Member Article

December's North East spotlight series: Tom Beardsmore

Tom Beardsmore, CEO of Sunderland-based games developer Coatsink, joins us under the December spotlight.

Enjoy!

Your business

What were the highlights for your business in 2015?

Having one of our VR games featured at E3 in Los Angeles and attending the conference for the first time. A real excuse to nerd out.

Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently this year?

Nothing really springs to mind. We’ve had our best year yet, and are tremendously thankful to all our partners for that. I guess I could always stand to eat and drink a little less, though.

Is there anything we should watch out for your company doing next year?

We’ll be launching some games with Oculus Rift (Facebook) and Sony next year. It should be a good one.

Your favourites

Have any other North East companies impressed you this year, if so - why?

Oh, lots of NE-based companies impress me constantly. In our industry, I’d say CCP in Newcastle and RoboPixel and SockMonkey in Middlesbrough have particularly impressed me. Both are developing fantastic projects, and I’m a big fan of their work.

When business life gets on top of you, what do you do to destress?

This may sound obvious, but I play a lot of games. I also love reading, and watching anime and TV shows. Typical geek stuff, really.

Have any social media accounts caught your eye this year, any favourite pages or people to follow? (*cough* Bdaily *cough* *cough*)

Let me tell you about this high quality business news outlet called Bdaily. If you’re not following them already, you should be!

The what ifs

If you could do any job in the world what would it be?

I feel like I have a pretty sweet deal right where I am, but it’d be great to be an astronaut…

If you could go back in time, which piece of advice would you give your younger self?

Don’t listen to your parents, keep playing games.

What would be the perfect Christmas gift for you?

I’m partial to a good bottle of bourbon or an obscure nerdy toy.

Thanks Tom.