Alumni sign deal with Nintendo

Three Plymouth graduates who set up a games studio have been awarded authorised developer status by Nintendo for the Wii and DS games consoles.

The team at Remode Ella Romanos, Managing Director of Remode, met her business partners Andy Russell and Martin Darby while they were studying iDAT - Digital Art and Technology - at Plymouth. In addition to developing 3D games and simulations for entertainment, Remode create 'serious games' that teach users how to perform in real world tasks. The Nintendo authorisation means that Remode can now seek publishing deals for the consoles as well as having access to Nintendo Software Development Kits that can be integrated with the Remode game engine to build products for consoles.

Ella believes her personal achievement of a First on her degree course and her overall experience at Plymouth were the 'catalyst' for her setting up her own business straight after leaving university.

"The most useful aspects of the course were the ones that challenged me the most - my placement year, my dissertation and research project and the modules that forced me to apply my skills in ways that would be useful in the real world rather than just to an abstract student project."

Remode, under its former name Hot Pixel, have won two awards from Business Ideas Challenge for its game prototypes. The company has also secured funding from both business angel investment and Springboard, which offers seed funding to organisations that have the potential to make a significant positive impact on the economy of Devon and Cornwall.