Zoë Mode expands to London

While Brighton on the UK’s south coast continues to boom as a games development hub, one company based there is outgrowing the city – party game specialist Zoë Mode is now planning to open a second studio, this one based in London.

Zoë Mode London will open on September 1st, and the capital city spin-off of the Kuju-owned team will initially share offices with sister studio Kuju London before finding its own permanent offices.

Having separate London and Brighton teams can "keep things at a relatively intimate level," Zoë Mode boss Ed Daly explained to Develop.

Zoë Mode Brighton has 140 staff and is the biggest independent studio in the city. The news of the expansion also comes as the Brighton team prepares to move into new offices.

"Our new offices in Brighton will be full from the off," said Daly.

"We decided it wasn’t sensible to keep growing the Brighton team, as while there is a great demand for music and party games we didn’t want to compromise the culture of the studio by getting too big.

"Because London is such a big city with a diverse population I think its workforce has the skill set for the games we make – and we’ll find the right kind of people to make the games we are known for, similar to those we have in Brighton," he added.

At first, said Daly, the two studios will jointly work on some projects, "but the intention is that projects will be lead out of London separately from Brighton – it’s important that the team has local ownership and product relationships."

"Since we re-branded last year we have had an enormous interest in the studio from both publishers and new recruits," added Daly.

"Following on from our huge growth in Brighton where we are now approaching 150 staff, we felt the time was right to open a second studio. This will enable us to take on more projects and staff without losing the intimate company culture that is so central to our approach."

The studio will be headed up by Zoë Mode Brighton executive producer Nick Rodriguez.

He commented: "London has been a development hub for the games industry for many years now, which means that there’s a fantastic pool of talent here to join our new studio. We’re looking for staff in all disciplines and we’re really excited about the opportunities that being in London present to us."