Your stories

:: January, 2005

Nestled inconspicuously in a business estate in Attercliffe, the offices of Sumo Digital represent that strange inconsistency of video games.

Any observer that cares to look at business estates on their way to Meadowhall would quite fairly imagine rows of desks in dull offices churning out whatever it is that offices churn out.

Nip behind this generic business façade and you’ll find an arcade machine in the board room, enthusiastic creatives and whole new universes being made. Professional but fun making: this is modern video games development.

Quite rightly, Sumo feel right at home in Sheffield. South Yorkshire has a highly regarded gaming pedigree and has long been a choice of venue for a host of developers.

Sumo themselves came together from what was once a 250 strong studio based in Sheffield, part of a collective of developers in the region. At its peak, South Yorkshire produced a huge number of internationally known titles that has given it an extremely strong reputation in the gaming industry.

“There wouldn’t be many people [in Sheffield studios] who we haven’t worked with at some point”, recalls Sumo COO Carl Cavers. “It was a great community and we’re all local people”.

“At the end of the day, we create games but we are a business with large overheads and no certainty on returns. Support from Business Link South Yorkshire allows us to use their expertise to maximise our abilities to produce creatively” says Cavers. Such support from regional organisations has helped in getting titles, such as their highly successful conversion of OutRun 2, to shops around the world.

Game Republic, an independent trade alliance covering Yorkshire and the Humber, also assist in the process of creating games. Specifically drawn from local talent and based in Leeds, Game Republic benefits from a strong network of studios like Sumo and the video game verve long established in the region.

This degree of support is rare in other parts of the country and Sumo recognises that there’s certainly a North/South divide in terms of positive associations such as this. This made the decision to stay in Sheffield when setting up the studio an easy one to make.

While the financial realities of the video games industry forced the closure of top developer Argonaut’s Sheffield studio, the UK and South Yorkshire scene has a bright future.

Although studios are closing down, the popularity of games continue to climb, having surpassed movie industry revenues some years ago. While it is perhaps for this reason that organisations like Business Link are more willing to support games, their acknowledgement of the industry combined with the resident technical workforce in South Yorkshire provides a positive step forward.

Sheffield Hallam University is one year into a BSc in Software Development which focuses on games. The course recognises the heavily technical side to creating video games and allows students to think about the equally important creative aspects.

Linking in with many of the local studios, it is hoped that this will keep the workforce in South Yorkshire consistent and sustain the demands for next generation development teams. As gaming struggles to achieve the credibility that an industry of its size deserves, such courses help mark out South Yorkshire as an enabler in the difficult transition from niche interest to cultural artefact.

There’s every reason to believe that original and exciting concepts will emerge from the creative wealth of the region. “If we can release an original property in the next five years that gets critiqued really well and sells really well, we’ll be very happy” reflects Cavers.

This notion, emerging from sound business support and an established video game heritage, is a familiar one to developers working in South Yorkshire and one that will surely mark the region as one pioneering this new artistic outlet.