About

Tall Studios is a British independent game studio founded by John and Karen Reynolds in October 2010 to develop the Shoot ‘Em Up Kit; a game development kit which enables people to make games without the need for programming.

We both started programming games on the Sinclair Spectrum in the early 1980s. It was quick and easy to start creating something and John went on to sell his first game when he was 12. We wanted to create a tool that would give the same accessibility to people today while taking advantage of all the latest game technology.

We were inspired by a friend’s teenager who asked if there was any software that would allow him to make the videogames he was designing on paper. At the time there was nothing available but John remembered some of the videogame creation software from the 1980s and we thought that there was a need for a modern version. We talked to artists and game designers and found a need in this area too. They had great ideas for games and loved the idea of being able to bring them to life without learning to program.

Having worked in the games industry since 1997, John felt in a good position to create a tool which not only embraced creativity but taught game industry techniques too. At first John worked on it evenings and weekends but in 2010 we formed Tall Studios to work on it full time.

The first version of the Shoot ‘Em Up Kit was released in March 2012 and has been in active development since, working with the community to add new features.