Gamer Gary’s new business makes it to the big time first go
Mon, 06 Jul 2015 13:48:00 BST
Games Design student Gary Lloyd juggles his new business with his studies and comes up trumps on the big stage
BREAKING into the massive games industry can be extremely difficult, but with a lot of patience and determination, Huddersfield games design student Gary Lloyd has done just that.
Gary, who is 25-years-old and currently based in Leigh, Lancashire, has set up an independent games company called Sigtrap with his business partner Dr Luke Thompson. This was on the back of creating a successful game called Sublevel Zero for the Game Jam Ludum Dare 29.
Sublevel Zero is a first-person, six-degree-of-freedom rogue-like shooter set in a universe where reality is falling apart. The player steps into the cockpit of a lone gunship and navigates their way through a labyrinth of procedurally-generated 3D levels, puzzles and foes to source valuable ancient artefacts.
Ludum Dare, which is an accelerated video game development competition, lasted for a period of 72 hours and Gary admits their team of five got very little sleep. Along with Gary and Luke, their team was composed of a variety of different disciplines, including TinyKeep developer and procedural programmer, Phi Dinh, sound designer Jey Kazi and Huddersfield Music Technology student, Will Bedford. It was worth it though as they saw their creation finish joint 21st out of over 1,000 entries.
In addition, the game became popular via the Reddit gaming community, which in turn lead to Gary and Luke making a prototype from the Ludum Dare version, which they successfully pitched to world-leading computer and console games publisher and developer, Mastertronic.
Mastertronic has 30 years of combined industry experience and is now helping Sigtrap Games with the distribution, publication and marketing of Sublevel Zero.
Going global
To take advantage of upcoming technology, the final retail version of Sublevel Zero has Oculus Rift support, a virtual reality head-mounted display which enables you to see 360 degrees. Gary says he is pleased with how gamers have received the integration of the Rift in the prototype version, which was available to download and try.
“When we added Oculus Rift support we got another round of positive press and comments from the VR gaming community,” said Gary. “For example, some people get really nauseous when they play with the Oculus Rift. However, many people who tried our game said they didn’t get any motion sickness at all, which is really positive news.”
The PC version of the game is going to be released in late summer with the view to developing it further to release to consoles sometime in early 2016.
Gary Lloyd is pictured talking to HRH The Duke of York about developing his business Sigtrap Games Ltd.
All of this has been done while Gary was in the final year of his degree in Games Design. Whilst he admits completing his studies and starting a business at the same time has been difficult, he says he couldn’t have got through it successfully without the help of the University’s Enterprise Team in The Duke of York Young Entrepreneur Centre (DOY YEC).
“They have been invaluable,” said Gary. “For anyone who is thinking of starting up a business go to the Enterprise Team and talk to them first,” he said.
“They offer knowledge, support and the opportunities to get funding. Without them, we wouldn’t be here as Sigtrap.” he added.
The game’s success continues as Gary recently represented the University of Huddersfield in a student showcase event called Game Republic. From all of the universities in Yorkshire that took part, Sublevel Zero came second in games design.
