Playdemic founders' new studio ForthStar Games will "test and kill" to find its next Golf Clash
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Paul Gouge and Alex Rigby have quite the track record.
The pair set up their first mobile games studio, BattleMail, in 2001 and sold it to (M)Forma a year later. Shortly after, they formed Rockpool Games, made the J2ME edition of Worms, and sold the developer to Eidos/Square Enix in 2007. Their third studio, Golf Clash creator Playdemic, opened doors in 2010 and two years ago sold to Electronic Arts for a whopping $1.4 billion – one of the biggest UK games acquisitions to date.
With three successful studios and five sales under their belt (Playdemic was owned by Warner Bros' TT Games and RockYou prior to EA), Gouge and Rigby today unveil their next venture: it's another games studio.
ForthStar Games is based in Manchester and already employs a team of 14, all of which are Playdemic alumni. Gouge and Rigby have secured $10 million from investor Griffin Games Partners and plan to unveil their first game next year.
The developer has actually been working in stealth since 2023, meaning it was just one year between the co-founders' departure from Playdemic and the creation of their new studio. Having already been through this process three times, why did they start a games studio from scratch again?
"The simple response is I don't know how to do anything else," Gouge tells GamesIndustry.biz. "In all seriousness, Alex and I took a bit of time off. I had a promise with my wife that I'd take a year off, and I think I did – she might disagree, but I'm pretty sure I had a year off.
"People are playing [mobile games] more than ever before... It is difficult to become one of those success stories, but they're still happening"
"During that time, I had a bit of self-reflection, did some investing and non-executive roles, and what came home to me is that this is what I love to do, and I know Alex does as well. We're really passionate about making games, it's what we've done for all our careers. We love the
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