About
Thanks for popping by…my name’s Andrew Crawshaw and I’m a games developer based in the north of England. I’ve been making videogames since the mid-90s. In that time I’ve worked on over 20 projects, primarily in creative and management roles.
Tempest - Where it all began
I started my career at the near legendary Tempest Software in the leafy suburb of Horsforth, Leeds. In some ways it was the perfect beginning to a career in games. All but two of the staff it was their first development job, so there were very few bad habits brought in from other companies (we just made our own up as we went along). There was more or less a flat structure to the company, and we were all expected to contribute in any way we could. One day you might be creating levels, and the next writing some scripts for the voice talent to act out in our games. It was like the development equivalent of total football - people with a range of skills moving fluidly to cover whatever task needed doing.
Climbing the Ladder
This approach was both a blessing and a curse. When Tempest ‘bought the farm‘ I hadn’t realised how unconventional its development process was. My next few jobs just didn’t fill me with the same enthusiasm, and couldn’t accomodate my fondness for experimenting. I didn’t want to end up being ‘Tree Artist #12‘ in a producion line development studio.
It wasn’t all bad news though. I joined Rage right at its peak - just before the bubble burst I guess. As the company started to close studios I found myself being promoted into management. It was a prickly time - jobs were under threat, we’d been relocated, and there was a political undercurrent in the team. But by the time of the inevitable studio closures, I’d gain some invaluable experience and learned some important lessons.
You Don’t Need a Scent Of Tuna To Work Here, But It Helps
It wasn’t until I joined my current company, Tuna Technologies, that I managed to find another role that offered real creative freedom. I’d applied to Tuna after the closure of Rage, but it wasn’t until a couple of months into my next job that Alex (head honcho of Tuna) called me back. We met up and chewed the fat.
Although I’d applied for the role of Head of Art, we ended up discussing games design as well, and he made it clear that if I joined I’d get the chance to bring my ideas to life. I’d been eagerly working on ideas for games whenver I was between jobs so I was sold on that idea, and promptly left my job to join the fishes.
To Bigger Ponds
That was five years ago, and I’ve been on a real journey. It’s hard for small companies to get noticed, but we’ve really managed to punch above our weight. It’s taken a determined effort to get Tuna where it is now - we’re working on some really cool projects, and we’ve got more freedom than ever before. All, as they say, will be revealed shortly…
Great, the World Needs Another Blog
Ok, so maybe it doesn’t, but I’ve got a feeling that the next few years are going to be very interesting. While most of my projects will be revealed and discussed over at TunaSnax, here at Thunkd I’ll be keeping things a bit more personal, and more opinionated. I’ll celebrate the finer things about the games world, and remonstrate about its less appealing features. There’s no master plan, let’s just see what happens…
PS Thunkd? WTF? It’s the incorrect past tense of think (thought), as in “I thunked about using a pleasant colour scheme for my blog, but where’s the fun in that?“
