Project Brighton: Brighton games studio Fat Fish Games, tops chart with latest release Tiny Striker: World Football
Development studio Fat Fish Games was established by David Lane, Jonasson Lochner and Anthony Barker. David and Jonas had been classmates on the same Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence course at Sussex, both graduating in 2004. Anthony joined and also co-founded the business, having known Jonasson since secondary school in 1994.
The studio, established in 2013, has had a number of successes with games and apps for platforms including Apple iOS, Google Android, Facebook and Windows Mobile. The latest creation, Tiny Striker: World Football, has seen an immense uptake in downloads since its launch in February. Taking just under one week to reach 1 million downloads, the app reached the dizzying heights of the #1 sports game in over 46 countries!
Sales figures for the mobile app (a free-to-play, fast-paced, action-packed football game) now eclipse 1.6 million. David, the company’s Managing Director, described this as “a massive achievement for a game”.
“This is our first Tiny Sports game to carry a new 3D perspective,” added Anthony, Creative Director at Fat Fish Games. “We’ve taken what made our previous 2D Tiny Striker game so appealing and added a variety of depth, including a league-based level structure, and the ability to share match highlights to other players around the world.”
If you’re interested in getting into games more seriously, Brighton is a great place to be
Director Jonasson Lochner commented: “If you’re interested in getting into games more seriously, Brighton is a great place to be; with over a dozen app developers in and around the city, it is a popular and sunnier alternative to the capital. Although competition is high, it can be useful when starting out to get a placement for summer in-between study, or work on a more casual/freelance basis to get some experience under your belt, rather than trying to get a full-time position as a games developer with little or no experience at all. It really helps to have a passion for games or programming itself, or ideally both!
“If you can demonstrate a solid foundation for your programming or design skillset, some existing work, projects, and even going so far as to self publish a mini project to one of the App Stores, this goes a long way when impressing potential employers.”
You can watch the Tiny Striker: World Football launch trailer at www.bit.ly/2nTh62E, or download Tiny Striker: World Football for iOS, or for Android on app stores.
This latest milestone continues a trend of successful launches for Fat Fish Games, with games frequently appearing in Apple’s ‘Game of the Week’ lists. Popular titles include Bubble Heroes, Tiny Striker, Tiny Goalie, Tiny Touchdown, Tiny Tennis and QuBe. In 2016, Fat Fish Games was named the best indie game developer in the UK at the prestigious Appsters Awards.
Fat Fish Games is based at the Sussex Innovation Centre, a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Sussex. Sussex Innovation offers experienced support and seed funding to help deliver a strategy, to build business confidence and skills, and increase a business’ chances of commercial success.
