Kwalee

Kwalee Ltd.
Company typePrivate
IndustryVideo games
Founded2011; 13 years ago (2011)
FounderDavid Darling
Headquarters
Leamington Spa
,
England
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
SubsidiariesTictales
Websitekwalee.com

Kwalee Ltd. is a British video game developer and publisher. The company was founded in May 2011 by David Darling, co-founder and former CEO of Codemasters who is hailed as one of the 'founding fathers' of the UK games industry.[1] The company publishes games on mobile, PC and console platforms. It is known for its hypercasual games for iOS and Android devices, with a large internal development studio helping the company to more than 700 million game downloads in total. Based in Leamington Spa[2] in the county of Warwickshire, Kwalee is one of the several companies that make up the Leamington Spa video gaming cluster.

As of 2022, the company also has offices in Bangalore,[3] Beijing[4] and Portugal.[5]

Kwalee employs over 180 technical, marketing, publishing and administrative staff in its offices,[6] including Andrew Graham (designer and programmer of Micro Machines) and COO Jason Falcus (programmer of NBA Jam[7]). In 2020, the company began to publish PC and console games with Max Everingham joining from Team17 to head up a new division.[8]

The Kwalee Name

Kwalee is the Australian Aboriginal for “wait for me,” used as the name for a sailboat belonging to David Darling's grandfather, who taught him electronics. During his youth, Darling sailed on it frequently, thus the name Kwalee is a homage to the grandfather who inspired his career path.[9]

Expansion

In 2019, Kwalee launched the publishing side of its business.[10] This team works with third-party developers to help their games reach a wider audience by signing and publishing them under the Kwalee brand.

Successes of the Kwalee publishing department include Rocket Sky! from developer DP Space AG, which has been a number one app in 11 countries including the United Kingdom, France and Australia,[11] and OverTake, a 2020 driving title that has been the number one iOS game in countries including the United Kingdom, Australia and more.[12]

On 24 January 2022, Kwalee acquired Tictales.[13]

On 5 July 2024, Kwalee acquired a 3.58% minority share in Devolver Digital.[14]

On 10 October 2024, Microids announced a new third-party publishing division, with it being a collaboration with Kwalee; the first title it would publish will be Kwalee-acquired title The Precinct.[15]

Work culture

Kwalee offers an opportunity to all of its employees in the form of its 'Creative Wednesdays', where any member of staff is encouraged to pitch ideas for games on a weekly basis.[16] Some of these ideas are then made by Kwalee's internal development and launched to the world. Kwalee state that they "rely on them [the ideas] to power our internal development."[17]

Alongside 'Creative Wednesdays', Kwalee rewards all of their employees for the success of the games they create via a profit sharing scheme.[18] In just over one year, the scheme paid out over £1 million to its employees, with "a base amount that goes to everyone no matter the role, which is added to based on how closely the work of the individual has related to the success and profit of particular games".[19]

Since the success of Teacher Simulator, Kwalee donated 100% of the game's UK profits obtained during the first week of the school term to FareShare, in their efforts to tackle child food poverty in the United Kingdom.[20]

Published titles

Mobile games

Year Name Genre Platform
2024 Text Express: Word Adventure Puzzle iOS and Android
2023 Landlord Simulator Simulation iOS and Android
2022 Perfect Coffee 3D Simulation iOS and Android
2022 Airport Security Simulation iOS and Android
2020 Line Up: Draw the Criminal Simulation iOS and Android
2020 Hook and Smash Arcade iOS and Android
2020 Sneak Thief 3D Action iOS and Android
2020 Bake it Simulation iOS and Android
2020 OverTake Racing iOS and Android
2020 TENS! Puzzle Steam and Nintendo Switch
2019 Off the Rails 3D Arcade iOS and Android
2019 Crazy Shopping Arcade iOS and Android
2019 Drop & Smash Arcade iOS and Android
2019 Rocket Sky! Arcade iOS and Android
2019 Shootout 3D Puzzle iOS and Android
2019 Jetpack Jump Sports iOS and Android
2019 Draw It Arcade iOS and Android
2018 Go Fish Sports iOS and Android
2018 PLANK! Arcade iOS and Android
2018 Looper! Music iOS and Android
2018 Skiddy Car Racing iOS and Android
2018 SPILLZ Puzzle iOS and Android
2017 TENS! Puzzle iOS and Android
2012 Farm Fighters Arcade iOS and Android
2012 Flip the Cats Puzzle iOS and Android
2012 Gobang Social Puzzle iOS and Android

