The City of London is home to more game development studios than most would think. Big Blue Bubble, Digital Extremes, Antic Entertainment, Redjade and a few others populate downtown London in unsuspecting, well-traveled locales.

These companies game portfolios cover every available platform, from Digital Extreme's Dark Sector on PS3 and Xbox 360 to Big Blue Bubble's 24, based on the popular TV series, for mobile.

Recently I've had the opportunity to sit down with the heads of each of these local game studios and ask them how they tick, how they got started, and why they're in London. This week's interview is with the creative director at Big Blue Bubble, Mark Maia. I met with Mark downtown in his office in the Big Blue Bubble studios.

Interrobang: What is the size of Big Blue Bubble's productions? In terms of employees and games made per year.

Maia: Right now, we're sitting at about 35 employees, and we expect to be somewhere around 45-50 at the end of the year. So a slower growth this year than previous years, but that's because the economy is the way it is right now, so it'll be a slower growth, but definitely a growth.

Interrobang: Are there specific teams within Big Blue Bubble that take care of each game? Or do you mix and match?

Maia: The teams are very much mix and match. We put people where they're the strongest, so if somebody has a lot of experience with casual games and those come on and they're on something else, we'll throw them on [the casual game]. Or if somebody wants to experience another type, like an artist, if they want to try 2D instead of the regular 3D, then we'll throw them on a 2D project instead of a 3D project, if we feel they can do it. We trust our artists to know their limits, and they're pretty good.

Interrobang: What are the staff like here at Big Blue Bubble?

Maia: Everybody at Big Blue Bubble is very friendly. We're like a group of friends. There are groups within the group, people that hang out more often, but all my friends work here, and I think that happens when you work in the industry. That helps establish connections. It's professional and fun in the same way. It's the best of both worlds.

Interrobang: How did Big Blue Bubble become successful?

Maia: We started off five years ago doing cellphone games. We had a few big titles that stood out early on. Jewel Quest was a big hit for us. We also did the 24 series that scored really well for us on IGN.com.

Interrobang: 9 or 10?

Maia: Yeah, I think 9 out of 10 was for the second one, and 9.1 out of 10 was for the first one. So we've had some good quality titles underneath our belt. We've taken a license, like Jewel Quest or 24, and where most studios kind of just put a game because 24's on there, we've taken the time to make the 24 game right and take it seriously. We don't want it to basically sell on the name alone. It's good, those sales help, we also want people to play it and say, “Yeah, this is actually a good game”. I think one of the quotes from one of our titles [reviews] is, “this is how you make a game based on a license”.

Interrobang: How does Big Blue Bubble go about finding new talent to hire?

Maia: We post on a series of websites. We post on college websites as well, so we get a lot of students in here. Most of our applicants are students, and we also take more students than most studios. Not that Digital Extremes doesn't, but other studios who deal with higher-end next-gen projects, a lot of the times are looking for people with experience. Since we're a little lower-key, we don't have the big three-year projects, we can take students on.

Interrobang: Can you tell me about any titles that Big Blue Bubble is working on right now?

Maia: I don't think we have anything that's public knowledge right now, but I can tell you we've got two casual games on the go and a console game. I think that's the only thing I'm safe to say right now.

Interrobang: How much communication is there between Big Blue Bubble and other London-based game developers?

Maia: Oh, definitely a lot. Having them in close proximity we're just blocks away from each other. We have a good relationship with everybody, we have no hard feelings against anybody. I think it works out well that nobody's a direct competitor. This community is small, the video game community, but being here in London even more so because we're so tight and close together, we're all like friends with everybody. The community is good, solid, it just helps strengthen the whole industry in London.

My thanks to Mark Maia at Big Blue Bubble for the interview and subsequent tour of the studio. The atmosphere is as nice as Mark makes it sound, with quite the comfortable studio complete with gaming lounges, open spaces, and one heck of a ninth floor view downtown.