Colin went on to co-found Realtime Worlds where he helped raise over $100m in investment and oversaw the development of the Bafta-winning game Crackdown and the online game, All Points Bulletin. His next role was as Games Commissioner for Channel 4 TV where he commissioned dozens of games which amassed millions of downloads and won BAFTA, Digital Emmy, Broadcast Digital and BIMA Awards. Colin has served on the Governing board of Abertay University, runs the games publisher Indie Champions and is an Advisor to the UK Government’s Games Fund.
Colin started ‘Games Jobs Live’ in early Summer 2020 as a response to Covid-19. These livestreamed recruitment events for the UK Games industry help candidates access jobs in the industry and the events continued to attract candidates and recruiters long after the disruption caused by the pandemic.
The events are broadcast on YouTube and are free and open to all attendees, whether they already work in the games industry, another sector, or have recently graduated. They showcase the best game development studios and applicants are able to apply directly to whichever studios appeal to them after the event. Games Jobs Live also produce a monthly report highlighting key observations and trends. Initially intended as a lead magnet to attract studios to participate in events, the reports have not only achieved their aim, but are regularly included in board presentations by games studios, as well as being used by UK trade body ukie to highlight, for example, the sectoral skills shortage. The reports are also widely circulated around universities to help students prepare for the job market.
For his Resident Entrepreneur, Colin focussed on the Games Jobs Live reports and chose to focus development on four key areas: regional breakdowns, time trend analysis based on the large amount of data already collated, country comparisons and finally, a deeper dive into the existing data to identify any other valuable observations that might be found within those existing datasets. The RE project provided time and resources to set up an AI-equipped business intelligence tool that can interrogate the data and find trends and patterns to further enhance its value and usefulness.
Games Jobs Live continues to connect new talent to the games industry and has become the go-to destination for games recruiters and prospective candidates alike.
