Space Ape vets launch Offroad Games

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A workforce of former Area Ape employees has opened a brand new studio referred to as Offroad Video games and brought Chrome Valley Customs and Fastlane: Highway to Revenge with it.

Chatting with PocketGamer.biz, Offroad Video games CEO Geoffrey Gilles stated the developer would concentrate on car-themed video games for cellular, with a twist. 

By taking two titles from Area Ape’s portfolio, the workforce of 10 (seven full-time and three contractors) is already worthwhile, and has plans to rent extra employees to convey it as much as 15 staff initially. Offroad at the moment doesn’t have funding from Supercell or different buyers.

The founding workforce contains Geoffrey Gilles as CEO, who beforehand labored because the GM on Chrome Valley Customs and was an authentic recreation lead on Beatstar. He’s joined by a workforce that features CTO Christopher Jubb, lead recreation designer Vera Zaitceva, lead artist Hyo Chan and finance director Cameron Simon, amongst others.

In addition to bringing over Chrome Valley Customs and Fastlane: Highway to Income, the studio can be engaged on bringing again an outdated cancelled Area Ape title: Go Race: Tremendous Karts, first launched in its earliest type on Android in 2016.

It additionally goals to develop new car-themed video games, too, probably utilizing IP and property from its present portfolio. These might be launched as hypercasual titles, with room to increase their mechanics in future.

Cultural values

The studio’s formation comes after Supercell acquired a 100% stake in Area Ape again in November 2024. The latter firm was renamed to Supercell London, with a concentrate on the Finnish developer’s titles. 

The shift led to a lot of employees exiting the corporate, together with layoffs. In the meantime, offshoots like Offroad Video games and NextBeat have taken Area Ape titles with them.

Gilles stated the choices at Supercell weren’t ones that he wished to pursue, main him to discover opening his personal studio.

“I’ve at all times wished to be an entrepreneur and there was this chance to nonetheless function profitable dwell video games,” he stated.

He added: “I noticed this chance to take each video games, run the video games, after which on the similar time rehire some folks after which actually provide you with an inspiring firm mission. Values that basically communicate to me and the way I believe recreation growth is finest completed.”

Requested to elaborate extra on its method to new video games growth, Gilles stated he foresees doing issues like one other video games firm: Homa Video games.

He cited how the writer builds hypercasual titles, and when it finds a mechanic that proves sticky with gamers, it builds a hybridcasual model. “I like this structured method to doing recreation growth,” he stated.

On the studio’s cultural values, Gilles stated there are three tenets: camaraderie, pace, and being free thinkers.

“Actually the identify captures the best way we wish to assume,” he defined. “We wish to assume off-road.”