Surrey Research Park Celebrates 35 Years as a Community for Game Innovation and Development

Surrey Research Park is marking 35 years as a community for games innovation and development.

The launch of park-based studio 22cans’ new game Masters of Albion means that games have been developed continuously at the University of Surrey-owned Research Park since the late 1980s.

As a result, Surrey Research Park is one of only a small number of sites in the UK where innovative, world‑class games studios have operated continuously for almost four decades.

From Populous to DeepMind: A Legacy of Gaming Royalty

One of the earliest games studios to establish at the Park was Bullfrog Productions, which released its breakthrough title Populous in 1989. The game became a global sensation, selling more than 4 million copies, and is regarded as establishing the god-game genre.

Its groundbreaking gameplay enabled players to navigate worlds governed by interacting rules, where player decisions directly shaped outcomes. The pioneering design and technology behind Populous, later refined in Populous II, are widely recognised as influencing the simulation‑driven design approaches seen in similarly iconic later titles such as SimCity, The Sims, and Civilization.

• Peter Molyneux and Lionhead Studios: In the 1990s, Lionhead Studios, whose origins can be traced back to Bullfrog Productions via its founder Peter Molyneux, released one of its most influential titles, Black & White. The game featured cutting-edge early adaptive artificial intelligence, where in‑game creatures learned and evolved based on player behaviour.
  
• Sir Demis Hassabis and Google DeepMind: Among the Park-based development team working on Black & White was a young Demis Hassabis — now Sir Demis, who went on to found and become CEO of Google DeepMind. Sir Demis conducted some of his earliest practical AI work while working for Lionhead Studios.
  
• Seven League Software (7LS): Alongside these headline developers, the Park is also the base for specialists Seven League Software (7LS), who contribute high‑end game engineering to a range of widely recognised AAA titles. This underscores the Park’s long‑standing role as a home not just for creative vision, but for the technical craft that underpins the modern games industry.
  
• Rocketdesk: Over the years, the Park has attracted a vibrant community of other games studios, especially to co-working space providers Rocketdesk, which has provided a base for many indie games studios and developers for the past decade.

Next level industry and academic collaboration

As part of the University of Surrey, the Park and the wider Surrey Innovation District enables collaboration between academic and industry partners, while spearheading initiatives to strengthen Guildford’s legacy as the UK’s Hollywood of Games and create unique opportunities for students.

Earlier this year, 11 Games Design students from the University supported 22cans by live playtesting Masters of Albion in the University’s Games Innovation Zone, an on-campus venue dedicated to games development and industry collaboration.  

Dr Jon Weinel, Senior Lecturer in Games Design at the University of Surrey, said:

“Having grown up playing games Peter Molyneux created such as Bullfrog’s ‘Flood’ and ‘Dungeon Keeper’, it’s fantastic for us to be working with 22cans in supporting their latest release Masters of Albion, and exemplifies the strongly industry-focused approach we are taking with the BSc Hons Games Design programme.”

Commenting on 22cans’ latest release and Surrey Research Park’s influential role in supporting game developers, Guildford MP Zoe Franklin said:

“Huge congratulations to the team at 22cans for the release of their new game and enabling 35 years of game development at Surrey Research Park, in Guildford. The continued strength and heritage of Guildford’s games sector is genuinely exciting to see. I’m enormously proud of our town’s reputation as the ‘Hollywood of the gaming industry’ and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for this innovative sector, both locally and nationally. I wish you all the best with the forthcoming launch of Masters of Albion, here’s to another 35 years of game development!”

Reflecting on the Park’s milestone, Caroline Fleming, Director of the Surrey Innovation District and Innovation lead at the Park, added:

“Congratulations to Peter and everyone at 22cans. We are all incredibly excited to see the release of the new game developed at the Park.

“While the technology to play games has transformed significantly over the past 30 years, the Park’s founding ethos of creating a space where innovative businesses grow and creative teams thrive, experienced by Bullfrog Productions in the 1980s, is as strong as ever. We look forward to many more years of supporting games studios at the Park, and welcoming a new generation of CreaTech pioneers, who will maintain the Park’s legacy and Guildford’s prestigious status for game innovation.”

Discover more about opportunities for innovators of games technology and CreaTech developers in the Surrey Innovation District ecosystem and at Surrey Research Park.