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Anime The Chinese Room is going down the drain.

Metro

Arcane
Beg Auditor
Joined
Aug 27, 2009
Messages
27,792
Makers of quality walking simulators. Good riddance.
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
Become a rikishi: http://www.thechineseroom.co.uk/blo...apter-in-tcrs-life-as-we-join-the-sumo-family

Exciting times - it's a new chapter in TCR's life as we join the Sumo family!

By now, you’re probably arriving at this blog post having read or heard the news that we’ve been acquired by Sumo Digital and although we’re now going to put our heads down for a bit and quietly get cracking on new projects, it feels like a good opportunity to talk a little about it.

Following the studio’s closure in summer 2017, we were faced with a decision. We knew we didn’t want to just start over, trying to recapture a time in our history where a we could push out arthouse titles and survive the process. It was an amazing few years, but it came at a cost, one that I knew I wasn’t about to take on again. And it was time for a change – to make different games, explore new ideas and, if TCR was going to reboot, to evolve into something that opened up new opportunities.

For a while, we didn’t really know what that would be, or how to do it. We knew Jess was finally cutting the cord, going off to be a composer who worked not just in games, but other projects, whilst remaining the person who would continue to deliver amazing soundtracks for the studio, and be the incredible advocate for game music we all know and love. That meant finding a business partner with the skills and experience to enable me to focus on creative direction and steering some new games into being.

We first started talking to Sumo in the winter of 17/18. Obviously, we knew them from their reputation in the industry as a rock-solid company with a great track record of taking IP and making it really shine. I knew people who’d worked for them and they were always talked about as a great bunch of people who really cared about their teams and their games. We discussed how with Sumo’s infrastructure and experience behind us, we could rebuild TCR into something new, with the capacity to take on bigger projects, offer better security to a team and realise some of my own ambitions for game making that just weren’t going to be possible alone. The way Sumo is structured and the relationship between partner studios and central management seemed like a great fit, and I naturally immediately liked the attitudes of the company leaders – they are open, straight-talking, ambitious and smart (and I’m from Hull and Jess is from Clitheroe, so it’s a good northern tradition). The more we talked, the more of a no-brainer it felt. Particularly with the amazing people and studios who have recently joined the Sumo family it feels like the perfect home, and it’s incredibly exciting to be writing this while we’re gearing up for a new game or two or three.

So what is next? Right, well, quite a bit.

Firstly, those existing concepts that didn’t get made. They are still very much on the table. Before leaving us to pursue his own games, the uber-talented Andrew Crawshaw and I worked up a new prototype of The 13th Interior, with the fantastic support of the UK Games Fund. The game still needs a little bit of work to nail down some core mechanics, but then it’s finding the right opportunity to roll out the rest of development. It’s very much still in the plan to finish it up at some point. There were also two other concepts we were playing around with – very different types of games for us – and they will remain gently percolating in the background.

Then there’s So Let Us Melt, our sci-fi fairy-tale we made for Google Daydream. There’s a working plan to revisit this game, injecting more mechanics, building on the gorgeous art and audio the old team created and getting it out to a wider audience. Particularly because the story is something I absolutely love, and Jess created a soundtrack for it that is probably her best work to date (really, check it out), I want to make sure it’s something that evolves with us and finds new platforms and audiences because it really deserves them.

And finally, but perhaps most importantly: yes, we are talking to a range of potential partners about a new title. Something bigger, something that joining Sumo enables us to pursue because all of a sudden, we’re part of a family of developers with a decade and a half of experience in making all kinds of games, and making them really well. Something that takes a more traditional game genre – no, you don’t get to know what just yet – and lets us spin our worlds and stories on top of that. It’s going to be very, very exciting.

So watch this space. We’re going to start gently adding new faces to the team as we push through prototyping, and I’m so happy to know we’ll be joining the amazing talent of both Sumo and our local network of studios in Brighton – where so many cool things are happening right now

It’s exciting times. A fresh start. If this was a game script, a gravelly-voiced man would probably say something about a “new dawn”.

Whatever it is, it’s going to be proper awesome. Watch this space.
 

