A Liverpool games developer and publisher behind Chess Ultra, Pure Pool and Snooker 19, with a studio in Birmingham.
Ripstone is a global independent games label and also a developer. It funds, publishes and markets games made with partner creative teams. Its well-known live titles include Chess Ultra, Poker Club, Snooker 19 and Pure Pool, and it has published indie games such as The Spectrum Retreat, Achtung Cthulhu! Tactics and Stick it to the Man!
In its own words, the aim is to build a lasting studio for the modern games market. The October 2021 press release for its tenth anniversary says it wants to grow a set of profitable live games, develop new original worlds and take on selected work-for-hire projects for high-profile clients, with game development at the centre of the business.
Ripstone was founded in 2011 by game and film industry veterans, and Phil Gaskell is named as Creative Director and co-founder. Its headquarters are in the Baltic Triangle in Liverpool, where the studio specialises in Unreal Engine work. In 2021 it opened a Birmingham studio, led by Mark Williams, a Codemasters veteran and co-founder of VooFoo, to build new technology, and another in Marathon, Greece. Paulie Hughes joined as Head of Technology after working at Traveller's Tales.
The company says it has financed and published 20 games across more than 75 versions, with global sales over 40 million units. The press release says it won the GamesIndustry.biz Best Places To Work award in 2021, which is a trade award the company reports about itself. Phil Gaskell said the company wanted to welcome more talent as it entered its next phase. We could not read the company's own website because the fetch was blocked, so details on culture are limited to the press release.
A company that both makes and publishes games employs programmers, artists, designers, producers and testers, and also staff in marketing, business development and finance. Learning Unreal Engine, making a small game of your own and understanding how a game gets from idea to storefront are good ways to prepare for a role in a label like this. Ripstone's evergreen games, such as chess, pool and snooker, show how a studio can build a steady business from familiar subjects, so product thinking and an interest in what players enjoy over many years are as useful as flashy ideas. The 2021 press release shows it was expanding its teams, so check its current news for how it is staffed now.
Website: ripstone.com
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