Fife games entrepreneur David Hamilton on his life in business

When David Hamilton left school, he had no designs on becoming a video games pioneer. In fact, he wanted to join the police.

David comes from a long line of cops — quite literally. At 6ft 8in, he is easy to spot in a crowd.

But he was set to follow a different path. Living with diabetes means David was unable to follow in his father’s footsteps, instead pursuing his passion for games.

He recalls: The only other thing I was really into was computing and computer games. I was lucky enough to have a console — a ZX Spectrum and then an Amiga — when I was a kid.

“I was offered a place at Dundee College, and did the HND. This allowed me to skip straight into third year at Abertay University. I loved it.”

It was at Abertay where David met Barry Petrie. The two would go on to found Digital Goldfish, which in turn merged with New Zealand’s Ninja Kiwi before being sold to Sweden’s Modern Times Group (MTG) for a reported £135 million.

But if it looks straightforward on paper, the reality was anything but.

“We thought we’d be overnight millionaires,” David says.

“After launching our first mobile game, we thought ‘we’re selling our game for £4. All we need to do is sell a load of them and we’d be rich!’

“And all we got were emails telling telling us our game didn’t work on their phones.”

Digital Goldfish early years

David and Barry’s company was nurtured at Abertay’s Embreonix studio, which put them in touch with established games experts like Mark Ettle, owner of Cobra Games.

Their first, BabyGrow, was loosely based on popular simulators like Tamagotchi. It didn’t do well.

The pair were incredibly excited, David said, about taking the game to a mass market, with the help of the city’s leading designers.

“Mark Ettle was the sexy one in mobile, who was doing productions like Lego Bricks. He did Sensible Soccer Skills, he had all the big games,” David explains.

“And the first time we went to go to meet him, obviously we brought our game. There was me and Barry and a few others. We’re in his waiting room, and it’s bigger than our whole office in Abertay and then we go through to the boardroom and it feels like something from The Apprentice.

“We’re sitting there, he’s making us wait and then in he comes in and we hand him over the phone which has our game on it and he just throws it back to us and goes ‘it’s sh*t!'”

Undeterred, David and Barry carried on, under the tutelage of experts like Mark.

BabyGrow was put on the backburner as other ideas started to spring.

And as they developed their output, David and Barry had to keep up the day jobs.

Pub bouncer to Bloons

For David, that meant working security at Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital during the week, and the doors of busy city pubs at weekends. Barry stacked shelves at Tesco.

This formed part of their story. As they pitched to huge games publishers from their personal Hotmail accounts, they told how if the games were picked up it would “be their big break”.

Mark’s advice proved invaluable. And since then, he has become not just David’s mentor, but friend too.

Their real big break happened in 2012, when Digital Goldfish merges with Ninja Kiwi.

A New Zealand company describing itself as an “indie games powerhouse”, Ninja Kiwi created the hugely successful Bloons — a tower defence game — which Digital Goldfish had developed for mobile.

And it coincided with the launch of the iPhone and the worldwide explosion in mobile gaming.

Bloons, in its various iterations, has been played billions of times.

Ninja Kiwi has subsequently been bought by MTG, in a deal worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

David is still involved, albeit in a reduced capacity as a board member.

Scottish Deer Centre and Wildlife Park

But he wanted to pursue other opportunities that came along – like the chance to acquire the Scottish Deer Centre near Cupar after he heard it was closing.

David, alongside Dundee scaffolding business owner Gavin Findlay, saved the beloved tourist attraction from administration in 2021.

It’s been a steep learning curve, David admits.

Having been battered by the pandemic, the centre was hit again by the cost-of-living crisis and hikes in energy prices.

It prompted a change in pricing strategy — namely the introduction of pay-what-you-want.

“It caused a scene,” he said.

“People were then lining up to get in. There were cars piled up on the verges as the car park was too full.”

The unexpected

Navigating the unexpected and having to adapt when things don’t go to plan, has been the only constant through his development as a business owner, David says.

The Deer Centre is still losing money, but is heading in a positive direction. External forces and increased costs are a major concern.

“Everything takes four times longer than you expect,” he said. “You always go down one avenue, before the gate slams shut — whether that’s through legislation or something else. There’s always some hurdle you have to get over.

“That’s what I have learned in business. You can either make it succeed, or you can call it quits.

“For example, when the new National Insurance contribution levels kick-in in April, there will be a lot of businesses that go down. At the Deer Centre, this is going to cost us an additional £40,000 a year.”

From deer to beer for David Hamilton

It’s a similar story with his fledgling brewery, Coel Brew.

As a coeliac, David said he was interested in developing a beer he could enjoy.

After raising £1m to build the Guardbridge site, he said — like building a games company, or running a deer centre, or being the director of Brechin Football Club — that the unexpected always had to be dealt with.

“Like when the Scottish Government considered bringing in a ban on advertising, like in Ireland.

“We faced the prospect of not being able to show what our product looks like.

“Thankfully there has been a backtrack on it, but we fully expect it to come back again at some point.”

Another business he has launched is the Scooply app, a trackable ice cream van with interesting dishes.

It was inspired by David’s daughter, who said she wanted to go to an ice cream van — something not to common these days.

For David, the data and mobile development was what he took an interest in, leaving the scooping to franchisee Kevin Reid.

Esports Phase event

And esports — organised video game competitions between players — is where David’s attention continues to focus.

It is an emerging billion dollar industry and he recently purchased ESports Scotland, and has been heavily involved in previous esports tournaments.

David’s new venture will be hosting at Murrayfield in September.

Gamers, esports enthusiasts, content creators, students and families are all expected to descend on the home of Scottish rugby for the three-day Phase event, which starts September 25.

“Part of this conference is to show how esports can be used commercially,” David adds.

“Either as a team-bonding experience, personal development. It’s not just people sitting at home playing games.

“There are a lot of other things esports can be a part of. We want to show the possibilities, both as a career option and other practical options.”

But ultimately, David wants to keep himself busy with things he enjoys.

“I love what I do. I love branching out into other things that I’ve got to learn about.

“You learn as you go, you make mistakes, but as long as you learn from them, then it’s ok.”