PC & Console games

Year Game Developers Platform
2019 The Coin Game devotid Steam
2020 TENS! Sock Monkey Studios Steam and Nintendo Switch
2020 Eternal Hope Doublehit Games Steam
2022 Scathe DAMAGE STATE Steam, Epic Game Store
2023 Die by the Blade Triple Hill Interactive, Toko Midori Games Steam, PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox Series X & S, Nintendo Switch
2023 Wildmender Muse Games PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X & S, Steam
2024 Robobeat Inzanity Steam, Epic Game Store
2024 The Spirit of the Samurai Digital Minds s.l. Steam, Epic Game Store
2024 The Precinct Fallen Tree Games PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X & S, Steam, Epic Game Store
2024 Voidwrought PowerSnake Steam, Epic Game Store, Nintendo Switch

Awards

In 2012, Kwalee was named in the Startups 100 awards as one of the UK's most innovative, inspiring and ground-breaking new companies.[21]

In 2019, its game Shootout 3D was awarded a TIGA award for 'Best Puzzle Game'.[22]

In App Annie's Top Publisher Awards 2021, awarded based on overall mobile downloads throughout 2020, Kwalee was named the UK's biggest mobile game publisher by downloads and the UK's third highest-ranked app publisher overall behind the BBC and the NHS.

In 2021, Kwalee was nominated in the Best Publisher[23] and Best Developer[24] categories at the PocketGamer.biz Mobile Game Awards.

In 2022, the company won the title as Publisher of the Year at both the TIGA Games Industry Awards 2022[25] and the PocketGamer Mobile Game Awards 2022.[26]

It was also named in the Top 50 Mobile Game Makers of 2021,[27] 2022,[28] 2023,[29] and 2024.[30]

References

  1. ^ "Leamington Festival Celebrates the Making of Silicon Spa". Warwickshire County Council. 14 May 2013.
  2. ^ "Kwalee's David Darling on the new challenge of making games and apps for iOS | interview". PocketGamer.biz. 14 September 2011. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
  3. ^ Kumar, Nitesh (19 May 2020). "Mobile games developer Kwalee to open first overseas studio in India". TechRadar. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  4. ^ "Kwalee to open Chinese office". GamesIndustry.biz. 3 September 2020. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  5. ^ "Kwalee opens new office in Portugal". European Gaming. 12 May 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  6. ^ Hughes, Ian (20 February 2020). "Million pound plus bonus payout for staff at Leamington firm". Leamington Observer.
  7. ^ Crookes, David (26 August 2014). "Games Developers Jason Falcus and David Darling to Reunite at Kwalee". The Independent.
  8. ^ Barton, Seth (29 January 2021). "Kwalee hires industry veteran Max Everingham from Team17 to lead console and PC publishing drive". MCV. ISSN 1469-4832. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  9. ^ "The Story of the Kwalee Brand | blog". Kwalee.com. 6 October 2011. Retrieved 11 July 2012.
  10. ^ Clayton, Natalie; Writer, Staff (7 June 2019). ""Hyper-casual isn't a phase, it's a culture shock for the whole mobile industry"". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  11. ^ "Rocket Sky! -". Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  12. ^ "OverTake -". Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  13. ^ "Kwalee acquires Tictales -". 24 January 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  14. ^ McEvoy, Sophie (5 July 2024). "Kwalee makes minority investment in Devolver Digital". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  15. ^ Blake, Vikki (10 October 2024). "Microids launches new third-party publishing division with Kwalee collaboration". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  16. ^ "One in a Million: Mobile Gaming Company Pays Out Over £1 Million (GBP) in Staff Bonuses in Just Over a Year". Gamasutra. 19 February 2020.
  17. ^ Blake, Vikki (19 February 2020). "Kwalee has allocated £1m in staff bonuses this year". MCV Develop.
  18. ^ Pratt, Louron (25 February 2020). "Kwalee's profit sharing scheme has paid £1 million to 73 staff since 2018". Employee Benefits.
  19. ^ Taylor, Haydn (27 February 2020). "Kwalee and the power of profit sharing". Gamesindustry.biz.
  20. ^ "UK Game Developer Kwalee Pledging Profits From Hit Title 'Teacher Simulator' to Help Tackle Child Food Poverty". press.kwalee.com. 6 January 2021. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  21. ^ "Startups 100 2012 - Kwalee". 8 July 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  22. ^ "TIGA 2019 Winners". TIGA. Archived from the original on 8 November 2019.
  23. ^ Staff, PocketGamer biz (8 July 2021). "The Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2021 finalists". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  24. ^ Staff, PocketGamer biz (8 July 2021). "The Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2021 finalists". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  25. ^ "Kwalee wins Publisher of the Year award at TIGA 2022 Game Industry awards". 11 November 2022. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
  26. ^ "The Winners of 2022". Mobile Games Awards. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  27. ^ Staff, PocketGamer biz (6 September 2021). "The Top 50 Mobile Game Makers of 2021". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  28. ^ "The Top 50 Mobile Game Makers of 2022". www.pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  29. ^ "The Top 50 Mobile Game Makers of 2023". www.pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  30. ^ "The Top 50 Mobile Game Makers of 2024". www.pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 11 October 2024.