Split/Second devs start new studio

A number of staffers laid off at Split/Second studio Black Rock earlier this year have resurfaced with their own new start-up.

According to GamesIndustry.biz, Brighton-based ShortRound Games is the brainchild of former Black Rock game director Andrew Hubbard, technical director Kim Burrows, technical art director Stuart Pharoah and creative and art director Steve Uphill.

It has two demos in the works and plans to release a showreel in the next couple of weeks to drum up interest.

"We've just been made redundant from Black Rock which has given us a great opportunity to achieve what we all came into this industry to do; make games that we want to play and in the way that we want to make them," explained Hubbard.

"We're all really privileged to have worked on some great games like the Burnout series and Split/Second and have now got the chance to take what we've learnt and apply it to our own creations."

ShortRound will be platform agnostic, though Hubbard hinted it was interested in portable development.

"As for publishers and platforms, we're in talks with various publishers but not ruling out being self published and are keen to release on iPad or even Sony's Vita," he said.

"One thing that we know is that we want to make games that really suit the platform, there's too many iOS games that don't feel natural on a touch screen and leave you yearning for a joypad."

It's the second studio to emerge from the downsizing that stripped Black Rock of around 100 employees back in April. Late last month, Split/Second director Nick Baynes and senior producer Ian Monaghan announced they had set up Roundcube Entertainment.