Fireproof Studios was founded in 2008 as an outsource team which specialised in designing & building 3D environments for AAA console games such as Killzone Shadowfall, LittleBigPlanet and many, many more. In early 2012 we had saved enough money to hire our first programmer, so after 4 years of working on other people’s games we could finally afford to make one of our own and in began development on our first game, the atmospheric 3D puzzler ‘The Room’.
As an artist-heavy studio we were inspired by beautiful craftsmanship and the wonder of discovery which led to developing innovative camera controls for navigating 3D scenes & objects. We wanted players to capitalise on the unique touch controls afforded by mobile devices to explore haunting locations, examine detailed objects and solve tactile puzzles in an effort to unravel a compelling mystery.
The Room was released in September 2012 and swiftly climbed the charts, reaching #1 in over 60 countries. Within 6 months following release we were stunned to see The Room win ‘iPad Game of the Year 2012’ from Apple, the BAFTA for British Game and the GDC award for Best Handheld/Mobile Game.
Critical and commercial success continued with The Room Two in late 2013 and The Room Three in 2015, the combined sales of The Room trilogy reaching 12 million units and counting with over 1.5 million 5★ player ratings.
For the 4th game in The Room series we wanted to return to the tighter focus of the first game; revolving around one detailed object unfolding and changing in surprising ways as the player solves it’s devious puzzles. In previous titles we had revolved the story around the gameplay, dealing purely with the mythology of these supernatural mechanical boxes the player was solving. With The Room: Old Sins we set the game inside a house and so wanted to evoke something more personal and human. So came the idea of the player using discovered diaries to piece together the lives of the house’s former occupants and in so doing, learning that the strange artefact the player chases was no prize to this loving couple but rather came to haunt and finally corrupt their happy home.
We released ‘The Room: Old Sins’ in early 2018 on iOS & Android and were thrilled to see it reach #1 all over the world and receive over 30,000 5★ player ratings.
As a 100% independent/privately owned company of 18 developers we believe our continued success is down to several factors; we put the player at the centre of everything we do, iterating design, graphics, gameplay & audio until they feel as slick as they deserve to be, so the player enjoys a polished experience from the first tap of the screen. As gamers ourselves it’s important for us to make games that we want to play and deliver an experience on a mobile phone which feels as polished as a AAA console game. Ultimately we try to treat mobile devices as not just a market, but also a fascinating piece of gaming hardware, the scope of which isn’t limited to this week’s top ten games but to the more generous capacities of imagination.
Shortly after graduating from his Games Design and Art course at the University of Southampton in 2017, Aaron began working at Sennep in London as Unity Developer on the mobile mini golf game Alphaputt. After staring at balls for two years, he became a freelancer where he contracted porting responsibilities for OLO Loco. Thoroughly depressed with freelance life and looking to improve his pool game, he joined Fireproof as Technical Designer in 2021.
Barry’s career began in Dublin in 1992 working on 'edutainment' titles for SNES, Amiga and PC. In 1994 he joined Bullfrog in the UK as lead designer and artist/animator on Magic Carpet, Syndicate Wars, Dungeon Keeper and many others. Game designer roles followed at Acclaim, Negative Productions & Mucky Foot before joining Criterion in 2004 working on Black and subsequently Burnouts 3, 4 and Paradise. In 2008 Barry and five friends left Criterion to form Fireproof Studios.
Graduating in Computer Animation from Teeside University in 2000 Chris worked in many roles from storyboards to scene modelling & animation before joining Criterion Games in 2005. While working on Burnout Revenge, Burnout Dominator & Burnout Paradise he progressed from Graduate artist/tea monkey to Track & Gameplay Designer/Artist before leaving in 2008 to co-found Fireproof Studios.
Chris studied animation at Duncan of Jordanstone Collage of Art & Design in Dundee, graduating in 2009. His career in animation began in 2010 when he relocated to London to join VFX studio Jellyfish Pictures, working on the BBC’s Planet Dinosaur series. Over the next 11 years at the company, he worked on a host of different projects including documentaries, advertising campaigns, tv shows and feature films. In 2021 he decided that a change of scene was needed, and his skills could be put to good use in the world of videogames.
Damien’s videogames career began at Rebellion, where he worked on the first Sniper Elite game on PS2 & Xbox. In 2004 Damien joined Criterion Games and found himself working on the critically acclaimed Burnout series and Black. In 2008 Damien and 5 friends decided to set up Fireproof to make games of their own.
Dave started his video game career in Sep' 2003 when he moved to Guildford after he was hired as a graduate artist at Criterion Games. He cut his teeth on Burnout 3: Takedown, and went on to make Burnout Revenge & Burnout Paradise as a Senior Environment Artist. He was also a level lead on Criterion's first FPS, BLACK. Dave left Criterion Games in 2008 to form Fireproof Studios with 5 other mates.
In 2006 Dave was forced into making video games to pay off his online poker debts. He first started at Criterion coding physics on Burnout Paradise, and developing car crashing tech with Rob. Since then he shipped Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and was physics lead on Need for Speed: Most Wanted. After 7 years of coding physics and car handling he was thoroughly bored of driving games, and jumped at the chance to reunite with the team at Fireproof.
