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A group of artists from Guitar Hero and DJ Hero developer FreeStyleGames have started up their own art-focused studio.
The Digi Monsters founders Mike Rutter, Piers Coe, Dave Moulder and Adam Conway also formerly worked on franchises including Call of Duty and Skylanders while under the Activision umbrella.
Their new Leamington Spa-based firm will offer art and VFX services to creators in the worlds of both games and other visual effects-led sectors, such as film.
“We’re really excited to open a dedicated art studio as we passionately believe that the games industry should move to a more service-led model,” said Rutter.
“Internal studio art teams need to be able to call on dedicated external services to get the right skillset, knowledge and talent at the right point in development.
“This can be a difficult challenge to meet through recruitment alone, but the service-led model works well in VFX and other creative industries and we see it as a growing trend in the games industry.
“We are all personally very excited by the prospect and the new challenges before us. It’s an industry we love and know very well. Our aim is to build long term relationships with industry teams both large and small, with a view to becoming seen as an external extension to well established in-house art teams.”
FreeStyleGames recently underwent a restructuring at the end of April, with parent publisher Activision saying staff would be ‘rebalanced’.
