Kwalee
Video game company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 2011 |
| Founder | David Darling |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
|
| Subsidiaries | Tictales |
| Website | kwalee |
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 PC & Console publishing side of its business, led by Max Everingham. This team works with third-party developers to help their games reach a wider audience by signing and publishing them under the 'Kwalee Gaming' brand. Successes include 'Wildmender' and 'The Precinct'.
Successes of the Kwalee mobile 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,[10] and OverTake, a 2020 driving title that has been the number one iOS game in countries including the United Kingdom, Australia and more.[11]
On 24 January 2022, Kwalee acquired the French studio Tictales, which specialises in story-driven mobile games.[12]
On 5 July 2024, Kwalee acquired a 3.58% minority share in Devolver Digital.[13]
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.[14]
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.[15] 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."[16]
Alongside 'Creative Wednesdays', Kwalee rewards all of their employees for the success of the games they create via a profit sharing scheme.[17] 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".[18]
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.[19]
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | TENS! | Sock Monkey Studios | PC, Nintendo Switch |
| Eternal Hope | Doublehit Games | PC | |
| 2022 | Scathe | DAMAGE STATE | PC |
| 2023 | Die by the Blade | Triple Hill Interactive, Toko Midori Games | PC PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch |
| Wildmender | Muse Games | PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC | |
| 2024 | Robobeat | Inzanity | PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch |
| Voidwrought | PowerSnake | PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S | |
| In Sink | Clock Out Games | PC | |
| The Spirit of the Samurai | Digital Minds s.l. | PC | |
| 2025 | The Precinct | Fallen Tree Games | PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S |
| Space Chef | Blue Goo Games | PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch | |
| Feign | Teneke Kafalar | PC | |
| 2026 | Don't Stop, Girlypop! | Funny Fintan Softworks | PC |
| Hordes of Hunger | Hyperstrange | PC | |
| The Coin Game | devotid | PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S | |
| RetroSpace | The Wild Gentlemen | PC | |
| Shift at Midnight | Bun Muen | PC | |
| Lost Hellden | Artisan Studios | PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch | |
| BPM: Bitcrushed | Awe Interactive | PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch | |
| Ground Zero | Malformation Games | PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S | |
| Hark the Ghoul | Deep Denizens | PC | |
| Rune Dice | Smart Raven Studio | PC | |
| Luna Abyss | Kwalee Labs | PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S | |
| Modulus | Happy Volcano | PC | |
| TBA | Town to City | Galaxy Grove | PC |
| Call of the Elder Gods | Out of the Blue Games | PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2 | |
| GRIME II | Clover Bite | PC | |
| Talespinner | Flash Cat Games | PC |
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.[20]
In 2019, its game Shootout 3D was awarded a TIGA award for 'Best Puzzle Game'.[21]
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[22] and Best Developer[23] 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[24] and the PocketGamer Mobile Game Awards 2022.[25]
It was also named in the Top 50 Mobile Game Makers of 2021,[26] 2022,[27] 2023,[28] and 2024.[29]