Slightly Mad Studios

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Slightly Mad Studios

logo
legal form Limited
founding 2009
Seat London , UK
management Ian Bell (Founder and Managing Director )
Branch Computer games
Website slightlymadstudios.com

The Slightly Mad Studios is a game development company based in London . They are mainly active in the field of racing games and racing simulations , but with Gamagio they also have a subsidiary that is entirely in the casual games market , particularly for mobile platforms such as cell phones.

In November 2019, it was announced that Slightly Mad Studios had been acquired by Codemasters for $ 30 million . However, a success clause can increase this amount up to $ 166 million.

Beginnings, work for the editor 10tacle Studios

The nucleus of Slightly Mad Studios at the beginning of the 2000s was a modding team for the game F1 Challenge '99 -'02 , which programmed data sets for the game for the 2002 FIA GT Championship or Formula 1 seasons after 2002 to be able to play; the Formula 1 modifications were given the abbreviation “RH” before the year, which stands for the vehicle modeler Ralph Hummerich, who is still employed today.

From this team the SimBin Studios were founded, which are responsible for GTR , GTR² and GT Legends . Meanwhile, SimBin co-founder Ian Bell founded the developer company Blimey Games (spelling: Blimey! Games ), which continued to work for the publisher 10tacle Studios .

Slightly Mad Studios

After 10tacle went bankrupt, Blimey Games was renamed Slightly Mad Studios, which is still run by Ian Bell today. They developed the need-for-speed titles Shift and Shift 2: Unleashed for Electronic Arts , each of which sold several million units. This success was reflected in the inclusion in the "Develop 100" list of 2010, in which Slightly Mad Studios was listed as the seventeenth most successful game developer in the world, based on sales. Furthermore, after a cooperation with Ferrari was decided at 10tacle times, the title “ Test Drive Ferrari Racing Legends” was completed and launched in 2012 under the publisher Atari SA .

World of Mass Development

In 2011 Slightly Mad Studios published the online portal World of Mass Development ( WMD for short ). This enables potentially interested game development teams to produce the game without the help of publishers , who normally provide the necessary financial resources and, because of this, usually control the development of the game from outside, and thus retain as much artistic freedom as possible. This happens on the basis of a mixture of crowdsourcing , crowdtesting and crowdfunding : after a fee-based registration, which grants greater rights with the developers of the planned game in a forum, interested players can discuss changes or innovations with the developers of the planned game in a forum, and after a fee-based registration Possibility to test early versions of the game. There are therefore certain similarities to the crowdfunding portal Kickstarter.com , only that WMD specializes in the production of software and offers extended options in this area. The decisive factor, however, was the financial aspect, as Ian Bell revealed in an internet forum:

“I'd love to do a rally game actually. The problem is getting someone to pay for it. We, like most developers, work hand to mouth at the mercy of publishers when it comes to the money side. We've pitched rally concepts before to publishers and even offered to go half on the funding but still no interest. "

“I would really like to do a rally game. The problem is getting someone to pay for it. We, like most developers, are financially hand-to-mouth at the mercy of publishers. We have made rally concepts palatable to publishers in the past and even offered to finance half of it, but there was no interest. "

- Ian Bell : Statement on April 14, 2011, before the creation of the "World of Mass Development" portal

Project Cars

The pilot title of the portal is the racing simulation "Project CARS", developed by Slightly Mad Studios, which was supposed to appear in November 2014, but was only available on May 7, 2015. Since the start of the project in October 2011, crowdfunding has raised over 2.25 million euros to finance the title, so that the goal of around 3.75 million euros in development budget could be achieved. According to the developer, the title sold over a million times within the first month and won awards in several print media and online magazines, including as “Racing Game of the Year”.

Follow-up projects

The second title of the platform, also developed by Slightly Mad Studios, was supposed to be a motorcycle racing game with the working title "Biker Bash". After a while, however, the development stopped. Work on the title “World of Speed”, which is to appear as a free-to-play title on the online platform My.com, was also started. Work also began on the successor to Project CARS, Project CARS 2 , which finally appeared in 2017.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Project Cars: Codemasters buys Slightly Mad for millions - Golem.de. Accessed December 8, 2019 (German).
  2. ↑ EMACF1: Download page for the Mod RH2003 . Retrieved August 13, 2012.
  3. ↑ Develop-Online.net: Blimey goes Slightly Mad ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved August 13, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.develop-online.net
  4. ↑ Issuu.com: "Develop 100" list for 2010 . Retrieved August 13, 2012.
  5. ↑ DerWesten.de: Review of "Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends" . July 12, 2012. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
  6. ↑ Information page on the WMD portal . Retrieved August 13, 2012.
  7. ↑ NoGripRacing: Forum entry by Ian Bell ( Memento of the original from December 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . April 14, 2011. Retrieved August 13, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nogripracing.com
  8. ↑ FAQ page about Project CARS
  9. ↑ Gamezone.de: Project CARS: Release not until 2014 and new trailer “Waiting In The Dark” . April 19, 2013. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  10. ↑ WMD Portal: Announcing Project CARS. October 11, 2011. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
  11. ↑ Forum portal with the current financing status of Project CARS
  12. ↑ WMD Portal: Project CARS - One Million Copies Sold! June 5, 2015. Accessed February 2, 2016.
  13. ↑ Projectcarsgame.com: Project CARS - Best Racing Game of 2015 December 23, 2015. Accessed February 2, 2016.
  14. ↑ Gameswelt.de: Arcade racing game by Slightly Mad? . July 28, 2012. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
  15. ↑ My.com: About World Of Speed , Retrieved on February 2, 2016th
  16. ↑ wmdportal.com: Announcing Project CARS 2 - Sign Up Now!