Trio hope to put Wales on games development map with indie company

A team of graduates are hoping to put Wales on the games development map by building up their own indie company.

North Dragon Games has two games currently in development and has future ambitions to grow the venture into a full-scale studio.

To introduce themselves the team, who met at Bangor University, has filmed an introductory video shot around their hometown of Colwyn Bay.

Ashley Hughes, the Lead Programmer, says: “Our long term goal is to have a studio in Wales which develops multiple ambitious titles, applications and experiences that will provide fun for people of all ages.”

The company, which develops games using the Unity engine, hopes to release Animal Rampant on mobile by the end of the year and is in the early stages of development of the PC game Peblo’s Pixel Paradise. Both games will use a retro pixel art style.

Passion

Their website describes them as being, “a Welsh independent company based in North Wales, filled with a passion for creating old-style video games with a modern touch.”

Despite Wales having a number of smaller developers, the games industry within Wales remains relatively underdeveloped with no large-size companies.

One notable recent success has been Pencoed-based Wales Interactive whose Welsh folklore-inspired game, Maid of Sker, has been downloaded by more than one million gamers.

The Welsh Government has been keen to promote the games sector and to recreate the success Scotland which has established itself as a home for games development.

One of the largest games’ development companies, Rockstar North, started life in 1987 as a small Dundee-based company called DMA Design Limited.