Tweet
I defy you to find a happier person in video games than Matt Birch right now. I defy you to find a more nervous one, too. Birch, founder of the Kingston-upon-Thames-based studio Heavy Spectrum, is a bundle of excitement, energy and emotion as he finally unveils what he's been working on the past two years to an assembled crowd at Sony's PlayStation 4 digital showcase. There's a weighted pause as he clicks through the slides of the presentation just before we get our first look at an in-game screenshot. The tears that are pricking his eyes are proof that none of this is an affectation; this really means something to him.
It all goes back to a special game Birch played for the first time over 25 years ago, when he was growing up in the Merseyside town of St. Helens. "I remember, when I was about 16 years old, going round to a friend's house who'd just got an Amiga, and he wanted to show me Shadow of the Beast," Birch tells us as we talk after his presentation, his grin wider than ever, his nervous energy evident as he leans forward and takes sips from one of half a dozen half-drunk bottles of water.
Read more…
More...