SockMonkey Studios
SockMonkey Studios is a British video game developer, founded by Teesside University graduates Bob Makin and Darren Cuthbert, in Middlesbrough, North East England. History. Founded in February 2013 with the help of DigitalCity, prior to SockMonkey Studios Makin and Cuthbert worked at other studios including Team17, Jagex and Iguana. Makin and Cuthbert were later joined by industry veteran Darren Falcus. Building their foundation on primarily work for hire jobs, the studio collaborated with numerous video game companies such as SEGA, Double Eleven and Team 17 to assist in the porting of their games to other consoles, as well  as branching into developing their own original content with the game Fish Tanks in the past few years. After setting up their offices on Victoria Road in Middlesbrough, in 2015 they moved their headquarters to the Phoenix Building at Teesside University, moving again to Boho 5 as the studio grew and as of 2021 reside at 16/26 Albert Road North in Middlesbrough. From its inception, the studio experienced growth due to increasing demand within the gaming industry and by 2020 had added dozens of positions. In 2019 alone they reported doubling the headcount in their Teesside office. In 2020, during  an expansion phase, Ron Ashtiani - former CEO of Sumo Group's Atomhawk Business - was added to the board of directors. During 2020, the studio also received funding from Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund. Contract work. Although the studio also works on full-scale development SockMonkey is predominantly a work-for-hire studio, having worked globally on contracts for both PC and console, including US-based developers such as tinyBuild and Outfit7. After spending six years focusing on contract-work, in 2019 the studio announced they were working on their own IP Fish Tanks alongside their usual contractual jobs. Original games. In  2019 SockMonkey Studios publicly announced their premier original title Fish Tanks. Due for release in 2021, the game is advertised as a "hectic fighting game" where the player’s objective is to collect starfish to bring back to their base while fighting other players, using powerups, to steal their starfish. Opting to self-publish, the game is currently listed on Steam as "Coming Soon" to "Early Access" and on IGDB as launching in 2021. As per an article in MCV/Develop in July 2021 the game was listed as unsigned and looking for a pubslisher.