ItsChon

Resident Zoomer
Patron
Joined
Jul 1, 2018
Messages
5,381
Location
Երևան
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Poor Sumo Digital. This is a blemish on the record of an otherwise pretty great developer.
What the fuck are you talking about?

ujFSBl5.png
These are games? TBH, I probably could have outlined the entire list.
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
:necro:

Bolstering: https://www.sumo-digital.com/the-chinese-room-hires-17/

The Chinese Room Hires 17

Aims to double size of studio by end of 2019

The Chinese Room today announces that it has hired fifteen people over the last 3-months across a variety of disciplines including design, art, animation and programming.

Since being acquired by Sumo Digital in August 2018, The Chinese Room has been actively recruiting to grow the team to work on new, original titles.

Ed Daly, Studio Director, The Chinese Room said:

“I’m delighted to have such a range of new talent and experience on board, and we’re not done yet. It’s been particularly rewarding to have so many talented people show their passion for joining The Chinese Room and for the games we will be making here. “

Dan Pinchbeck, Creative Director, The Chinese Room added:

“We’re hard at work on a great new game and it’s fantastic to have brought together such an amazing bunch of talented developers to help realise it. We’ve got a brilliant mix of industry veterans and rising stars and it’s really exciting to see the studio keep evolving and growing.”



The recent hires are:

John McCormack, Art Director
Whose track record includes tenure at Lionhead and EA. Prior to The Chinese Room, John was a founder and director of Another Place Productions.

Nick Slaven, Technical Director
Formerly Head of Tech at Stainless Games.

Rob McLachlan, Lead Designer
Formerly at Climax and The Creative Assembly.

Ben Matthews, Lead Artist
Formerly at Wish Studios and Creative Assembly. Graduated from Bournemouth University BACVA 2009.

Darren Farmer, Senior Artist
18 years of experience including Sony, Wish and Relentless.

Tim Turner, Senior Character Artist
10 years of experience at studios including Rare, Jagex and Relentless.

Laura Dodds, Artist
Previously Head of Art at Dream Reality Interactive on several AR and VR titles. Graduate of The National Film and Television School.

James Rutter, Artist
Previously worked at Nixxes in The Netherlands.

Jasdev Singh Atwal, Junior Artist
First games artist role since his graduation from De Montfort University.

Tim Meredith, Senior Animator
Originally a model-maker, now 20 years as an animator with 15 of those in the games industry at Sproing and 22Cans.

Volker Pajatsch, Senior Animator
Classically trained and with experience in TV, film and games with credits including The Iron Giant movie and game projects for Ubisoft and Frontier.

Michele Nucera, Concept Artist
Joins the team from Sumo’s Sheffield studio, previously at Ubisoft Milan, where he worked on Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle.

Sophie Blakemore, Senior Designer
20 years of experience at studios including The Creative Assembly and Rockstar.

Manos Agianniotakis, Designer
Formerly at Supermassive following graduation from The National Film & TV School and a 10-year career in academia.

Will Traynor, Designer
First position in the industry following graduation from Abertay University.

Stuart Findlater, Senior Programmer
Joins from PaperSeven with experience at Codemasters and Climax.

Joe Wheater, Programmer
First industry role, with a background in designing and developing interactive installations and digital art.

The Chinese Room is continuing to hire across all disciplines: The Chinese Room Careers

Sounds like their new game will have... characters in it.

From job listings:

In 2018, we joined the Sumo Digital family of studios. This new home will see us bring our passion and commitment to creating exciting original games within a network of studios renowned for quality and expertise. This enables us to expand and grow in ambition and confidence, taking our reputation for storytelling into new genres. We’ve already started work on one new title and are in discussions about a significant AAA project.
 

Neanderthal

Arcane
Joined
Jul 7, 2015
Messages
3,626
Location
Granbretan
You're not seeing their master plan. This is simply an evolution of their design principles, there was never much interaction in their games, and now finally they are free of any gameplay or game itself. Job done.
 

Solid Snail

Learned
Joined
Oct 31, 2018
Messages
328
I saw Everybody's discounted ONCE on Steam and never again, I wonder if they are still a thing or what.
 

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