{"id":414238,"date":"2025-09-10T22:27:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T22:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/414238\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T22:27:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T22:27:14","slug":"does-sheffield-have-an-indie-games-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/414238\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Sheffield have an indie games scene?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Video games rule. I got really into screens around 2020 and let me tell you, it\u2019s amazing what they\u2019ve got these days.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

You can now live out all your fantasies: accidentally falling off a cliff during a moment of panic, having unsettlingly accurate knowledge of what\u2019s in your pockets, and living in a community where everyone is happy to talk to you (about rumours of weird noises in the forest). All from the safety of a fraying bean bag.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to make the case for video games as a medium. Almost everyone has, through intention or misadventure, been exposed to a good film, a good song or read the Wikipedia summary of a good book. But video games seem somehow partitioned off, set apart from ‘legitimate’ forms of entertainment \u2013 the bleeps and bloops of the freak\u2019s oubliette.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Your brain either contains a fond gaming memory already or your only association is your nephew cloistered away in an unsettlingly dim room hollering cutting-edge slurs through the sounds of relentless murder simulation. Lately he\u2019s started naming every automatic rifle over breakfast, claiming he can taste blood on his back teeth. You are right to fear. Something is wrong. Intervene.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Games don\u2019t figure into the picture of local creative talent. When a band from Sheffield makes it big, their city of origin becomes part of their story, and they become part of the story of their city. When a film is shot or set in Sheffield residents take interest, because the shapes of our environment have been regurgitated into art.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

But the games built on our doorstep are not incorporated into the cultural landscape in the same way. We have The National Video Game Museum<\/a>, we have Sumo Digital<\/a>, but there\u2019s very little infrastructure to inform people about what experiences are currently produced in our city. For smaller games developers, there are minimal pathways to make their works known to the people of their communities.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Video gaming is a goliath. Its economic bootprint exceeds both film and music<\/a> and we (Britons) are the largest consumer in Europe<\/a> (the continent). Despite its continued growth<\/a>, rot has set in at the largest studios as they oversee record numbers of job losses<\/a>. Talent is haemorrhaging out into the oceans (which I am using as a metaphor to represent the void \u2013 things are categorically not better overseas).\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

So we are entering an era of smaller independent studios. Nimble and untrammelled by brain-destroyingly vast shareholder obligations. Capable of escaping the What-If-You-Shot-A-Gun imagination vortex in whose event horizon live the majority of the big-title ‘triple-A’ games, perfectly frozen in time.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

For this reason I have been speaking to Sheffield\u2019s smaller developers about their creations and motivations.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCoded Black<\/p>\n

In a culture of games-as-dopamine-fulfillment Coded Black is an urgent and fascinating work. The first game by Maisha Wester<\/a>,
\n scholar of Gothic Literature and Horror Film Studies directly confronts
\n \u201cthe suppressed histories of anti-blackness in the US and UK\u201d.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

It is a game of exploration: as you progress the narratives
\n of the central characters you navigate an expansive environment serving
\n both as story location and interactive exhibit on the history of
\nanti-black racism. Hovering symbols both scattered and hidden mark the
\nlocations of high resolution archival content bringing specificity and
\nclarity to historical moments of resilience, humanity, and horror.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

A public education resource and work of gothic historical
\nfiction miraculously hybridised into something both gripping and
\nsobering.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Maisha told me:\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

In the states, I\u2019m in two cultural
\nstudies departments, American Studies and Black Diaspora Studies, and it
\nwas during the 2015 elections when I was teaching this course about the
\nformation of America and its politics. I was having students analyse the
\n debates and they pointed out time and time again the fallacies, the
\nmisrepresentations on both sides, but many of them still felt compelled
\nto say \u201cTrump still feels right\u201d.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

I knew why he felt right. Trump not only finds a
\nway to make someone else to blame for your misery and suffering, but he
\n feeds it to his supporters wrapped in a narrative typically stolen from
\n horror films and gothic literature. Of course it feels right to you –
\nhe\u2019s feeding you The Walking Dead,
\nonly with Mexicans. And these students weren\u2019t the extreme end of the
\nstudent population. We had a white nationalist student group on campus,
\nwho brought in speakers. Meanwhile, we had the Klan coming into the city
\n and flyering.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when I started thinking: I\u2019ve got to find
\nsome way of getting to engage with this context. Because when I give it
\nto you directly, you assume I haven\u2019t given you all the information or
\nyou assume I\u2019ve tweaked the facts. The surest way to get a student
\nto engage with content is to meet them where they are \u2013 and gaming is
\nbig.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

