Review Fix Exclusive: Richard Bardwell Talks ‘Kings of the Realm’ and Digit Game Studios Growth

October 3, 2016 Patrick Hickey Jr. Video Games 0

Review Fix chats with Richard Barnwell, CEO of Digit Game Studios, who discusses the company’s growth, much of it thanks to the success if their cross-platform title, Kings of the Realm. Breaking down the company’s vision and goals for the future, Bardwell lets us know that they have a busy Fall and new year ahead.

Review Fix: What has your company’s growth been like the past year?

Richard Barnwell: We’ve grown from 20 to 60 in the last 12 months, and we still have a number of vacancies for the right people. It’s been really fast growth for us and we’ve been extremely lucky to find such good people. Growing is also tough, we’ve learned a lot and changed a lot as the company has had to adapt to having a lot more people involved in the creation process. It’s been great fun though, full of huge opportunity and new knowledge for the team.

Review Fix: How has it felt to watch all of this transpire?

Barnwell: I’ve been fortunate enough to see a couple of companies grow significantly, it’s energising. Bringing a new person into the team, with their unique knowledge and views is really healthy and motivates everyone around them. I’m proud of what DIGIT is becoming and seeing all the hard work come to fruition.

Review Fix: How important was Kings of the Realm to your company’s growth?

Barnwell: Critical, it still is. It was our first game and it’s paid the bills for a long time. We also learned a lot about our players and their behaviour, our next game is based on a lot of those learnings.

Review Fix: For those who haven’t played it yet, why is it a special game?

Barnwell: It’s a game with huge depth, set in an immersive fantasy world and free to play. We’ve worked hard to balance the free to play model to enable players who do not spend to be successful too. Some of our top players have not spent any money in game, instead however, they’ve spent a lot of time.

Review Fix: What are your company’s goals for 2017?

Barnwell: We are bringing our latest title to market with a huge launch – I honestly believe this will put DIGIT on the world stage. Secondly, I hope to see some big and exciting updates to Kings that our players will love.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Barnwell: Continue to find great talent and strengthen the DIGIT team further. We are on a path to create some the world’s best mobile strategy games and only hiring the most talented game creators will get us there.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13877 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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