Tag Games looking beyond Scotland to tap up talent, says MD Paul Farley

Dundee-based developer Tag Games is expanding, with the firm taking to PocketGamer.biz jobs board to hunt for new talent.

The studio, which develops original titles alongside projects for a range of clients, is looking for a senior programmer and a senior game designer.

As such, now seemed like a good time to catch up with founder and MD Paul Farley, taking him to task on just what sparked the studio's latest search for fresh talent, and why recruitment is now a global game.

Pocket Gamer: First, how many staff do you have on board now, and what are you working on?

Paul Farley: We've now grown to a team of 30 working across five or six projects of varying sizes. Our approach hasn't really changed much over the six years since we set up the studio – we still mix our own original projects with work for clients.

Currently we are working on a number of mobile projects in partnership with some large game publishers and media companies. Some of those projects were announced at this year's GDC and E3 events, it's just that no one knows that it's us in the background developing them – yet!

Additionally have teams working on our social game Funpark Friends and the much anticipated Car Jack Streets 2.

Where are you recruiting and why?

Being independent and with a focus on organic growth means we've had some ups and downs over the years, but now we're ready to step on the gas.

Over the past 18 months we've invested heavily in our own multi-platform games engine, our analytics platform for social mobile games, and the cloud based infrastructure to run complex connected games.

This has given us a real competitive advantage and we're now in the nice position of being able to turn away project opportunities.

This year we expect to expand both parts of the studio – self-publishing and partnership.

It's going to be a challenging year with mobile gaming developing at breakneck speed and the entry of many traditional console publishers and development studios, but we know how hard that transition is and are ready to step up our game again.

Programming and design are the hardest to recruit, strangely enough.

We are fortunate to be located close to the University of Dundee and Abertay Universities, both of which are world renowned for their software engineering and computer design courses.

So, we have great access to new raw talent, but finding highly skilled, experienced team members is tough. Very tough.

The reality is that we are now part of a global talent market and are increasingly looking farther afield beyond Scotland to the rest of the UK, Europe, and beyond for the talent we need.

Well, it seems a long time since the collapse of Realtime Worlds.

I think Dean Takahashi [of VentureBeat] said it "qualified as one of the greatest disasters in video game history." That was hard to take and it did have a knock on effect on the whole of the industry up here.

In many ways, though, it was a marker that the end of AAA console development was coming and that studios needed to rethink their approach.

Since then we have seen a huge number of start-ups set up here, inward investment with the likes of Outplay locating in Dundee, and the industry taking on a new, dynamic, fresh image.

The quality of talent hasn't reduced or moved away, just the business models and platforms have changed and the type of games studio needed are smaller and more nimble than before.

It's no secret we've invested a huge amount of money, time, and energy ensuring we are on the cutting edge of connected, social, and free to play gaming. Hopefully you'll soon start to see the benefit of all that effort.

We will continue to develop our game engine moFlow to stay on the pace for iOS and Android, and will be adding Windows Phone support shortly.

The focus is still very much mobile and tablet and I wouldn't expect that to change given the growth opportunities available.

We will remain flexible in terms of changing business models and will, for example, consider models such as subscription if it suits the game in question.

The core model of mixing partnership and own IP self-publishing will remain, but I expect we'll be working on a smaller number of larger projects with extended 'live' phases. One thing's for sure – the rate of change in the industry isn't going to slow down!

Thanks to Paul for his time.

To find out more about Tag Games, have a look at the studio's website.

If you're interested in Tag Games' current vacancies, then you can find out more about the positions here, or apply directly through the PocketGamer.biz jobs board.