A Cambridge games company that makes creative management and simulation games such as Planet Coaster, Planet Zoo and Jurassic World Evolution.
Frontier Developments is a games company in Cambridge, England. It makes and publishes PC and console games, mostly creative management simulations, where players build and run things such as theme parks, zoos and dinosaur parks. Its best-known games are Elite Dangerous, Planet Coaster, Planet Zoo, the Jurassic World Evolution series and the F1 Manager series. Its games run on its own in-house technology, called Cobra. Over its first two decades Frontier also made games for publishers including Microsoft, Sony, Atari and Sega, and from 2019 to 2022 it released eight titles under its own Frontier Foundry label.
David Braben founded the company in January 1994, and it takes its name from the Frontier space games he made earlier. Frontier says its mission is to develop games that continually delight players, add new features and extended gameplay, and build communities where players share their creations. Its values are creativity, innovation and authenticity, with ambition, teamwork and collaboration.
Frontier's headquarters is a large studio in the Cambridge technology cluster, at Cambridge Science Park. It also has a second studio in Winnipeg, Canada, home to the Complex Games team. Wikipedia reports 696 employees in 2025, and Jo Cooke became chief executive in December 2025. David Braben remains president and founder. The company's name comes from the Frontier space games he made in the 1990s, and Elite Dangerous was funded in part by a Kickstarter campaign and released in 2014. The Complex Games team joined in 2022. Frontier lists its work as creative management games, where the player's imagination matters as much as skill, and it encourages players to share their creations with each other.
On its own website Frontier says it supports an inclusive culture with employee-led groups and wants to share its success and reward its people. These are the company's claims, so ask about them at interview. Frontier describes a mix of roles across development, publishing and support functions, which gives a sense of how many different jobs sit around one game.
A theme park or zoo game needs programmers who build simulation systems, artists and animators who make every animal and ride, designers who balance how the game feels, audio staff, producers, and testers. Community staff talk to the players who share their parks online. Cambridge is a good place for maths, computing, art and design backgrounds. Frontier's careers page shows current vacancies.
Website: www.frontier.co.uk
PURPOSE helps school and university students explore 62 sectors and over 1,000 entry-level careers in the UK, then connects them directly with employers.
Explore PURPOSE