Foundation
At the start of 2006, Paddy Sinclair, and a few of the other staff now at Proper Games, were working for
Visual Sciences, and were negotiating the idea of setting up an internal business unit dedicated to downloadable games, particularly for Xbox Live Arcade with then CEO Tim Christian. They were setting the wheels in motion and getting funding together when Visual Science went into administration, and they began approaching other former colleagues for starting Proper Games.
From day one, they enjoyed the benefit of some independent funding, so some time could be taken to get up and running. Initially there were only seven employees, and operated under the delusion they could make a downloadable game in three months. Their first year was essentially spent developing technology and investigating ways to get to market, but had the luxury of making mistakes internally for educational purposes.
Over the course of two and a half years grew to twelve full time staff members, two contractors and two student placements. They have now partnered with
Capcom to publish their debut, sheep-herding alien puzzler,
Flock!., and are looking to develop two to three titles concurrently. They also worked on
Final Fight: Double Impact for
Capcom, as well as the Downloadable Content for
Crackdown 2.
Philosophy
The aim at Proper Games is quoted as bringing "the old school arcade values we all grew up loving to the current generation of consoles using their full capabilities to enhance that most important of qualities - fun!".
They are convinced they want to make different sorts of games to the mass market, and present them on as many different platforms as possible. In the same vein as fellow British developer
Media Molecule, they also wish to maintain a culture of no crunch, whilst remaining a small company with no more than 25 people. Sinclair describes an environment where everyone knows everyone and there are "no huge surprises".
Current Staff
Management
Programmers
Artists
- Phil McClenaghan - Lead Artist
- Paul Carrick - Senior Artist
- Chris Bradwell - Artist
- Janek Matysiak - Concept Artist
Design
Quality Assurance
- Sean Branney - Quality Assurance
External Links
Log in to comment