GAMING SPECIAL
The thing that makes being independent worthwhile is that you can try things bigger studios can’t do, because they can’t afford to take risks. That gives us a space, a natural niche to make things that can’t be made by anyone else"
might not be from a gaming background, but who enjoy playing games and can bring a different perspective. The level of expertise in the city is breathtaking.” Anthony says the supportive developer community has helped MiniBeast grow. “The Cambridge Game Devs monthly meet-up is really useful,” he says. “You can chat with other people in the same boat as you, ask questions and share the problems you’re having. The indie scene in Cambridge and the wider region with places like Norwich, where I studied, is really great.” Jon adds: “There’s a strong developer community, which means there’s always a great pool of people around. So when we needed artists for Heaven’s Vault, we knew who we wanted, and then when the project finished, a lot of them were able to move on to jobs elsewhere. You get a nice community of talent, you know what people can do and where to find them.” He and his team are now working on a new game, an as-yet untitled Arthurian epic that plays as a tactics-style boardgame, which is set for release later this year. “Gaming is a very fast-moving environment and it’s an industry of bubbles,” Jon says. “At the end of 2011, when we started, we were at the end of a bubble and there were indie games creators generating vast quantities of money. “There was a period there when it looked like the big players wouldn’t get back on their feet. But now actually the big developers and the triple-A titles are very strong indeed, and indies are struggling to survive in that market. But it’s likely to swing back again soon, and the thing that makes being independent worthwhile is that you can try things bigger studios can’t do, because they can’t afford to take the risks. That gives us a space, a natural niche to make things that can’t be made by anyone else.”
IMAGES Stills fromMustDashAmigos,agame from Cambridge-basedMiniBeastGameStudios
players safe and happy, which we think can benefit other companies. With the rise of different publishing services, I think more firms like ours will look to partner with smaller studios to help take their titles to market.” One small studio at the start of its journey is MiniBeast, which released its first product, multiplayer racing game Must Dash Amigos, last year. Anthony Brunton-Douglas, who co-founded the company with friend Ben Lowther, says: “We wanted to make a fun game that we’d enjoy playing. Mario Kart was a big influence, and we decided on the theme because we were drinking Mexican beer at the time!” He adds: “We’d been working on the game in our spare time, and only really started to take it seriously after we showed it at the
Norwich Games Festival and got a really positive response.” After a successful launch on Steam and Xbox One, Must Dash Amigos has now made its way to the Nintendo Switch. “It’s the first game we’ve designed from scratch, so to see people streaming it and having a good time playing it is amazing,” Anthony says. “We’re working on a prototype for a new game now, which we want to pitch to investors, so we’re going to take our time and get it right.” So what makes Cambridge such a gaming hotspot? For Rich, being part of the wider tech cluster is key. “The university is the starting point for everything, because it attracts great people to the area,” he says. “You’ve got access to an ecosystem of tech people such as data scientists, who
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ISSUE 06
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