Derek entered the games industry in 1998 at Bits studio and worked on Constantine and Die Hard Vendetta. He then joined the environment team at Criterion Games in 2005 creating artwork for Burnout Revenge, Burnout Paradise and Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince for EA Bright Light. In 2009 Derek joined Slightly Mad Studios where he worked on Need For Speed Shift and Need For Speed Shift 2 Unleashed. He then joined Fireproof in 2011 and made the magic happen.
Ethan has always had a passion for video games, which was joined by a passion for coding as he learnt to be a genius programmer. After graduating from the University of Southampton in 2022, with a masters in computer science, he was dead set on entering the video game industry. Hearing that Fireproof were looking for a Software Engineer to join the team and work closely with their Senior Engineers, he jumped at this great opportunity.
Jeremy’s career in the games industry began at Supermassive Games where he worked as designer on Tumble (the finest motion controlled, block-stacking physics puzzle game on PS3) and Start the Party: Save the World (the finest Start the Party game since Start the Party). He joined Fireproof in 2013 because they said he could and that was just fine by him. His free time is spent playing games, arguing and playing games which involve arguing.
After graduating in Computer Games Development from the University of South Wales in 2020, Karol spent a few months polishing up his portfolio with the aim of progressing in technical art. Karol was hired by Freejam in 2021 as a Junior VFX and Technical Artist on Techblox, though after 9 months heard that Fireproof Games needed a full-time VFX Artist, so after a short interview process he joined in spring 2022.
Kat’s love for art and videogames reaches back as far as she can remember, but it was graduating in European Engineering Business Management which served as a wake up call to rethink her career and pursue her creative passions instead. Since then she has bounced around many interesting places, from an Oscar winning stop motion animation studio to various gaming companies to finally be adopted by the wonderful world of Fireproof.
Lyndon studied Games Design at Teesside University in 2000. His first games job was at Reflections in Newcastle in 2003 working on the FMV sequences and animation for Driv3r as part of his four year course. After university Lyndon started at Criterion Games in 2004 as a Previs Artist/Animator, producing animated sequences, gameplay design & trailer work on Burnout Revenge, Burnout Paradise, Black, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit. In 2010 Lyndon left Criterion to join Fireproof Studios.
After studying Architecture & Engineering at Strathclyde University Mark realised that 3D modelling was far more interesting than Building Regulations and BREDEM calculations, so he applied for a job at Criterion Games. With an offer of a no guarantee placement Mark quit and left sunny Scotland behind. At Criterion he moved up through the ranks from junior artist on Burnout 3 to senior artist on Burnout Paradise before leaving in 2008 with 5 other senior artists to form Fireproof Studios.
Rob started out working for Codemasters in 2001, working on the Race Driver series of games. In 2005 he moved to Criterion where he specialised in destruction, working on the physics for Black and car deformation on Burnout. He joined Fireproof Games in late 2011, releasing The Room less than a year later.
In 1998 Roger graduated in Graphic Design from Leeds University and worked in London for 6 years at a variety of media companies before joining Criterion Games in 2004 as a Previs and UI Artist, where he created UI concepts and motion graphics for the Burnout games and Black. In 2008 Roger joined the Codemasters Guildford Studio as UI Lead working primarily on Bodycount, but left in 2010 to join his chums and head up the one man Graphic Design Department at Fireproof.
Graduating from Warwick University in 2004, Simon began his games career at EA, working on the Harry Potter game series. After 4 years of programming character into Harry Potter, he'd had enough of wizardry and joined Supermassive Games, where he worked on the Start the Party games and the BBC title Walking with Dinosaurs. In 2013, with the attraction of working within a small company Simon made his move to Fireproof.
After graduating from Abertay university's Game Design and Production Management course in 2014, Tom joined up with Glasgow based mobile developer One Thumb Mobile as Quality Assurance on Celtic Heroes. After a year he moved South of the wall to work as part of the production team at London VFX studio Jellyfish Pictures. He gained credits on multiple projects including Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi before deciding he missed the games industry too much. With that being the case, Fireproof answered the call to adopt him in 2018.
Tony began his career in art so far back now (though not as far back as Barry) that he can’t really remember how it all started. During the course of his career he has worked for a several game companies, some that he would prefer not to mention, working on titles that he’d also prefer not to mention. Then he joined Criterion, creating artwork for the Burnout games and Black. Since co-founding Fireproof he has worked on almost a million (estimated figure) other awesome games.
Vesper was educated at art college, though she always nurtured a strong interest in technology and videogames. During her time at University College London, she enjoyed working on several indie games and developed a passion for game development. After graduating with degrees in Graphic Design and Interactive Art she decided to begin her search for a job as a Technical Artist and joined Fireproof Games, where she continues to hone her skills and support the development of immersive games.
Nethi’s appreciation for game art reached new heights while studying game development at Falmouth University. After graduating she worked on a few freelance projects while preparing for her MRes with Bournemouth University where she researched gamers’ perception of realism in video games. She worked on various freelance projects after her Master’s degree, but her dream was to progress professionally within a team of like-minded people, and so she decided to join Fireproof Studios as a Junior 3D Artist.
