Fish and French fries. Surf and grass. Brittany and video games. These things are classic for a reason: they are some of the best things in life, combined to create something even more powerful than either one alone. And in the case of the UK gaming scene, we may not even have the rest of the scene region-free.
Even before what we now call computer games, Britain was ahead. The vintage computers, ZX Spectrums and BBC Micros around the world, were some of the world’s first home arcade machines, and they were made right here in Britain. Talk to any of the truly experienced PC game developers in 2022 and you’ll still find plenty who grew up learning to code on the ZX Spectrum.
Times may have changed, but Britain’s dominance of the PC gaming market remains the same. So, in partnership with Ukie Worldwide, we honor just 15 of the UK’s best PC game developers still active today, and the games they create, from giant to small and everything in between, are distributed on these beautiful islands.
Note that there are plenty of other UK-based PC game developers who deserve full credit for their contributions to the industry – not being here is not a snub, we just need to observe the word limits.
Football Manager 2022 – Interactive Sports
Based in the heart of London’s Islington, Sports Interactive is the world’s leading developer of sports management simulations. The studio is best known for its Football Manager series, which has been helping football fans around the world live out their Premier League dreams since 2004. The legacy of the iconic sports simulation actually dates back to 1992, two years before the developers created Sports Interactive. , when the series was called Championship Manager. The company has more than 250 employees and won the Gamesindustry.biz “Best Places to Work 2021” award in 2021.
Beyond the Steel Sky – Revolution Software
Any point-and-click gamer will be familiar with the Revolution Software name, thanks to the company’s popular Broken Sword series. Founded by Charles Cecil, Noirin Carmody, Tony Warriner and David Sykes, Revolution has been producing scripted adventure games in the city of York since 1989. Sci-fi adventure dystopia based on the 1994 film Under Skies of Steel. We don’t know what the company is currently working on, but original writer/director Charles Cecil is still around and no doubt fixing something.
Grand Theft Auto V – Rockstar North
A studio that needs no introduction, Rockstar Games is one of the most successful, controversial and influential studios in video game history. Starting out in Dundee in 1987 as DMA Design, Rockstar enjoyed early success with Lemmings before embarking on a small game called Grand Theft Auto in 1997. 25 years later, the studio now known as Rockstar North is the creator of Grand Theft Auto V. , the best-selling entertainment product of all time. With the arrival of Grand Theft Auto 6, Rockstar is once again ready to take the gaming world by storm.
F1 22 – master codes
Founded in 1986, Codemasters is one of the UK’s oldest development studios and one of the world’s most respected racing game developers. Codemasters, best known for its Colin McRae Rally and Dirt series, is now releasing the Official Video Game of F1, allowing racing fans to relive the careers of legendary drivers such as Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. Based in a beautiful office in the Warwickshire countryside, Codemasters creates a caring and supportive work environment for its employees.
Forza Horizon 5 Playgrounds
If Codemasters represents the old school of racing game development, Playground certainly represents the new school. This studio, founded in 2010 in Leamington Spa, is behind the spin-off of the famous Forza Motorsport series, Forza Horizon. It also received another British icon, Fable, whose studio is currently developing a reboot of the series, more than a decade after the third main installment. As well as games, Playground is also working with UK public schools on a game design competition with The Smallpeice Trust to help train the next generation of developers.
Dear Esther – Chinese Room
The Chinese room basically invented the walking simulator genre. Founded in 2007 as a development team at the University of Portsmouth, the now Brighton-based studio is best known for its emotionally unique Dear Esther game, complete with semi-randomized narration and a beautifully dark soundtrack. The Chinese Room followed suit with the similar Everyone’s Gone to the Rapture, but experimented beyond its strength with horror spinoff Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and sci-fi platformer Little Orpheus. Their work even caught the attention of major UK studio Sumo Digital, which acquired the team in 2018.
Sea of Thieves is weird
It’s almost impossible to go through life without playing a weird game. The Twycross-based studio has been at the heart of UK game development since 1985 and, while best known for its Nintendo 64 games like Goldeneye 007, has been a major player in the PC market ever since with Sea of Thieves. The Pirate-’em-up multiplayer mode has taken over the seas and is currently in its seventh season of content and there are no signs of slowing down. Rare is also working on Everwild, which very little is known about but will undoubtedly be magical.
