It’s Our Birthday! Twenty years of Just Add Water

Just Add Water turns 20 today. Stewart Gilray started the studio in Leeds in 2006, and we’re still here. We still work from Yorkshire and partner with other studios on games like Oddworld and Sniper Elite VR.

TIGA looked at UK studios founded between 2008 and 2018. More than half had closed by 2023. So we don’t take it for granted.

After Stewart’s death in 2022, Bec Gilray, now our Director and Owner, took over with Viktorya Hollings, now CEO. They kept the studio in Leeds. Bec says it was partly about looking after Stewart’s legacy. It was also about showing that a regional, women-led studio can make good games and stick around.

It’s still unusual. Women are nearly half of the world’s players. But they make up 30% of the UK games workforce and 16% of executives at the top 15 games companies.

Viktorya says people still assume a certain type of person runs a games company. They also assume the big decisions happen in London. She and Bec don’t think you need that playbook. They back developers in the North, look after the team, and want a studio where people enjoy making games together.

This has been a good year to turn 20. Train Sim World VR won us a Ukie Award. We’re developing Target Arcade alongside Target Darts. We also do a lot of VR and spatial computing work. We want to keep going with that in our 21st year, along with console games.

Thanks to everyone who has played our games or worked on them. We’re pleased to still be around.