Stainless Games

Stainless Games is an independent British video game developer based in Newport, Isle of Wight that is best known for the creation of the multimillion-selling Carmageddon franchise, which has since acquired both acclaim and infamy.

Originally named Stainless Software, the company was founded in 1993 by industry veteran Patrick Buckland and Neil "Nobby" Barnden.

Patrick Buckland was the lead programmer on Carmageddon and Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now, and Neil Barnden was the lead artist on both. Before Stainless Games, Buckland was a freelance programmer, and Nobby was a senior designer at Conran and The Body Shop.

Starting out with sub-contracted 3D engine work for Argonaut Games, and developing medical multimedia titles for the Times-Mirror Company, the company then went on to develop what later became Carmageddon for SCi. This was launched amidst much controversy over its violent content in 1997 but garnered high review scores thanks to its compelling gameplay and many ground-breaking features (including a fully featured physics engine - a world-first for video games). Stainless released a sequel, Carmageddon II in 1998. Subsequent versions of the franchise (Carmageddon TDR 2000) were contracted by SCi to other developers.

In 2006 Stainless were sub-contracted by Blitz Games to code one of their three Burger King games, PocketBike Racer, although all design and contractual work was carried out by Blitz themselves. The company has subsequently developed in the console download field, having eleven titles released or soon to be released on XBLA, plus two titles on PSN (PS3). These include a range of Atari classic titles which feature both the original version running under an emulator, and a completely re-written evolved version. These have also been released on PSP as a single product in December 2007. Electronic Arts released the Stainless developed PSP and DS title Scrabble in early 2009. This was available for the North American market only, for licensing reasons.