Studio Profile - Stainless Games

The Isle Of Wight’s finest on 25 years of cars, cards and controversy

- Chris Schilling

You need a certain steel to last a quarter of a century in the game industry. Since 1997’s Carmageddon instantly put it on the map, Stainless Games has survived a number of canceled projects, effortlessly moved from car combat to card combat and back again – with an interlude remaking classic arcade games – and now has four projects on the go, having bought back and subsequently resold the rights to its biggest hit in the meantime. The secret of its longevity? “Do a good job,” CEO and co-founder Patrick Buckland tell us. “That’s how you survive.”

Buckland had been freelancing in the game industry since 1982, working on the Apple II and the Macintosh for a variety of companies in the early ’90s when he began to feel rudderless and decided to set up his own company. In late 1993, he teamed up with Neil Barnden and founded Stainless Games without a particular idea in mind, but a hunger to build for the future. “Which obviously worked, because 25 years later we’re still here,” he says.

The studio’s first game might still be its most famous – or infamous. Carmageddon began life as a playable demo called 3D Destruction Derby, which Stainless touted around while doing some other contract work. Publisher SCi eventually snapped it up. By this time it was 1995; the game was now Mad Max, but SCi couldn’t get the license. Then it was set to be a Death Race tie-in for a cinematic reboot that was later canned. “SCi said, ‘Sod it, let’s just do it anyway, we’ll create a new brand.’”