For – Team17
From one of the most famous independent developers to one of the most famous independent publishers, Team17 has grown tremendously since its opening in 1990. Located in the town of Wakefield in the North of England, the studio is especially known for the Worms franchise. , but has since made a splash by publishing (later developing in-house after acquiring partner studios) games like Overcooked! and the fugitives. The PC-only line has also seen rapid growth of late, with train driving simulator Sweet Transit and upcoming post-apocalyptic CRPG Broken Roads two examples from the growing list.
Total War – Creative Building
You can’t talk about PC strategy games without mentioning the Total War series. Although Horsham’s Creative Assembly was founded in 1987, it really took off in 2000 with the release of Shogun: Total War. Since then, the series has grown to span a wide variety of time periods, and even ventured into the realm of fantasy with the Total War: Warhammer franchise. But the developer isn’t a one-trick pony: critically acclaimed survival horror Alien: Isolation is proof of that, and upcoming shooter Hyenas could be another feather in the studio’s wide-brimmed cap.
Batman: Arkham Asylum – Rocksteady
Think of a Batman game and you’ll probably think of Rocksteady London’s Batman: Arkham series. Founded in 2004, the studio has been DC’s main developer for over a decade, and Arkham Asylum and its sequels are often considered one of the best games ever made. The series was so well received that Warner Bros. acquired the developer outright in 2010. Rocksteady is currently working on the highly anticipated Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, a huge departure from his more heroic exploits dedicated to the Dark Knight.
RuneScape – Jahex
Who among us has not played RuneScape? The seminal MMORPG has been around for over twenty years, and Cambridge-based developer Jagex has no plans to kill it. The game is so successful that a spin-off of Old School RuneScape has been created to satisfy fans of the game that existed before the major visual overhaul of the base RuneScape experience. And neither of those experiences is likely to go away as huge, active communities come together to celebrate both titles at RuneFest every year.
Rust – Facepunch Studio
Originally founded in 2004 by developer Harry Newman, a one-man team, Birmingham-based Facepunch Studios stormed the world with Garry’s Mod, arguably one of the most famous Half-Life 2 mods ever created. Not content with being a well-known mod, Facepunch created Rust, a survival game that continues to attract players thanks to its streaming and is considered one of the best on the market. However, Facepunch doesn’t stop there: the team is working on a successor to Garry’s Mod, known as S&box, which promises to outshine the original mod in terms of tools and features.
Surgeon Simulator – Bossa Studios
Surgeon Simulator may not have invented the genre of games built around silly rooms and convoluted control schemes, but it cemented its status as a staple for streamers everywhere and served as a formidable launch for Bossa Studios, with headquarters in London. Established in 2010, the developer has become synonymous with a certain brand of wacky and frustrating games like I Am Bread and numerous Surgeon Simulator spinoffs, but it’s still experimenting. The Bossa Presents initiative is an opportunity for games created during the studio’s in-house games to find an audience before spending too much time and money on them.
Fortress – Firefly Studios
Firefly Studios, another mainstay of the PC RTS scene, is a well-known developer among a very specific circle of PC gamers. Founded in London in 1999, Firefly Studios quickly gained attention with its Stronghold series, which debuted in 2001 and celebrated its 20th anniversary with the studio’s latest release, Stronghold: Warlords. The studio is now owned by Devolver Digital, an American publisher listed on the London Stock Exchange, and is working on a new Stronghold game for 2022.
Two Point Campus – Two Point Studies
Two Point Studios is the very essence of Great Britain. Founded in 2016 and quickly made famous by the nostalgic Two Point Hospital, this mid-sized Surrey-based studio has a British charm that oozes from every corner of its games, from the lush green lawns that surround its game worlds to the subtle and peculiar humor that is present in every molecule of the game itself. The recently released Two Point Campus received rave reviews for its reinvention of the management simulation that Two Points’ founders helped invent in the ’90s and perfected in their first game.
This is not an exhaustive list; Be sure to check out the Ukie website for more information on the best UK game developers.
Source : PC Gamesn
