Welcome to Bizarre Creations!

Bizarre Creations is a medium sized video game developer, based in Liverpool, England. Established in 1994, the company is famed for such high profile franchises as Formula 1, Fur Fighters, Geometry Wars, The Club, and Project Gotham Racing. In September 2007 we joined the ranks of Activision as one of their dedicated teams. With 160+ staff working out of a custom-built development studio, we are now simultaneously developing several next-gen projects across various platforms.

For more info on our current projects, check out the Games page.

If you'd like to get in touch with Bizarre Creations please use the Contacts page.

Want to work at Bizarre Creations? Then head over to our Jobs page for a list of our current vacancies!

A bit of history...

Being a games company today is a difficult task. You don't want to be too serious to make games, or too 'gamey' to be taken seriously. Both the games AND the business have to be strong - and after over 10 years developing the reputation as an leading-edge, secure and stable representative of the UK games development scene, Bizarre Creations are hoping that they've always kept the balance right.

We've never been one to shout about ourselves or our games - just writing this sort of stuff is hard enough! We're not driven by the desire to be famous or try and rule the world - or to make enough money to buy it. The one passion that drives the company forward is the games themselves - with, of course, a secure business strategy running alongside. And happily, financial success and international accolades have been the obvious result.

The company started out in the days of back-bedroom programming, and began employing permanent staff in 1994 to begin work on the PlayStation. And as the industry has grown, so has Bizarre Creations, with a slow and steady expansion to just over 160 staff. And when we find people who are right to join us, they tend to stay - the annual turnover of our permanent staff being only just 1 per annum - meaning that our teams are extremely experienced both in development terms, and at working together as a team.

Our recruitment philosophy might seem a little strange to many. We don't really look at experience or qualifications - more pure talent, enthusiasm and being a 'Bizarre' kind of person. For more than 1/4 of the company, this is their first job - with 1/3 of the company joining from unemployment. And astoundingly, 4/5 of the programmers and the vast majority of the artists here have no prior industry experience!

We pride ourselves on our relaxed and caring working environment, with generous rewards for our passionate staff. From great financial incentives, through parties and company holidays, to little touches such as 'cake day', we're always striving to make sure we're a great company to work for. And Bizarre Creations are proud to be the first (and only one of two) games company to be awarded the UK Government's prestigious 'Investors in People' award.

Our working environment is also important to us. We started out in a tiny 500 square foot modular unit, and have expanded through five other locations to our eventual move in 2003 to the impressive 18,500 square foot building we're in today. This was custom designed and built by ourselves to meet all the needs of future games development - from relaxation and leisure facilities through to little touches like high-level windows and customisable lighting in the development studios, essential to avoid screen glare.

So how do we develop our games? We have a clear structure to our two main development teams, but one that doesn't enforce a rigid or inflexible environment. We are bringing in a strong sense of ownership, where those involved in a development area have a strong say in the way this area is designed. We have shared resource groups that work across all our projects - in the areas of Core Technologies, Tools, Audio, IT, Presentation Design and even Marketing. We involve out-sourcing companies and other external help just where we feel it prudent.

Over the years, we've worked with a number of leading publishers, and most of the hardware manufacturers, either as first or third parties. Knowing how important the publisher-developer relationship is, we try to maintain long-term, strong partnerships with publishers. So we've found that past partners who we aren't working with currently would still be happy to work with us again in the future. We strive to make sure both development and marketing forces at our publishers have everything they need to make the game a success.

And with more than one experience in the difficulties and pressures involved in being a hardware launch title, we have our scheduling and budgeting tightly honed. Surprisingly for our industry, our last five games were successful, on time and within budget - the company has never even needed an overdraft! And very successful they have been - both in terms of critical acclaim and outstanding sales numbers. Our titles have averaged nearly 1.12 million unit sales each over the 10+ years we've been going!

The Future

But even with all this success, Bizarre Creations fights to remain humble in its achievements. You won't normally hear us brag about our sales figures, awards, charity work or the many other things we do as a company or as an employer. The games have always been, and will always be, the focus of all the company's efforts - as is often said, 'You're only as good as your last game'. And with the last one winning a BAFTA, being one of the highest rated games in history, and being up for multiple accolades in the Develop Industry Awards, it's all hands on deck to make sure the next ones fly just as high!

Our Studio

The Bizarre Creations studio, based in North West England, was custom designed-and-built by us especially for game development. Every facet of the 8,206 sq ft building, from the motion-capture suite right through to the glare-reducing windows, was installed with special consideration for those who would be working here.

Facilities include...

• Four large development studios, complete with break-out areas
• Large open plan kitchen, with ovens, microwaves, tea & coffee facilities, and seating area
• Integral common room with loads of games machines (Robotron, Street Fighter, Xbox 360 pod, etc.)
• Garden / Part-time Cricket/Footie pitch / BBQ & seating area
• Relaxation and quiet room with bed (particularly for excessive overtimers)
• Shower facilities
• Informal meeting room, complete with sofas, beanbags, and state-of-the-art 5.1 cinema system
• Specialist audio rooms
• Formal meeting rooms and video conferencing room
• Custom-built ceiling-mounted motion capture facilities
• Ample car parking space, car-share scheme and good public transport links
• Local facilities including large retail park with food outlets, gym, and supermarkets
• Visiting servers such as hot and chilled food vendors, car cleaning, masseuse, etc.

Charity

Company Awards

Bizarre Creations achieved the Investors in People award on 7th June 2002, and have maintained the high standards necessary to still hold the award to this day. Being an Investor in People means that Bizarre recognises how important its staff are to the companies success, and will continue to develop and reward them accordingly.

• Investors in People award presented - 7th June 2002
• Investors in People continued standard - 13th July 2004

Bizarre Creations were also shortlisted for the Liverpool Business of the Year Award 2004 (Daily Post Regional Business Awards). This award recognised the best businesses in North West England based on a number of criteria, and Bizarre were chosen for the shortlist from 105 entries!