Area is ahead of the game

Warwickshire is home to the third largest games development cluster in the UK. The area around Royal Leamington Spa is known as ‘Silicon Spa’ with over 30 studios directly employing some 1,200 people.

The month of October saw the launch of the new digital gaming hub and the award-wining Backspace Festival which widened its reach even further.

Backspace

Launched to huge acclaim, the Backspace festival showcased creativity and technological innovation across the region, this year expanding outside of its Leamington Spa roots, to include games companies and community events across the whole of Coventry and Warwickshire.

The event, which ran from Saturday 25 October to Sunday 2 November, was co-organised by Vital, Press Space PR, Leamington Looks Back, Warwick District Council and Warwickshire County Council.

A broad range of activities for all ages and interest levels lit up October half term week, and included a pop-up exhibition chronicling the history of games in the region, 'Spa-Cade' games trail, RaspberryPi programming workshops for teachers and students, careers evenings and Develop Magazine’s industry Quiz Night. 

Visit http://backspaceuk.com

New digital gaming hub opens in Leamington

A new incubator facility for start-up gaming companies and micro enterprises has been opened in Leamington to encourage further inward investment.

The new centre is called 26 HT and is situated in Hamilton Terrace. It has been transformed from a disused property into a four-storey digital gaming hub after receiving funding from Warwick District Council and a £108,000 grant from the government’s Growing Places initiative following a successful bid from Warwick District Council and the Economic Growth Team at Warwickshire County Council.

The property, which officially opened on 20 October, includes seven flexible offices and two meeting rooms for companies to test their games during the development stage.