Ruffian expands with new platoon of developers

Ruffian Games has expanded its studio with fifteen new recruits from various areas of the games industry.

Among the new staff is former Free Radical network programmer Rob Cowsill, who joins Ruffian as its newest Senior Engineer.

Cowsill started out in the industry in 2003, working for Criterion as a graduate programmer on Burnout 3. Climbing the ladder over the next three years, he soon worked as an effects programmer on Criterion’s FPS Black, and was also part of production on Burnout: Dominator and Burnout Paradise.

Joining him is John Hynd, who has also been appointed as a Senior Engineer. Hynd is a successful product of Abertay’s well-respected Computer Games Technology course in Dundee.
He joined the game-making game in 2004 when he was hired at Zoë Mode as one of the coding staff.

There he worked on various Eye Toy projects before assisting the PlayStation Home team at Sony’s London studio.

He has the distinction of developing an in-house solution for online gaming and networking that was used in games such as Rock Revolution and You’re in the Movies.

Ruffian has also hired Dean Smith and Martin Livingston to work on mission design for the studio’s next project. Smith moved from tester to Abertay graduate to Level Designer in a short space of time. His most recent work was as a Senior Mission Designer on Midway’s driving title Wheelman.

Livingston previously worked at I-play and Tag Games on a variety of mobile and iPhone projects. Cutting his teeth in QA departments, he moved into design and has worked on projects such as the Metal Slug Mobile 3 and Super Jewel Quest

Also joining the group is Richard Wazejewski (Artist), Andrew Heywood (Engineer), Carlos Garcia (Artist) and Steve Randell (IT Manager).

“We’ve come a long way in the last 6 months” said Studio Head Gaz Liddon “and have been overwhelmed by the number of developers keen to join our merry band. Now we’re in full production we’re itching to share the fantastic work these guys have been producing Hopefully that won’t be too far away.”

Ruffian has also taken on young blood; hungry, aspiring juniors that will no doubt provide the company with new opportunities, solutions and headaches. They are:

Ewan McKenzie (Tester), Richard Welsh (Junior Engineer), Shane O’Dowda (VFX Artist), Terry Drever (Junior Engineer), Kevin Dunlop (Junior Artist), Ryan Astley (Junior Artist) and Kevin Black (Tester).