Councillors go under the arches to learn more about Silicon Spa

Councillors visited Leamington’s Arch Creatives, a not for profit organisation, which provides low-cost working space for games developers and other digital creatives.

Known as Silicon Spa, the area including Leamington, Southam and Warwick is home to the UK’s third biggest gaming cluster. There are more than 30 studios employing over 1,000 staff. Local firms range from large studios such as Codemasters, SEGA Hardlight and Freestyle Games to small micro studios such as Monster and Monster, Modern Dream and Midoki.

The Arch Creatives project, which has received funding from the county council, aims to provide a co-working space where games developers can work, share ideas, seek mentoring, training and business support.

Councillors were invited on a tour where they met local games developers including Jonathan Evans designer of the hugely successful Lumo Deliveries game. Jonathan told councillors how his game, which was developed at Arch Creatives, received over a million downloads within eight days of its launch.

The group also learned more about skills development in the digital sector, which is essential to the area’s ongoing success. Over the last 18 months Warwickshire County Council, along with Warwick District Council, have been working alongside local gaming businesses to support the sector. This includes showcasing local businesses nationally, supporting the Backspace Festival which provides careers events and workshops and the creation of 26 HT - a new incubator facility for start-up gaming companies – situated at Hamilton Terrace in Leamington. For more on Arch Creatives visit http://archcreatives.com