We also need to get rid of this mythos of the
\nUK as the land of racial equality. It\u2019s nicer here because you don\u2019t
\nhave guns and on the whole you\u2019re less likely to be lynched. But in
\nterms of the history and in terms of the systemic inequalities and in
\nterms of using a racist narrative to promote a particular political
\nends, the intersections are scary.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The game\u2019s not all the violent, depressing
\nstuff. There\u2019s dark comedy in the storylines. There are two figures that
\n show up, The White Witch of Rose Hall, there\u2019s also the story of
\nBenjamin Lay who was originally from the UK, who was not an abolitionist
\nuntil he moved to the Caribbean and learned about the injustice and the
\nevil of slavery. One of my favourite stunts he\u2019d pull was to put a
\npacket of blood in the bible and then during a driving abolitionist
\noration he would say, \u201cYou\u2019re making Christ bleed!\u201d and he would stab the
\nbible and it would explode with blood. So he makes an appearance.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

I\u2019m showing the real horror that racial
\nviolence, racist systems and ideology create. In some ways I\u2019m building
\non what Toni Morrison said. She was notorious for insisting she wasn\u2019t
\nwriting Gothic fiction. She said, \u201cThe gothic is the place of imagined
\nmonsters and imagined horrors and I\u2019m talking about reality.\u201d But for me
\n that doesn\u2019t make the writing less gothic \u2013 it makes reality gothic.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what I\u2019m doing here, reminding people
\nthat racism produces real horror. It\u2019s not just in terms of physical
\nviolence, it\u2019s emotional violence, systemic violence. People might say
\nit\u2019s just a lack of inclusion, it\u2019s not real horror \u2013 but it is.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTrans Theft Horso<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trans Theft Horso is an adventure game feverishly
\ndistinctive and porridge-thick with bold sensations. You play Adric
\nBelfonte on a quest to retrieve their brother\u2019s hormones on a narrative
\nadventure relentlessly dripping with detail. There is a pancake flipping
\n mini-game available from the title screen.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Developer Benjamilian Swithen said:\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

I never understand how anyone can enjoy a thing without wanting to make it. Because I enjoy computer games, I have always wanted to make computer games.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

I made a game in 2022 called Buy Hyacinths<\/a>.
\n Despite its name, it\u2019s a free game. It was about one of the first sheep
\n to go to human university. It won the Bronze Medal at the Melbourne
\nQueer Games Festival. It was not a widely-noticed game, but it was the
\nfirst one I made.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Trans Theft Horso is a role-playing game of a sort
\nin which you control Adric Belfonte and in which they go out into The West
\nvery reluctantly. Many things befall them and they have to make some
\ntough choices while petting animals and fighting admirals and pursuing
\nthe two great GG\u2019s (horses and gender gladness).\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

You are a person who
\nwalks around a map. Sometimes on that map you fight people, but much
\nmore often you talk to people. You have a fair amount of control over
\nwhat happens in those conversations, but let\u2019s be honest, not that much.
\nThere\u2019s a lot of railroading going on. I just try to disguise it. This
\ngame is a story at core.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

This will sound pretentious but the video game is an
\nauteur\u2019s medium if you want it to be. You have full control over every
\naspect, from making the graphics yourself, writing the dialogue, writing
\nthe music, the sound effects, choosing what the menus are like. It is
\nsomething over which you have a huge amount of control in a way that
\nwould be very difficult to do in other mediums, such as film, without
\nhaving an impressive budget.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The budget you need for a game is time. And patience. Mainly patience. But also mainly time.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

When Buy Hyacinths was awarded at the Melbourne
\nQueen Games Festival I played all the other medalists’ [games] and they just
\nseemed very sad. They were queer stories told with huge amounts of
\nsorrow and grief. I thought: I would love to do a story about queer life
\n and experience in which the character has no particular doubt of
\nthemselves, they don\u2019t really need to persuade anyone else they are who
\nthey say they are, they\u2019re just like this. They\u2019re trans but they\u2019ve got
\n stuff to do. If at any point they need to reflect on who they are, they
\n just have a peace, a confidence and a gladness.<\/p>\n

\t\tLearn more<\/p>\n

Trans Theft Horso is available on Steam<\/a> and Itch.io<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

A screenshot from to a T, which Lizi of Furious Bee was lead programmer for.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tuvula.jp
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFurious Bee<\/p>\n

The story of game development as one of
\nhulking AAA Studios and microscopic solo dev projects leaves out the
\nleast represented part of the sector: outsourced labour. Outsourcing has
\n become fundamental to the development and completion of big projects.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

I
\n spoke with Lizi Attwood and Ross Mansfield of Furious Bee<\/a>, a small studio based in Crookes that are regularly hired for contract work by larger studios.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

