David Darling, Founder, and CEO of the game development studio and publisher Kwalee and co-founder of Codemasters, has been awarded a fellowship from Warwickshire College and University Centre (WCUC). The Fellowship was awarded in a ceremony at St Mary’s Church in Warwick on 13th October, which also saw students graduating from across the university center.
A prestigious moment for the company, this will help young university and game development communities grow their trust in Kwalee
The Warwickshire College Group (WCG), which includes Royal Leamington Spa College, Warwick Trident College, Moreton Morrell College, Rugby College, Pershore College, and Evesham College, has a higher education division called WCUC.
Leamington Spa, one of the UK’s largest concentrations of game developers, is known as Silicon Spa and is where Royal Leamington Spa College is located. Many of the college graduates go on to work as game developers like Kwalee. The college offers a number of games design and games art courses from Level 3 up to degree level.
David Darling, who along with his brother Richard started Codemasters in the area in 1986, is acknowledged as one of the pioneers of “Silicon Spa.” Micro Machines, Dizzy, and Colin McRae Rally are just a few of the legendary game franchises that Codemasters produced and that have since sold millions of copies worldwide. The Darlings sold their ownership stakes in the company in 2007.
David Darling founded Kwalee in Leamington Spa in 2011 and has grown the business into one of the world’s most successful hypercasual game publishers. Since its inception, their games have been installed over 900 million times. Darling is still innovating after decades in the industry and he remains as committed as ever to bringing great games to millions of players on mobile, PC, and console platforms.
David Darling opened up about his shared history with Warwickshire, saying: “It was a great surprise and I’m really proud to have been made a Fellow of WCUC. I’ll try and motivate the students and take a particular interest with those on the games art and games design courses. My daughter studied at the college and really enjoyed and benefited from their creative, practical, and hands-on approach.”
Kwalee employs approximately 300 people across its studios in the UK, India, Portugal, and China and remote team members worldwide. The company’s success has seen more than $14,79,622 (£1.5 million) in profits paid directly to its employees. Currently, Kwalee has over 180 open roles on its careers portal.
What are your thoughts now that David Darling, founder of Kwalee has been honoured with Fellowship from WCUC? Let us know in the comments below!
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