Double 11 Studios working on "high profile titles" with SCEE

[Shin-Ra]

http://www.double11.co.uk/2010/12/first-press-release/

“Double11 is a highly technical and creative young games studio based in the north of England striving to push new handheld game platforms to their limits. We are currently working on high profile titles with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and are looking forward to each of them being officially announced to the world.

John Rostron, Senior Director of XDev Studio Europe, says: “XDev Studio Europe are extremely pleased and excited to have the opportunity to work with Double 11 on forthcoming projects. The talent, enthusiasm and expertise brought by Double 11 will undoubtedly bring some exceptional gameplay experiences to PlayStation platforms over the coming months.”

We are currently looking to expand our expert team of experienced games developers in our Middlesbrough head office and also accommodate remote working and very flexible working conditions. We look forward to hearing from you.”

PSP games aren't out of the question but I think they're far more likely to be NGP now.


Rockstar Leeds duo break off to form new studio (15th February 2010)

Two senior developers are in the process of leaving Rockstar Leeds to kick-start their own indie development studio, Double 11.

The studio’s new director, Lee Hutchinson, was one of Rockstar Leeds’ lead engineers up until the start of the new year.

.....

Hutchinson has in fact formed his own development team due to a perhaps wider development trend that’s happening today.

“I think that a lot of developers are sick of huge all encompassing next-gen projects and want to get back to grass-roots bedroom coding like it was in the 80's and is for a lot of iPhone developers today,” Hutchinson tells Develop.

His viewpoint is clearly not isolated. Fable 2 lead designer Dene Carter recently quit Lionhead to form his own iPhone studio, Fluttermind, saying that expanding development teams create an “ever-increasing sense of distance between design work and actual craft that goes into making a game”.

Now Double 11, like Fluttermind, will be utilising its experience to develop iPhone titles. However, the group’s website suggests it will be looking to mix its own projects with contract work for other studios.

The group's emergence is the basis for this week's Develop Jury question, where we ask developers if large-scale development has reached its peak and is beginning to be challenged by smaller studios.

Lee Hutchinson (Rare > Venom Games > Rockstar Leeds > Double Eleven: CEO / Engineer)

I graduated from the University of Teesside at the age of 21 in May 2002 after gaining a first class degree in Visualization which was basically 3D software rendering, games, AI, physics, etc. I started work at Rare almost immediately afterwards. I was placed in Rare’s R&D department to learn the ropes. After three months of R&D-ing I was placed on request to PDZ as AI programmer and have been there ever since. During my time on PDZ I’ve contributed to a lot of different areas other than the AI including a lot of the character and gun control software.

Matt Shepcar (Mobius Entertainment > Rockstar Leeds > Double Eleven: Technical Director / Code)

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories – PSP, PS2

• Wrote the PSP graphics engine and asset pipeline to replace RenderWare
• Designed and implemented UMD based open world streaming system
• Implemented multiplayer over wifi including low level reliable UDP layer as well as high level game object synchronisation
• Scripting language enhancements and support
• Wrote a distributed compiler and object cache to speed development

Martyn Brown (Team 17 > INSIGHT For Hire / Double Eleven: Business Development)

Martyn Brown, who has spent 25 years in the games industry and co-founded one of the UK’s brightest independent studios, is now lending his widespread experience to Double Eleven. Having recently began his own independent consultancy business, Martyn, a personal friend of Lee, CEO of Double Eleven, has come on board to assist with the continued growth and development of the company.

“I am incredibly chuffed to assist, advise and help inspire Double Eleven, who are hands-down one of the most exciting, driven and highly capable development teams I’ve had the fortune to meet in years. I have absolutely no doubt that Double Eleven will be amongst the UK’s most high-profile and successful development studios within a very short space of time” Martyn Brown.

Lee Hutchinson offered “We’re really looking forward to Martyn’s assistance. Everything at Double Eleven has been going so fast for us that it’s hard to keep track of things at times. Martyn’s experience and expertise are no doubt going to help keep things running smoothly as we look towards future plans for development of our own IP.”

Christian Russell (Gremlin Interactive > Core Design > CiRCLE STUDIO > Swordfish Studios > Sumo Digital > TT Fusion > Double Eleven: 3D Artist)

We have a new artist joining the Double Eleven team. With 16 years experience in 2D and 3D art, Christian Russell boasts such names as ‘Tomb Raider II’ and the LEGO Star Wars franchise on his CV. We’re looking forward to reaping the benefits of Christian’s experience for our projects.

...

At Core I was responsible for creating and texturing the Environments for the PS2 game - Herdy Gerdy. I was then put in charge of the look and feel of the in-game textures on Fighting Force 3. I also worked on the intro to Tomb Raider 2 alongside the main animator.