Factsheet

Developer:
randomnine
Based in London, England

Founding date:
December 2009

Website:
wootfu.com

Press / Business Contact:
randomnine@wootfu.com

Social:
Twitter

Releases:
Cardinal Quest 2

Address:
32 Clifford Avenue
Ilford
IG5 0UJ
England

Phone:
+44 7944 365202

Description

"randomnine" is Ruari O'Sullivan, a British games developer who quit studio country in 2010 to independently overthrow classic game genres one by one.

History

Prehistory

In the late '90s Ruari was a prolific amateur Quake and Half-Life modder, sleeping through school classes and working through nights to push out genre-busting mods like minimalist jetpack deathmatch "Canned Tuna", the richochet-racing game "Turbo" and the engine-overhauling jetfighter combat mod "Polyfighter". Polyfighter was selected by Valve for exhibition at the third annual Half-Life Mod Expo in San Francisco. Ruari's mod work led him to a five-year stint at Frontier Developments Ltd., working in part on the cutting-edge natural control feel of Kinect launch title Kinectimals.

Independence

Ruari's solo career started with two quickfire expansions of well-placed Ludum Dare entries to test the waters: the morbidly minimalist Metroid-like "Beacon" and the hypocritical street brawler "Fear Is Vigilance". These free 15-minute games won coverage and player popularity but yielded little income. As running on savings gave way to running on fumes, Ruari threw in with developer Ido Yehieli to work on updates to the commercial game "Cardinal Quest". Finally, with Ido's full support, he took over to begin work on a large-scale sequel: CARDINAL QUEST 2.

Projects

Videos

Images

There are far more images available for randomnine, but these are the ones we felt would be most useful to you. If you have specific requests, please do contact us!

Awards & Recognition

  • "Commies: #1 Sound, #3 Humor, #1 Overall" - Ludum Dare 4 - April 16, 2004
  • "Beacon: #2 Fun, #2 Overall" - Ludum Dare 19 - December 17, 2010
  • "Fear Is Vigilance: #1 Humor, #3 Overall" - Ludum Dare 20 - April 29, 2011

Selected Articles

  • "Turbo is currently only three weeks into development and is already attracting a big online following..."
    - Jeh, Planet Half-Life (March 2000)
  • "[Beacon is] a lovely bit of work, with some happy platforming and a touching ending that I think might get you lot talking."
    - Quintin Smith, Rock, Paper, Shotgun
  • "Fear Is Vigilance puts you in the interesting situation of being an antagonist: instead of fighting a threat created by some villain, you are the threat imposed on the game's world."
    - Lana Polansky, Kill Screen

Team & Repeating
Collaborators

Ruari O'Sullivan
Developer

presskit() by Rami Ismail (Vlambeer) - also thanks to these fine folks