Video games company takes on big boys ... with a little Uni help
Thu, 31 Jul 2014 12:47:00 BST
3M BIC News – Red Kite Games
Video game Firefly Runner finds instant success in the 70 billion dollar gaming market
The Red Kite team: (standing l-r) Aidan Ward and Managing Director Simon Iwaniszak, (seated l-r) Andrew Wiley, Jonathan Lilley and Anthony Morris.
THE video games industry is now a bigger money-spinner than the movie business. But its “Hollywood” can be located wherever talented, ambitions people decide to base themselves – such as a state-of-the-art 3M Buckley Innovation Centre (3M BIC ) at the University of Huddersfield.
One of the newest players in an industry, that is generating upwards of 70 billion dollars a year and growing rapidly, is a company named Red Kite Games, operating from the Innovation Centre, which houses a huge diversity of businesses, large and small, new and long-established.
Red Kite, whose MD and founder is experienced games designer Simon Iwaniszak, has been up and running for some two years. It carries out development work for some of the biggest names in the global games business, but has just launched its own game – for both mobiles and tablets – named Firefly Runner. Its early success has vastly exceeded expectations, with some half a million downloads in the first three weeks. It has garnered four-and-a-half star – out of five – reviews at outlets such as Apple’s App Store, plus online comments such as “this is surely a future classic of the genre”.
Aimed at younger players, although proving its appeal to adults too, Firefly Runner is described as “an action-packed, free-running adventure set on the stunningly beautiful yet treacherous Firefly Island”. One of its special attractions is that 15 per cent of revenues raised are being donated to the UK-based video games charities, GamesAid and SpecialEffect.
Firefly Runner is certainly different in character to some of the established games that Simon and his Red Kite team have worked on. During his career, he has been a developer for Rockstar – including a stint based in San Diego, California – on games such as Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. Then he decided to start out on his own, recruiting a team to found Red Kite, taking on development work for Activision on games such as Call of Duty: Strike Team.
Emerging talent
Among the advantages of the 3M BIC – apart from its facilities, attractive working environment and high level of security – is proximity to the University of Huddersfield, its researchers and its pool of student talent. Simon Iwaniszak – who has academic qualifications as well as game industry experience – teaches modules on the University’s popular BSc honours degree course in video games. The students gain from his industry experience and Red Kite Games stands to benefit as well.
Two students, Anthony Morris and Jonathan Lilley, were talent-spotted by Simon and after graduation they were offered posts across the road at Red Kite, where they have played an important role in developing Firefly Runner.
“As I work with students I see the ones who are the emerging talent. For me, there is less of a risk because I have worked with these students throughout the year and I know who will potentially be a good fit for Red Kite. Anthony and Jonathan have been spectacular. And, on top of this the 3M BIC is a really nice working environment,” said Simon.
His company will continue to develop and upgrade Firefly Runner, as well as work with other major companies in the sector.
“It is very hard to predict how things are going to go, because the technology changes so quickly, but games are only going to keep getting bigger and better.”
- The 3M Buckley Innovation Centre is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the University of Huddersfield and Kirklees Metropolitan Council.
