Thank you to James Carroll, Director of Evil Twin Artworks, for providing us with this guest blog as part our guest blog series at techSPARK.

In your own words – what do you do?

Evil Twin Artworks is a Swindon based, video games company. We’ve developed multiple strategy games for PC and games consoles, starting with the World War 2 game Victory At Sea. This led to expanding the franchise, including Victory At Sea Pacific, based on a popular tabletop wargame.
In 2018, we released Man O’ War: Corsair, a game set in the Warhammer universe. Since then, we have been working on more games in the Victory At Sea franchise including Victory At Sea Atlantic and now we are working on a game based on a tabletop Role Playing Game, called Traveller: Vanguard.

What’s the most exciting thing about what you’re doing?

It’s the creation of something new, there is something special when you have an idea and it slowly comes to life.

What are you most proud of so far?

I think I’m proud every time a new game comes out, it is terrifying too! But the fact that we have worked with companies like Games Workshop makes me proud, my 10 year old self would be thrilled!

What have you found most difficult about being a startup?

Money!  It’s always a struggle starting up. In the industry we are in, unless you get an injection of cash you are waiting on launching a game, and hoping it does well.

What would you do differently if you started now?

I would have enjoyed it more, sometimes you are so in the weeds and getting stressed about everything you don’t take time to enjoy it.

Where do you think you’ll be in 12 months?

Hopefully launching Traveller: Vanguard and getting on with the next game in the franchise!

What tools/people/services/organisations from the cluster have helped you most?

We received funding from Games Lab (early on when we were making the first Victory At Sea) and in 2021 the UK Games Fund provided support for us to make Victory At Sea Atlantic, both cash injections changed the course of our business. We use Unity to develop our games and that has certainly speeded up our build process.

What’s the best thing about being based in Swindon & Wiltshire?

You get to know a lot of people in the games industry and places like Bristol are full of games companies, it’s nice to stand out somewhere as there are so few of us around here.

What support does the tech scene need in Swindon & Wiltshire? 

Recognition and financial support, I recently went up for some funding as I was told that Swindon did not fall into any of the regions that were specified. They suggested that maybe I could set up a desk somewhere in Bristol! It would also be nice to have closer ties with local tech companies, we are all doing our own thing, places like Bristol have such an organised, connected approach to the creative tech industry.

Where can we find out more about you?

You can check out our website at https://eviltwinartworks.com/
And check us out on facebook here https://www.facebook.com/eviltwinartworks

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