Former Black Rock staff form ShortRound Games

Some of the Black Rock staff made redundant last month have gone on to form their own studio, titled ShortRound Games. The start-up told GamesIndustry.biz that the new Brighton, UK studio has two demos in the works and plans to release footage in the next few weeks.

The company was reportedly formed in August of last year, before Disney Interactive made any public decisions to cut staff at Black Rock. We've contacted ShortRound Games to clarify the timing of the studio's foundation. The team consists of game director Andrew Hubbard, technical director Kim Burrows, technical art director Stuart Pharoah, and creative and art director Steve Uphill.

"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 in the way that we want to make them," said 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."

Hubbard also says the developer is in talks with publishers, but looking into self-publishing as well. They're particularly eager to develop for iPad or the upcoming PlayStation Vita. "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 really feel natural on a touch screen and leave you yearning for a joypad."