Mode 7 Games

Mode 7 GamesIndustry| Video games

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Founded| 2005
Founders| Paul Kilduff-Taylor, Ian Hardingham
Headquarters|

East Sussex

England

Website| www.mode7.games

Mode 7 Games is a United Kingdom-based video game developer and publisher.

## History

Mode 7 was founded around 2005 by Paul Kilduff-Taylor and Ian Hardingham. They spent two years to develop Determinance, a multiplayer sword fighting game. According to Kilduff-Taylor, the game was a commercial disappointment for them, but their capabilities attracted contract work from clients like ITV, BBC, and Novint Technologies. Their work with Novint had involved a game that was divisive - some thought it was great while others were confused by it. This led the pair to the goal of making a game that was good regardless of how long it would take.[1] They started development of this title while still doing contract work to pay for their bills, and once they felt the single player was in a state good enough for a beta release of their next title, Frozen Synapse in April 2010.[2] After about a year, sales of the beta were sufficient to sustain them allowing them to commit to the title full-time.[1] Frozen Synapse, a turn-based combat strategy simulation game, was released in full by May 2011, received critical praise, and by early 2012, had sold over 300,000 units, with over US$300,000 in direct sales to Mode 7. This allowed Mode 7 to expand the game to other platforms and hire additional staff.[3]

Based on the success of Frozen Synapse, Mode 7 wanted to take the core of that game into their next title, and developed Frozen Endzone, a similar strategy game but based on a sport like American football. The game, which was released in 2015, did not fare as well as Synapse even after a change in name to Frozen Cortex, which Kilduff-Taylor attributed to players thinking it was a sports game rather than a strategy game. Due to this, Mode 7 returned to develop a sequel to Frozen Synapse, Frozen Synapse 2, which was initially planned for released in 2016 but was delayed until 2018.[4]

In 2017, Mode 7 announced they would also support publishing of other indie games, with Smac Games' Tokyo 42[5] and Codebyfire's The Colonists.[6]

In March 2019 Ian Hardingham announced he was leaving the studio to become chief technology officer at Oxford Brain Diagnostics, working on early detection of brain diseases. With his departure, Mode 7 further downsized as they were no longer developing "large-scale indie games in-house", but instead would remain committed to supporting the publishing arm and their third-party studios.[7]

Mode 7 announced in February 2020 they would help publish Ground Shatter Game's Fights in Tight Spaces.[8]

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Meer, Alec (12 July 2011). "Mode 7's Paul Taylor". GamesIndustry.biz. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-07-12-mode-7s-paul-taylor-interview. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
2. ↑ Cangeloso, Sal (19 April 2010). "Indie game Frozen Synapse pre-orders available today". Geek.com. https://www.geek.com/games/indie-game-frozen-synapse-pre-orders-available-today-1197382/. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
3. ↑ Polson, John (25 January 2020). "Road to the IGF: Mode 7 Games' Frozen Synapse". Gamasutra. https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/129235/Road_to_the_IGF_Mode_7_Games_Frozen_Synapse.php.
4. ↑ Wawro, Alex (14 March 2016). "When good games go bad, devs share lessons learned from failure". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/when-good-games-go-bad-devs-share-lessons-learned-from-failure.
5. ↑ Wakaskez, Luke (30 March 2016). "Tokyo 42". Game Informer. https://www.gameinformer.com/games/tokyo_42/b/pc/archive/2016/03/30/take-a-look-at-the-colorful-criminal-underworld-in-this-announcement-trailer.aspx.
6. ↑ Smith, Adam (18 July 2017). "Mode 7 to publish planetary settling sim The Colonists". Rock Paper Shotgun. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/07/18/the-colonists-management-sim/. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
7. ↑ O'Conner, Alice (18 March 2019). "Mode 7 co-founder leaves to do brain science". Rock Paper Shotgun. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/03/18/mode-7-co-founder-leaves-to-do-brain-science/. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
8. ↑ Phillips, Tom (17 March 2020). "Fights in Tight Places has some stylish turn-based fisticuffs". Eurogamer. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-03-17-fights-in-tight-places-has-some-stylish-turn-based-fisticuffs. Retrieved 17 March 2020.

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