To….Well, anyone reading this I guess….

It is with a heavy heart that I must announce my departure from Open Emotion Studios, The company I co-founded two and a half years ago with my friends, Colm English and Mike Naughton.

My decision to leave Open Emotion Studios has not been an easy one to make, but it’s the decision which feels most right to me. The past 2+ years at Open Emotion have been unbelievable and one of my favourite things has been to watch the Irish Game Development scene grow in the same time.

When we started developing games in January 2010 there was maybe only two or three other development studios around the country. Now, Ireland houses a wealth of creativity within the gaming sector with companies emerging everywhere from Galway to Kilkenny, Thurles to Limerick and of course, the all encompassing goliath that is Dublin. These new devs are all showcasing their ability to deliver interesting and fresh new content across a variety of platforms.

One reason for my departure from Open Emotion is that, although I believe there is an amazing energy to the Irish game Development sector, I believe it needs some kind of anchor or direction. I am hoping to put more focus on, not individual companies, but on the #IrishGameDev scene as a whole and also to address developers needs and concerns to the powers that be in government as well as personally getting more involved at an academic level.

I decided to write this open letter as a means to tell everyone – employees, interns, ex-staff, fellow game devs, students, gamers and followers, in one fell swoop how much they have meant in the past 2+ years to me.

To those of you I have worked with at Open Emotion – ex-staff, interns, current employees, I want you to know that you have all contributed in such a huge way to both my development as an industry professional and as a person. Every day that I worked with you guys, even when we disagreed or argued on certain things, It was incredible to get to know you and you’ve shown me how valuable and important each and every one of you are. I would not hesitate in working with any of you again and from the honest and most sincere depths of my heart, I thank you so much for everything you have done.

To those of you I met at events – students, other developers, randomers – thanks for everything. You are all amazingly talented people and gaining your insight has helped me grow in so many ways
as a game designer and producer. It has been through meeting all of you that I have decided to become more deeply involved in the #IrishGameDev scene. For the nights of drinking Tequila in hotel rooms and getting lashed on Max Draft 100% – thank you. For the long winded debates and conversations about games, movies, books, TV-shows and random crap (such as blu-ray, Conor and Dave of Redwind) – thank you!

I only hope that I can work with you all on trying to make Ireland an even more amazing place to start a game development studio.

To the guys at The Gaming Liberty, The Player, Bone-Idle – Shane, Joe, Lee, Stephen, Anthony – thanks for everything you’ve done to help me put Open Emotion Studios on the map and the sheer support we have received from your site, particularly in the early start up phase, was vital to help us in getting noticed, and without you I don’t know if I would ever have been able to garner the level of focus for the company, which we received from working with you.

To everyone that bought or played an Open Emotion Studios game – to be honest, I honestly don’t know how to thank you people. If there’s something I’ve learned in the past seven months, since my daughter Piper was born, it’s that time is precious and all the money in the world can’t buy back even one wasted minute. The fact that you took time to pay for, download and play something which I helped sink a part of my soul and personality into, blows my mind at a level that I honestly can’t even describe. Without you, my time at Open Emotion Studios would also have been considerably shorter and a lot less fun.

To the family and friends who supported and put up with me – I understand that in the past two years I have been distant and absorbed in my work, missing out on some really important events. I can only thank you guys so much for all the amazing support.

And to everyone else – thanks for reading this.

If you want to keep up to date with my musings and developments you can follow me on WordPress (paddybass.wordpress.com) or on Twitter (@paddybass)

Here’s hoping that in 2012 we can really pull together and deliver the focus the #IrishGameDev scene needs to thrive on a global scale.

Sincerely,

Paddy Murphy,
Co-Founder and Former CEO, Open Emotion Studios Ltd.
Paddybass@gmail.com