[Exclusive Interview] Find Out Why Sumo Digital, A UK-Based Gaming Development Company Has Expanded In Pune, Bengaluru

We recently interacted with Stewart Neal, who is the Studio Director for Sumo India Studios , a Sumo Digital Studio, part of Sumo Group.

We asked about their expansion plan in India, and their mission and vision.

Here are the interview highlights.

Please shed some light on Sumo Digital, the studio, some of your projects and the games you’ve worked on? 

“Sumo Digital is part of Sumo Group which employs more than 1,000 people across Europe, the United States, Canada and India. Sumo Pune and Sumo Bangalore collaborate with many of these studios and jointly develop projects together. 

“Sumo Pune was founded in 2007 and was the second studio opened by Sumo Digital – working on highly acclaimed single-player and multiplayer games such as Hitman 2, Forza Horizon 5, and Sackboy: A Big Adventure. Since then, we have built a premium console and PC game development studio in India and have developed video games with partners such as Apple, Microsoft, Sony, and many more.

“The reason for founding the company back in 2007 was to take advantage of India’s talent pool. Gaming is a growing industry and looking at the skills you have in other areas like film and visual effects in India, this was a natural decision. Sumo Digital has grown to 11 studios, and we are looking forward to continuing to expand in key areas such as programming, art, design, quality control and production.”

Please tell us about works done by Sumo Digital on the games such as Hitman 2, Forza Horizon 4, Sackboy: A Big Adventure etc.

“For Hitman 2, we worked on the creation of two levels from scratch, Columbia and Arc. For Forza Horizon 4,

we worked on the Barn for the vehicles, as well as vehicle texturing. 

“We were also responsible for environment creation, where we created multiple iconic buildings and also worked on asset creation that could be placed on the map.

“When it came to Sackboy: A Big Adventure, we were responsible for working level creation and working on level art. We produced layouts and then did multiple art passes by adding assets to the levels to bring them to life.

“We were also responsible for a lot of art motifs, in which we generated some cool surprises and ideas that could be used in levels. The Pune design team worked on numerous levels from single-player, multiplayer to time trials for Sackboy: A Big Adventure. We collaborated with a team from the Sheffield studio to create small sections of grey box layouts called motifs to explore the interesting combinations of gameplay objects and scenarios.

“We shortlisted these motifs and used them along with play areas, surprise and delight moments to give ample challenge whilst maintaining the core principles of the game. We worked on prototyping various gameplay objects via visual scripting as well. It was a great experience working with the Pune art and code team along with the Sheffield team.”
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Speaking of talent, can you shed light on the work the studio does in India?

“Since opening, Sumo Pune has been a tremendous success, growing to a 160+ person co-development team across art, programming, design, QA and production. As mentioned, we have worked on major titles such as Hitman 2, Forza Horizon 4 and recently released Hood: Outlaws & Legends, as well as Forza Horizon 5 in 2021. Additionally, we contributed to the full development of Sackboy: A Big Adventure which received multiple BAFTA awards.”

Can you please tell us about AAA gaming production at Sumo Pune? What were the challenges you faced?

“The biggest challenge has been ensuring that we are consistently welcoming new people s from India’s broad talent pool to join our development teams. India has a large number of talented programmers, designers, and artists – but as more studios are opening, the competition for high-priority roles can be fierce.  

“The value of working within the games industry in India has  not traditionally been understood. Thankfully, the attitude towards the industry has changed massively in recent years.

“As a Sumo Digital studio, we’re committed to supporting entry to the games industry through education and we hire trainees extensively. We hope that we can further explore opportunities for outreach through Sumo Pune & Sumo Bangalore to continue supporting the growth of our industry.”

What are you most looking forward to in gaming in 2022 and why?  

“The new generation of consoles launched in Fall 2020, and since then we are closely following where the market is heading. The Xbox Game Pass service is becoming bigger and bigger with every passing month, and recently there has been news about Sony’s PlayStation VR 2, which is interesting from a developer perspective.

“We are also closely monitoring how the audience’s taste in gaming changes, whilst looking at trends such as what works and what doesn’t.”