Denki doubles space for ongoing expansion
Continued success for Dundee outfit; "The market's finally caught up with us," says MD
Denki has announced it has more than doubled its office space in preparation for ongoing expansion.
The Dundee-based developer has acquired a new floor within its current office to provide enough room for its three growing development teams and a new awareness group.
"We're thrilled to have all of this new space, says Colin Anderson, managing director.
"We've been very happy with our choice of headquarters for the last several years, but with the success of our current recruitment drive and ongoing expansion, we had to look seriously at larger premises."
When asked by GamesIndustry.biz how many new staff members Deki was looking to recruit, Anderson responded: "Loads"
"It looks like the games industry might be headed for some really tough times soon, so we're currently building our equivalent of Noah's Ark up here in Dundee. We're still looking for an artist and a pair of coders."
Anderson went on to explain why Denki was in a position to grow, a move which bucks the trend of the majority of companies given the economic climate.
"We're expanding because we're back making Denki Games again," he said. "They seem to be in demand; like they might have become fashionable or something."
"We've been pitching games like these since 1999, but no one was interested until about 18 months ago, and now suddenly everyone is. I remember being in pitching meetings not all that long ago where the feeling was obvious that unless it was a fully 3D sandbox experience with 100 hours of 'gameplay' it just wasn't a 'real' game. It feels like the market's finally caught up with us at last."
However, Denki's general manager accepted the grim economic climate would offer up more industry casualties over the next two years.
"I think there's going to be some real seismic change in our industry in the coming 12-24 months; hence the ark," Anderson said.
"There's going to be a lot more casualties from companies still wedded to 'traditional' ways of working - both in development and publishing," he added, concluding: "It feels like the end of an epoch; as if the Age Of Mammals is just around the corner. Fortunately Denki's always been suitably cute and fluffy, so we should be tailor-made to survive whatever the economy throws at us."