[![head](/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/head.png)](/posts/goodbye-playdemic/attachment/head-8/)

Wow doesn't time fly.



Over 8 years ago I was a short nerdy student trying desperately to find a way into the games industry for my industrial placement year at university. I was about ready to give up hope when a certain "Starboy" (probably) fed up of my winging offered me a position at his company Rockpool Games.

> Cannyshammy - feel free to drop me an email, my company is based in Manchester and there is a strong possibility of us taking on an intern.
>
> alex.rigby@rockpoolgames.com
>
> EDIT: Just seen you're looking to go abroad, guess Manchester is a little too close then eh?
> (source: [https://www.gamedev.net/topic/297068-breaking-into-the-games-industry-is-impossible/page-2#entry2882806](https://www.gamedev.net/topic/297068-breaking-into-the-games-industry-is-impossible/page-2#entry2882806))

Little did either of us know the long winding path that would unfold from that moment.

Fast forward 5 years. After their success with Rockpool Paul and Alex approached me with a new cunning plan. They were going to start a games company to make these new-fangled social games that Zynga were redefining the games industry with.

Join an exciting new company making cutting edge games with Starboy? [How could I refuse](/posts/playdemic-my-fist-day/)...

Needless to to say the next 3 years were quite a journey. There were ups, there were downs, there were laughs, there were cry's there was even the occasional thigh-rub (still not sure how I didn't get fired for those).

Like all journeys however, they must some day come to an end. I decided that the majority of the world has yet to experience the emotional cocktail of disgust, fear and slight arousal induced by the thigh-rub. So before I reach "that age" I was going to take some time and bring this unique joy to the wider world.

So whats next? Well I have two months of preparation before I embark on an epic 7 month journey through Central and South America, but ill save the details on that for a separate post.

[![](/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/top.jpg "top")](/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/top.jpg)

Well as it has now hit the media I guess I can blog about it.



Last week it was announced that my current employer [Playdemic](https://www.playdemic.com/) was acquired by the much larger Redwood City based company RockYou.

This is obviously great news for all concerned and can only lead to further greatness as we expand and grow under our American overlords :)

[About 6 months ago I joined a new startup](/posts/playdemic-my-fist-day/) called Playdemic as the Lead Flash Developer. I couldn't say much at the time as we were in stealth mode. As our first product has been out for about a month however, I think its about time I wrote a blog post on the subject.



[Gourmet Ranch](https://apps.facebook.com/gourmetranch/) is Flash game for face book that follows closely on the heels of the other Facebook game successes such as Farmville and Cafeworld. The premise is simple, you grow crops and animals in your fields and then when the time comes you harvest them and use them to bake recipes. Those recipes are then served to your waiting customers by your waiters.

As the lead flash dev on the project its my responsibility to code all the engine and game play elements. Despite my several years worth of experience with flash games this was a challenging project . Making a game that is a multiplayer game but not a multiplayer game (no client pushing) is definately not for the feint of heart.

Despite the challenges and the occasional heated moment during development I think the product we have produced is excellent and is superior to many of the similar games available on Facebook. The stats for the first month of the game are impressive as can be seen from the [data gleamed from AppData](https://appdata.com/apps/facebook/360375426140).

![](/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ScreenHunter_07-Aug.-04-09.37.jpg "ScreenHunter_07 Aug. 04 09.37")

The main challenge now is to continue the early growth we have seen and retain the existing users we have won. So that means players of the game should be looking forward to regular updates with new content and bug fixing :)

Anyways if you wanna check it out head over to facebook --> [https://apps.facebook.com/gourmetranch/](https://apps.facebook.com/gourmetranch/)

![](/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ScreenHunter_01-Aug.-04-09.27-300x260.jpg "ScreenHunter_01 Aug. 04 09.27")![](/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ScreenHunter_03-Aug.-04-09.31.jpg "ScreenHunter_03 Aug. 04 09.31")
[![](/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ScreenHunter_02-Aug.-04-09.30.jpg "ScreenHunter_02 Aug. 04 09.30")](/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ScreenHunter_02-Aug.-04-09.30.jpg)[![](/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ScreenHunter_05-Aug.-04-09.31.jpg "ScreenHunter_05 Aug. 04 09.31")](/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ScreenHunter_05-Aug.-04-09.31.jpg)

[![](/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/ScreenHunter_03-Jan.-11-19.10.jpg "ScreenHunter_03 Jan. 11 19.10")](/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/ScreenHunter_03-Jan.-11-19.10.jpg)

Well I had mentioned this in a previous post but I thought I might as well add a separate post for it as its quite a big bit of personal news.



Today was my first day at my new job in Wilmslow (20 mins south of manchester) with a new startup named Playdemic.

I cant say what exactly it is im going to be doing yet but it will be Flash related as usual ;)

I will say however, that I am very excited however about the work and the working environment, im eager to get cracking!