Task 1- Game Production Company Research

Sumo

It is part of the Foundation 9 Entertainment group, it is an independent game development studio. It is based in Sheffield. It employs more than 170+ experienced development staff. Most have been working together for around 12 years. Sumo is licensed to develop on all the leading gaming platforms; Sony PSP, PS2 and PS3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Xbox and Nintendo Wii and DS. It has 10 years of investment in tools and technology (as well as cross platform development cycle and transparent production processes)

Sumo's key development experience can be summarised as:

• Racing
• License Products
• Sports Products
• Arcade Style
• Original Products
• Cross Platfom Development
• New Technology transition

Directors

Carl Cavers

MD F9E Europe

He was the Co-Founder of Sumo in 2003, before this he was a quality and system manager at Gremlin (now Atari) and was promoted to studio manager in 3 years. He also lectured for the Institute of Quality Assurance.

Paul Porter

Studio Head

He worked for Rolls Royce as a Scientific Software Developer to work on nuclear reactor plant modelling. He joined revolution software in 1994 as technical manager and wrote code for Broken Sword. He then worked for Gremlin in 1997 to work in R&D and managed the creation of cross platform development system that was then used throughout Infogrames Europe to enable reuse if tools and technology. He leads a team, which is vastly experienced and focussed on quality and customer service. He Co-Founded Sumo in 2003.

Darren Mills

Art Director

He worked as a Designer and Animator for program introduction sequences and later as a cameraman and editor for BBC, ITV and Sky. In 1995 he joined Gremlin. He worked on titles as well as being lead artist. He moved on to being Studio Art Director advising on several titles. Then he went on to Co-Found Sumo.

Ash Bennet

Technical Director

He started his career in 1989 at Gremlin Graphics writing games for C64, he then progressed onto NES, PC engine and SNES. He then joined Probe Entertainment. He worked as lead programmer on the first two games of Extreme G franchise. He returned to Gremlin in 2000 to work on Wacky Races. He then was one of the founding members of Sumo Digital and became Technical Director in 2008

Gary Edwards

Development Director

He was a programmer for Gremlin in 1996. In 1997 he was an OEM producer, and worked with all major hardware companies to produce enhanced versions of gremlins current games. He then Became a senior producer for them in 1999. He then helped in the start up of Infogrames Leeds in July 2000. He was then a Senior and Executive producer of Runecraft and Blue Monkey Studios and Climax, Then rejoined his old colleagues at Sumo in 2006 as an executive producer. He was appointed Development Director in April 2009.