Gametools

Specialist game tool co-developers

You tried an asset store…

You tried an internal team…

Now you’ve found the best of both worlds

Finally, tools done right

Have you experienced the joy of working with great game development tools? Robust, bespoke products, made with the specific needs of actual people in mind, needs that include saving time and money? Made by specialist tool developers, with creative direction, dialogue with the customer, and a lot of care and ongoing support.

Or have you often found yourself struggling with mediocre tools? Low quality off-the-shelf plugins, or over complex, over-scoped tools that only the Tech Director can use? God forbid they should leave tomorrow. Or something shonky made in a hurry by a programmer who actually wants to make games. Hour after hour of downtime - up 30% of project time by our estimates. Disagreements. Frustration.

At Gametools we’ve experienced both, and are using it to fuel our passion for making better tools for you. Working with our veteran team you’ll save money and eradicate downtime. We’ll make your lives - and your games - better. And we’ll enjoy every minute of it.

Services

Engine plugins

New or extended functionality for Unity, Unreal, and in-house engines, seamlessly integrated with the same quality as native features.

  • Asset management
  • Blueprints
  • Testing and debugging
  • Networking
  • Procedural generation
  • Rendering
  • UI

Standalone tools

Great for in-house game engines, sharing work across multiple engines, or to enable external staff to contribute without having access to your full project.

  • GUI editors
  • Data cleanup and visualisation
  • Command-line utilities
  • Live editors which connect to your running game

Automation

Make your workflows foolproof and increase your team’s productivity.

  • Asset pipelines
  • Project management and bug tracking
  • Version control hooks (Perforce, Git, SVN)
  • Build system integrations
    • Azure DevOps
    • Jenkins
    • Even a full custom build system

End-user tools

Making tools polished and reliable enough for players to use isn’t straightforward. We can help.

  • Level editors
  • Mod tools
  • Mission editors
  • Campaign editors
  • Character customisation
  • Vehicle customisation

Maintenance

We can improve your existing tools. We’ll take on the things you know need improvement but can’t spare the time for.

  • Incomplete or alpha standard tools
  • Fix user frustrations and reduce friction
  • High maintenance tools
  • Upgrade to a newer engine version without breaking compatibility
  • Modernise outdated tech

… or anything else

We can make any tool you need to make games better.

  • AI-assisted tools
  • Consulting
  • Optimisation
  • Reusable libraries
  • Web dashboards
  • You name it!

Our Team

Matt

CEO

Matt is CEO and Creative Director with 20 years of experience in leadership roles. Throughout his career he has seen internal tools make or break titles, and championed their development as fully rounded products.

He worked at Evolution Studios, Ripstone, Lucid Games and Firesprite as well as running his own creative consultancies with over 20 projects for the clients like the NHS, Lego and the Ministry of Defence. His favourite game is Karate Champ.

A photo of Matt looking attentive.
A photo of Rik looking cool.

Rik

Chair

With nearly 30 years of experience creating games in many roles from QA, Creative Producer, Game Director, Studio Head and for the last 20 years building his own businesses, Rik has honed his skills to create companies that can help other games teams become successful or be more successful.

He loves a mega spreadsheet and can usually be found tapping away on his PC generating ideas or refining numbers. He’s made and been involved with many games over the years and some of his favourites are: various MotoGP games, Rollercoaster Tycoon, The Last Leviathan, and Frogger (Hasbro Interactive’s version).

Rob

CTO

An exceptional and experienced games and tools programmer, and a Technical Director since 2011, Rob has shipped multiple games using Unreal, Unity, and proprietary game engines across all major console, VR, and mobile platforms. He’s seen first-hand how transformative good tools are, experienced the pain and cost of poor ones, and made the strategic calls to ‘buy or build’.

Rob’s credits include the award-winning Paleo Pines, Plague Inc., The Spectrum Retreat, Driver: San Francisco, and Chess Ultra. His favourite games are Nethack and Factorio.

A photo of Rob looking silly.

Contact Us

We’d love to hear from you! Get in touch with Matt or Rik on LinkedIn, or send us an email at info@gametools.io.