So what kind of work do you actually do for the companies that hire you?<\/strong>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Ross:<\/strong> For me, I\u2019m a 3D artist. I specialise in
\nvehicles, hard surface models it\u2019s called. I generally work on racing
\ngames. People come to me if they need a specific model, or series of
\nmodels. It\u2019s usually more unique bespoke stuff people come to me for.
\nCreative stuff rather than production type cars, because there\u2019s so many
\n outsourced studios that can copy a car model for cheap.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Lizi:<\/strong> My work is a little bit different because it will
\n either be for two or three months because someone needs help finishing a
\n project. Or, like lately, on my last project, to a T<\/a>,
\n I was the lead programmer. So I\u2019m looking after all the other
\nprogrammers from start to finish. A completely remote team, but I\u2019m an
\nintegral part of that – planning and delivering the whole thing. Six
\nyears in total for the game, but four years for me.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Do you have a sense of what\u2019s the cause behind the
\ncontraction of the UK gaming sector and the mass layoffs? I was aware
\nthere was huge growth and investment during the pandemic and that level
\nof consumption obviously didn\u2019t continue in the years following – but is
\n there more to it than that?<\/strong>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Lizi: <\/strong>The investors don\u2019t necessarily know what was
\ngood about the companies they\u2019ve bought. To them it\u2019s just a
\nspreadsheet, when the numbers aren\u2019t looking great they just strike them
\n off.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Ross: <\/strong>There\u2019s increased costs across the board and
\ndecreased revenues. It\u2019s quite shortsighted. A lot of those bigger
\nstudios are expected to have a hit every time, so when they don\u2019t they
\njust draw a line under it and close it. But it\u2019s unrealistic to expect
\nto have a hit every time. And the worst ones are where they\u2019ve spent 10
\nyears developing a game. But really the reception of the game when it
\nlaunched wasn\u2019t the issue, it was the ten years developing the game.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Lizi:<\/strong> The recoup cost is insane if you go over even two years. The amount of money they waste is unbelievable.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

And why is there no culture of local connection with games? Why are we disconnected from game development happening locally?<\/strong>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Lizi:<\/strong> Well, in triple-A studios, they almost want to
\nhide you away. When you\u2019re working in a studio like that they don\u2019t want
\n the outside world to have any kind of access to you. They spend time
\nhammering into you: you can\u2019t talk to anyone.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Ross:<\/strong> Definitely at big studios like Rockstar, you
\ncan\u2019t speak to press or you can\u2019t speak to anybody about anything you do
\n at work. Because any little leak can affect share prices and investor
\nnegotiations.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Lizi:<\/strong> Then, once it\u2019s out, a lot of companies just wipe the slate clean and then move on.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Ross:<\/strong> It gets handed on to marketing and PR teams who
\ntake the game to shows. But the actual developers get moved on to to new
\n stuff.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Lizi: <\/strong>It stops being anything to do with you at that
\npoint. And it takes you a while to get outside of that mindset once you
\nown your own company, to remember you can talk to people if you want –
\nyou won\u2019t get in trouble.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Ross:<\/strong> But for indie teams, it still kind of works in
\nthe same way. A lot of indies are engaged with fans on social media, but
\n not so much in real life. Possibly for good reason. There are a lot of
\nweird gamers.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Lizi: <\/strong>There are companies that warn you not to post
\nonline because you can potential become a target. If you get labelled as
\n the \u201clazy dev\u201d for some problem that a hundred thousand people hate –
\nit could be potentially dangerous.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Yeah, a lot of developers are forced to market
\ntheir games through these idiosyncratic digital spaces which are
\nanonymous and prone to toxicity. To me this would be an advantage of
\nhaving something that connects to local community, so smaller developers
\n particularly have another avenue to speak to people about what they\u2019ve
\nmade.<\/strong>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Lizi:<\/strong> And in fact it\u2019s really beneficial from a
\ncommercial point of view for an indie to find a really great niche
\nbecause you can really rely on those people. If you have a small number
\nof people who absolutely love what you\u2019re doing, you can just focus on
\nthose people and survive very happily like that.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Ross:<\/strong> I don\u2019t know what platform you could use. Whether
\n it would be an event, a magazine or local TV. But it\u2019s important to
\nraise people\u2019s awareness of what games are, different genres, different
\ntypes of games. The general public mostly think that video games are
\nCall Of Duty and it\u2019s just played by kids. Generally when we tell people
\n we make games that\u2019s what comes into their head and they say \u201cwe don\u2019t
\nplay games\u201d.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Lizi:<\/strong> But they do play Candy Crush…\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Ross:<\/strong> Yeah, they do play games. Games are such a wide medium.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\tLearn more<\/p>\n

If you are interested in game development or working on a game and interested to meet with local developers, the recently created Play Sheffield<\/a> are running monthly in-person meet-ups. The next one<\/a> is at the Showroom cafe on Thursday 2 October, 7pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Video games rule. I got really into screens around 2020 and let me tell you, it\u2019s amazing what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,393,4884,1620,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-414238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sheffield","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-sheffield","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115182361516975071","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}