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Oliver Twins
Andrew Nicholas Oliver and Philip Edward Oliver, together known as the Oliver Twins, are British twin brothers and video game designers.
They developed computer games while they were still at school, contributing their first type-in game to a magazine in 1983. They worked with publishers Codemasters for a number of years following their first collaboration Super Robin Hood, creating the Dizzy series of games and many of Codemasters' Simulator Series games. In 1990 they founded Interactive Studios which later became Blitz Games Studios. In October 2013 they founded Radiant Worlds, based in Leamington Spa, with long time friend and colleague Richard Smithies.
Philip and Andrew Oliver first began programming computer games while at school (Clarendon School in Trowbridge). They discovered their interest in computing when their brother bought a used ZX 81 when they were 13. They bought a faster Dragon 32 in September 1982, with more memory. They tried to improve the type-in games they found in magazines and eventually created their own game, Road Runner, which was published as written code in Computer and Video Games Magazine in January 1984. The same year they won first prize in a national TV competition (The Saturday Show) to design a computer game.
Their first game for Codemasters, Super Robin Hood for the Amstrad CPC, was published in 1986. The Codemasters publishing relationship led to the origin of the Dizzy series and the Simulator series.
In 1990, at the age of 22, they started Interactive Studios, later called Blitz Games Studios. Apart from their own games, the Oliver Twins were also responsible for porting a number of other prominent games to the Sega platforms, including Theme Park and Syndicate.
After 23 years, Blitz Games folded in 2013, with the loss of 175 staff, and owing millions to creditors.
In October 2013 they founded Radiant Worlds, based in Leamington Spa, UK, with long time friend and colleague Richard Smithies to develop SkySaga: Infinite Isles for Korean-based Smilegate. SkySaga was an ambitious online voxel based game based on an original concept by members of the Blitz Games Studios team. In August 2017 Smilegate put SkySaga on hold and the Olivers and Smithies put the company up for sale. In January 2018, Rebellion, a UK games developer and publisher, purchased the company and renamed it to Rebellion (Warwick). The twins remained with Rebellion until February 2019, at which point they left to form a game consultancy business.
In 2015 Philip Oliver found a hand drawn map titled Wonderland Dizzy while preparing for a talk the twins were due to give at that year's Play Blackpool event. After looking around further, a disk was found which contained the full uncompiled source code of a game with the same name which they had written 22 years earlier for the NES but had forgotten about. The twins came into contact with Lukasz Kur via a Dizzy fansite, who fixed a few bugs in the game's code and translated it into a few languages before compiling it. The game was released online and free to play on 24 October 2015. In 2016, they released a second lost Dizzy game, Mystery World Dizzy, which was originally scheduled for release on the Nintendo in 1993. In May 2017 the twins announced they would be working on a new Dizzy game, their first for over 20 years. In a video for the ZX Spectrum Next Kickstarter campaign they revealed the game would be inspired by The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, and would be called Wonderful Dizzy.
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Oliver Twins
Andrew Nicholas Oliver and Philip Edward Oliver, together known as the Oliver Twins, are British twin brothers and video game designers.
They developed computer games while they were still at school, contributing their first type-in game to a magazine in 1983. They worked with publishers Codemasters for a number of years following their first collaboration Super Robin Hood, creating the Dizzy series of games and many of Codemasters' Simulator Series games. In 1990 they founded Interactive Studios which later became Blitz Games Studios. In October 2013 they founded Radiant Worlds, based in Leamington Spa, with long time friend and colleague Richard Smithies.
Philip and Andrew Oliver first began programming computer games while at school (Clarendon School in Trowbridge). They discovered their interest in computing when their brother bought a used ZX 81 when they were 13. They bought a faster Dragon 32 in September 1982, with more memory. They tried to improve the type-in games they found in magazines and eventually created their own game, Road Runner, which was published as written code in Computer and Video Games Magazine in January 1984. The same year they won first prize in a national TV competition (The Saturday Show) to design a computer game.
Their first game for Codemasters, Super Robin Hood for the Amstrad CPC, was published in 1986. The Codemasters publishing relationship led to the origin of the Dizzy series and the Simulator series.
In 1990, at the age of 22, they started Interactive Studios, later called Blitz Games Studios. Apart from their own games, the Oliver Twins were also responsible for porting a number of other prominent games to the Sega platforms, including Theme Park and Syndicate.
After 23 years, Blitz Games folded in 2013, with the loss of 175 staff, and owing millions to creditors.
In October 2013 they founded Radiant Worlds, based in Leamington Spa, UK, with long time friend and colleague Richard Smithies to develop SkySaga: Infinite Isles for Korean-based Smilegate. SkySaga was an ambitious online voxel based game based on an original concept by members of the Blitz Games Studios team. In August 2017 Smilegate put SkySaga on hold and the Olivers and Smithies put the company up for sale. In January 2018, Rebellion, a UK games developer and publisher, purchased the company and renamed it to Rebellion (Warwick). The twins remained with Rebellion until February 2019, at which point they left to form a game consultancy business.
In 2015 Philip Oliver found a hand drawn map titled Wonderland Dizzy while preparing for a talk the twins were due to give at that year's Play Blackpool event. After looking around further, a disk was found which contained the full uncompiled source code of a game with the same name which they had written 22 years earlier for the NES but had forgotten about. The twins came into contact with Lukasz Kur via a Dizzy fansite, who fixed a few bugs in the game's code and translated it into a few languages before compiling it. The game was released online and free to play on 24 October 2015. In 2016, they released a second lost Dizzy game, Mystery World Dizzy, which was originally scheduled for release on the Nintendo in 1993. In May 2017 the twins announced they would be working on a new Dizzy game, their first for over 20 years. In a video for the ZX Spectrum Next Kickstarter campaign they revealed the game would be inspired by The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, and would be called Wonderful Dizzy.