YoYo’s new CTO is former DMA employee Russell Kay
YoYo Games have revealed the identity of their new Chief Technology Officer as former DMA employee and programmer of the original PC lemmings game Russell Kay.
By sheer coincidence I was reading about the history of Lemmings just a few days ago (is a good read). Russell was responsible for the game concept and name of the iconic game which was ported to many platforms and is estimated to have sold over 15 million copies.
DMA (which since a takeover is now known as as Rockstar North) will perhaps be better known to younger readers as the creators of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Russell went on to found Visual Science Ltd who were responsible for the PlayStation version of the game.
If you are interested here is an interview with Russell Kay albeit a few years old. I think this development is the most exciting to happen at YoYo Games for a long time – possibly ever – as it demonstrates that they are serious about substantially developing the Game Maker brand.
Nice fun-fact. DMA made some great games back in the day.
GTA 1 has a special place in my heart – one of the first games I ever played with hardware acceleration (courtesy of my VooDoo2 add-on card). Hope Russell makes a great addition to the YYG team.
Grand Theft Auto is so damn addicting game. I play 8 hours a day of GTA.”*