted that we are able to add an experienced and skilled technology sector entrepreneur such as Bill Dobbie to the board , and are sure having him join the team will be of enormous benefit to us."

Pat McHugh, Director of Scottish Enterprise's Scottish Seed Fund endorsed this adding "we are delighted to have supported this investment, the market for mobile gaming is growing significantly and there is a real opportunity for Tag to capitalise on this."

Ends

Notes to Editor:

Bill Dobbie

Bill founded Teledata in 1989 which was then sold to Scottish Telecom for £10 million in 1996. He then joined Scottish Telecoms board of directors where he developed the company's support centre and internet divisions as well as serving as exec director on the Demon Internet board after its acquisition by Scottish Telecom in 1998. Bill founded Iomart in 1998 along with Angus MacSween which they took to IPO and has since founded the IDE Group where he serves as managing director.

Scottish Seed Fund

The Scottish Seed Fund is a Scottish Enterprise Investment Fund which can provide equity and, in some cases, loan investments from £20,000 to £100,000 to early stage businesses keen to grow - and which meet various criteria relating to their size and commercial viability.

Tag Games Directors

Paul Farley - Managing Director

A games industry veteran with a wealth of experience on console, PC and mobile gaming platforms. He played a key role in developing the Grand Theft Auto series, the world's most successful game franchise, whilst at DMA Design. Later he moved to Vis Entertainment where he led the design of another worldwide hit State of Emergency.

Joining I-play (Digital Bridges) in 2000 as head of design Paul has since built up an unparalleled understanding of game creation for the mobile medium.

James Bryan - Creative Director

Over 15 year's experience in the games industry. In this time he has worked across major platforms including Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo 64, PC & Game Boy Advance. He was one of the early pioneers of computer graphics and had previously established a successful graphics studio before taking up the head of art position at DMA Design Ltd. At DMA James was part of Nintendo's dream team and worked closely with senior Nintendo management learning valuable skills in the art of making games. James was later head of art at Vis Entertainment and directed a number of projects including State of Emergency.

Robert Henning - Technical Director

A graduate of the University of Abertay Dundee Computer Games Technology degree. Graduating in June 2002 Robert went on to establish his own mobile development studio, Digital Echoes, before joining Tag Games. His experience covers development projects on Playstation, PC, Gameboy Color and Gameboy Advance in addition to his experience developing for mobile platforms. Robert was also notably a programmer on a prize winning team in the Dare to be Digital competition run by the University of Abertay Dundee.