Mark Serrels has written up a great piece for Kotaku AU on Disparity Games, a new indie games start-up created by former Krome Studios employees, Jason and Nicole Stark.
After the collapse of Krome Studios in 2010 and finding himself going through another studio closure with KMM Games in Brisbane, Jason Stark had some rather tough decisions to make on where to go next.
The available options were few, but unlike some of his colleagues, he decided against packing up the family and moving overseas where opportunities in games development were more plentiful, and chose instead to stay in Australia to see if the Stark husband and wife duo could strike it out on their own as independent games developers. From Kotaku AU…
(Jason) “It sounds very brave and noble to say we left the Australian Games Industry,” says Jason. “But really the Australian Games Industry left us.
“It left a lot of people.”
Jason and Nicole have set themselves just one year to see if they can make a successful iOS game. They've moved their family with four children away from Brisbane and into the quieter beach suburb of Noosa, to work full-time on their game project.
It's very much been a family collaboration, and the Stark children have had a big hand in coming up with the initial game idea as well as contributing artwork and testing. However, as many independent games developers have experienced, the Starks have found it particularly challenging to separate their work and home life.
Their game, Run Fatty Run, is expected to be released on Apple's App Store next week, and Jason has his sights on where he'd like to take things if the game is a success…
“I’d like to earn a lot of money,” says Jason. “If we’re talking pie-in-the-sky dreams, I’d like to mirror the success of Ski Safari, and I’d like to use that money to build a little studio — so we can get out of our house, into an office, start a little team and help rebuild the local games industry.”
Jason's story is a fascinating and rare look at independent games development with the added pressures of family in the mix, and we wish the absolute best for the unique team at Disparity Games on their upcoming release!
Head on over to Kotaku AU for the full story!!