Ste and John Pickford
| Ste Pickford | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1969 (age 47–48) |
| Residence | Buxton, Derbyshire |
| Occupation | Video game designer |
| Website | http://www.zee-3.com/pickfordbros/ |
| John Pickford | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1967 (age 49–50) Stockport, England |
| Residence | Buxton, Derbyshire |
| Occupation | Video game developer |
| Website | http://www.zee-3.com/pickfordbros/ |
Ste and John Pickford (artist and programmer, respectively), also known as the Pickford brothers, are English video game developers and designers, and founders of the indie game company Zee-3.
A comic book designer, Ste started to make designs on his brother John's ZX Spectrum in the early 1980s. At the age of 16, Ste received a work experience placement, and eventually was hired full-time, at John's employer, Binary Design. While on placement, he made loading screens, and on his first full day as a designer, he designed the animation of the hand used in the Darts game 180. Within the first year of employment at Binary Design, Ste managed the company sound and music department, and he was making designs for many other games. The first game the Pickford brothers co-designed was Zub in 1986. After about a year at Binary Design, the Pickford brothers decided to forgo university study to found their own company Zippo Games, making about £5000 per year.
At Zippo Games, the Pickford brothers originally co-developed games for the Amiga and Atari ST 16-bit computers, but then they started working under contract with Manchester-based company Rare, developing games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. According to Ste: "The NES seemed primitive by comparison, sub-Commodore 64. But the games were ten times better than everything being released for home computers, which we appreciated, and we wanted to try to make games as good as that." The Pickford brothers would go on to develop the two sequels to Wizards & Warriors – Ironsword and Kuros: Visions of Power. Ste would become Zippo Games' lead designer and producer, as the company was being bought by Rare to become Rare Manchester in 1990.
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