Hello Games

A small independent British studio behind No Man's Sky and the Joe Danger series, based in Guildford and Cambridge.

About Hello Games

Hello Games is an independent video game developer and publisher. It is best known for No Man's Sky, a space exploration game, and for the Joe Danger stunt-bike series and The Last Campfire. Its studio is based in Guildford and Cambridge in the UK.

The studio's own page says it believes small teams can do big things. It says it aims to "bring new games that wouldn't exist otherwise into the world", and to combine the stability and quality of big-studio development with the creative freedom of an independent. The same page says its staff are "generally humble, they have potential, and the grit to try to do their best work here". That is the company's own description, so ask about it at interview. Another way to see the studio's approach is that it grew from the Joe Danger games, which gave it the financial stability to start a new, original project without a publisher setting the direction.

Hello Games was founded by Sean Murray, who earlier worked at Criterion Games on the Burnout series. The Joe Danger games gave the studio the stability to start work on a new original idea, which became No Man's Sky. It began with a secret team of four people. Wikipedia notes that on Christmas Eve 2013 a flood destroyed most of the Guildford office and its equipment, and that the team recovered its work and carried on. Sean Murray's idea for No Man's Sky came from a long interest in space exploration games and an earlier internal idea called Project Skyscraper, a game without limits that the team hoped to make one day.

The team size is not stated on the page we read, but the company has told the public that the final No Man's Sky development team was thirteen people at launch, per a Wikipedia article about the game's development. That figure is an old one, and the studio has grown since. The company's page says the team is central to the company and that it is always looking for people. The company's own page describes Guildford and Cambridge as its homes, so there are two UK sites to look at.

A small studio means each person has wide responsibility and a real say in the product. The studio's work needs programmers, artists, designers, audio staff and the people who look after players and the business. Check the Hello Games website for current roles.

What they do

• {'desc': 'An exploration game in a huge generated universe.', 'title': "No Man's Sky"}
• {'desc': 'Stunt-bike action games.', 'title': 'Joe Danger series'}
• {'desc': 'A smaller story-led adventure game.', 'title': 'The Last Campfire'}

Key facts

• Based in Guildford and Cambridge (own site)
• Founded by Sean Murray, formerly of Criterion Games (Wikipedia)
• Final No Man's Sky team at launch was thirteen (Wikipedia, dated)
• Own site says small teams can do big things

Website: hellogames.org