Behind-the-scenes with Billygoat Entertainment
We are covering different industries, work environments and types of companies in our podcast, and we are back again with another behind-the-scenes. This time we are looking at a company working creatively in the games industry. Here's a little background about Billygoat Entertainment ahead of their podcast interview.
William Barr & Paul Kelly of Billygoat Entertainment, doing some purposeful lounging
We caught up with Will (William Barr) & Paul (Paul Kelly) from Billygoat Entertainment ahead of their trip to showcase their brand new game Supermarket Shriek at GDC (Games Developers Conference) in San Francisco. We found them in deep recycling mode and clearing up, getting ready for their trip to the US.
Billygoat Entertainment was founded in 2010 and is an indie games studio based *somewhere* on the Lisburn Road in Belfast. Billygoat is part of the expanding local indie games scene which is supported by NI Screen and Games NI. The studio has gone on to create games of critical acclaim including Her Majesty's Spiffing (HMS) - an intergalactic adventure set in which the Queen of England has decided to establish a Galactic British Empire. Drawing inspiration from games such as Lucas Art’s The Secret of Monkey Island and comic troop Monty Python, HMS is the satirical journey of Captain Frank Lee English in his quest to appropriate the stars for Her Majesty. HMS recently won the prestigious "Creativity & Heritage Award" at TIGA.
Around the office in one evening - a few bits and bobs the studio have collected over the years including their TIGA award
The studio are currently working on developing Supermarket Shriek which they came up with during Global Game Jam 2017at Farset Labs, Belfast. After our podcast recording, we had a little play through the game and it was great craic! We chatted with Will about how (on earth!) he came to set up a video game studio and his inspirations and aspirations.
A couple of quotes from the interview ahead of the podcast:
On how he got started:
"For me personally, a very long time ago, when I was - but - a lad, I used to make mods."
We clarified with Will that he meant game modifications and not the similar sounding famous Northern Irish ice-cream.
...
About his starting up a business here in Belfast rather than somewhere else:
"I'm backing Belfast (if that's still a relevant hashtag!)"
We had great fun recording with Billygoat. Their podcast interview will be released later this month!
Find out more about Billygoat on billygoat.tv