It's been a rollercoaster couple of years for thechineseroom. Back in 2009 they picked up an award for Best World/Story at IndieCade for their experimental mod called Dear Esther. Three years later, Dear Esther is an indie hit, and they're no longer just an academic research project but a studio employing over ten people.  

They joined us in the Studio on the 31 January to talk about their two new games, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, the importance of taking risks, investing in new ideas and content, working as a close-knit but remotely located team, and being part of the indie games community.

Due to the informality of the lunchtime talks series, these events are not regularly recorded for DShed. The footage was captured as part of Bristol Digital Week and thechineseroom have kindly allowed us to publish it. 

Lunchtime Talks are informal presentations by Studio residents and associates. They normally take place at 1pm on Friday, are free and open to everybody who’s interested in what we do. Find the upcoming programme of our talks on our events page, and find write-ups of previous talks on our news page here.