Here’s the transcript from the interview I did with Edge magazine in February of this year. It focuses on the games industry service solutions we offer. An edited segment was used in a feature about the Merseyside games industry. For the full feature see Edge, cover date March 2010.

1. What was the background of the founding of Citrus Suite and why did you decide to set up an art production house / game development studio?
Chris Morland: Citrus Suite was founded with the intention of offering game development services across the board and ultimately producing our own original games for digital distribution. I’ve previously worked at game development studios and an art production house and believed there was potential to put together a relatively small team and supplement this core with external talent when the project required it. I’m always keen to explore new opportunities and engage in collaborations and at this stage in our development we’re pretty flexible to do this.

2. What do you think are your areas of expertise?
Code / art / design:
We are are working on a Wii adventure game at the moment and have some really exciting concepts in development. It’s worth pointing out, not all of our ideas are console focussed.
Our team have worked together for many years in various companies. Our code, art and design leads have over 30 years experience in the industry. As individuals we’ve worked on over 20 released titles since the late 1990s producing content published by the likes of Sony, Microsoft, Codemasters, Disney and EA.

On the art side we specialise in the production of in-game art assets – vehicles, characters and environments for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and other platforms. Under the banner 3D Creation Studio, and using artists from Merseyside, I was involved in the production of artwork for 10 of the top 100 developers in the world.

3. Why did you set up in Liverpool and you do think being there provides you with any particular advantages?
There is a great cluster of companies here in Liverpool with a long history of development in the area. The local talent pool has allowed us to ramp up to 20 plus staff onsite at various points. There’s also a good network of agencies in the region such as Vision & Media, The Mersey Partnership and Focus Innovation who have assisted us since our formation.

4. What contacts do you have with the local games industry?
Most of our outsourcing work has come from outside the region so it’s nice when we cross paths with companies from the local area. We know the guys at Redoubt, Playbox, Onteca and Magenta Software pretty well and have a lot of time for them. We introduced ourselves to Sony XDev via the Get In the Game programme and were impressed by their enthusiasm for innovative game ideas.

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