From January to August 2017 we set up Skymoons Edinburgh, working with the company’s Chinese parent and the incoming Edinburgh management to take a studio from nothing to a working team.
Skymoons Digital Entertainment is based in Chengdu, in the city’s Tianfu Software Park. The Edinburgh studio was its first outside China and its first in Europe, and was announced in February 2017 as the first Chinese games company to enter the Scottish games industry. Michael Boniface, previously a director of Reloaded Productions, was named director of the new studio, and Scottish Development International supported the decision to choose Edinburgh. The plan announced at the time was an initial 21 roles, to be filled by the end of June.
Our part was the work of actually starting it, and we worked closely with Michael Boniface throughout. That meant hiring and building the team, and the technical pre-production a new studio needs before it can begin producing anything: the decisions about tools, pipeline and approach that are easier to get right at the outset than to correct later.
Skymoons Edinburgh was based in our own offices for this period, until it outgrew the space and moved to its own premises. Our engagement ended in August 2017, with the studio established and running.
Contemporary reports describe the studio’s launch, its parent company and its recruitment plan. They record the wider announcement rather than the set-up work described here, which comes from our own account of the engagement.
Image: Chengdu Tianfu Software Park by Tngddgj, used under CC BY-SA 4.0 and cropped to 16:9; this cropped version is available under the same licence. Photographed in 2018, it shows the software park in Chengdu where Skymoons’ parent company is based. It does not depict Skymoons’ own premises or the Edinburgh studio.
Further reading: The Scottish Games Network’s report, 10 February 2017 and Scottish Enterprise’s announcement, 9 February 2017.