Dundee games boss Chris van der Kuyl investing millions in tech

Chris van der Kuyl spent more than a decade helping Minecraft become a global phenomenon – but believes his new game could keep his Dundee company busy for the next 20 years.

Chris has several surprises in store for his appearance at The Courier Business Conference next month.

These include a demonstration of what a new “world-class” Dundee virtual production studio is capable of.

And Chris, who co-owns 4J Studios with Paddy Burns, will give a sneak peek of its new game which is the culmination of more than five years of work and millions of pounds of investment.

The conference will take place at the new events space, The Big Real, within the Water’s Edge building he and Paddy own at the City Quay.

The Courier Business Conference, held on June 24 in partnership with Henderson Loggie, has the theme of Powering Scotland’s Creative Economy.

From ‘scrappy’ developer to Minecraft millions

4J Studios will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year. It started off as – in Chris’ words – a “scrappy, work-for-hire games developer” with dreams of building a game based on its own intellectual property.

After a series of successful projects, the company was recommended to Swedish games developer Mojang as a good option for creating a console version of Minecraft – now the best-selling video game of all time.

The 4J team spent a year creating Minecraft for Xbox 360, which was released in 2012.

Chris van der Kuyl and Paddy Burns of 4J Studios with their Bafta award.

“We always knew that the game was quite special but we had absolutely no idea what it was to become,” Chris said.

“By the time it was getting close to launch, you could feel there was a different kind of anticipation for it compared to anything else.

“I think we hit a break-even point in the first five minutes of launching it.

“Then it went on to become the biggest ever selling Xbox 360 title.

“Our console versions sold almost 70 million copies. It was an incredible period.”

4J created seven console editions of the game, the last being for the Nintendo Switch in 2017, and it continues to provide updates for its existing versions.

Five years developing secret games engine

For more than five years, 4J has developed its own games engine – software from which games can be developed.

This multi-million-pound investment on its Elements engine has been the basis of 4J developing its own original game, Reforj, which has reached the testing phase.

Chris continued: “If you told me we’d have had even three or four years of involvement with Minecraft I would have gone, ‘wow, that’s such a long time, that’s mad’.

“To still be involved 13 years later blows my mind.

“But there was definitely a point where 4J had a real desire to reach out and start to develop our own games.

“We released Manic Mechanics a couple of years ago. That was us just really exercising our creative muscles again.

“The Elements engine is about five years of work from our top technical team.

“It’s the core technology that allows us to build out new game Reforj, which will be 100 times higher performance than Minecraft.”

Chris van der Kuyl on Reforj reaction

Like Minecraft, Reforj is a ‘sandbox’ game which allows players to create and modify the game’s world.

It has recently been released to a few hundred fans to test and give feedback. Its full launch will likely be next year.

“The worlds in the game are generated faster than anybody’s ever seen before,” Chris said.

“You can traverse our worlds at the speed of a jet plane and nothing pops up.

“The reaction’s been incredible. Within minutes people had spun up YouTube channels about Reforj. Within days somebody had written a fan-based soundtrack. It’s amazing.

“One of the key features of Reforj, is it’s beyond blocks. You can shape and sculpt the blocks so people are able to create amazing structures.

“It’s been millions of pounds of investment, but we’re only at the beginning.

“We wholly expect Reforj to be something we work on for the next 20 years.

“And it’s all ours, so we’re very excited about where we can take it.”

Virtual production studio project with Abertay University

The other major project Chris has been working on is the next stage of the Water’s Edge office development.

It has won numerous awards since opening in 2019 and houses several of the city’s most entrepreneurial firms, including 4J.

Abertay University CoSTAR Realtime Lab at The Big Real, Water’s Edge in Dundee.

These include some of the local businesses that have received financial investment from Chris and Paddy – Broker Insights and Ace Aquatec.

The final part of the development is a new events space, The Big Real, which contains one of Dundee’s most exciting developments, a virtual production studio.

Abertay University’s CoSTAR Realtime Lab specialises in the use of computer-generated imagery (CGI), augmented reality, and motion capture to create immersive virtual film, game and performance sets.

Its vast screen will be the backdrop for this year’s Courier Business Conference.

‘People’s imagination will run riot’

Partnership working was key to securing funding for this facility to come to Dundee.

Chris explained: “Professor Gregor White from Abertay approached me about the project. The funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council relied on partnerships with existing creative studios,” Chris said.

“Water’s Edge is a perfect home for it – we believe it’s the beginning of something very special. There’s nothing else like it in Scotland.

“It’s phenomenal that the first major event we’re hosting is the Courier Business Conference, and it’ll be a showcase for the potential for this technology in this space.

“I think once they see what it’s capable of, people’s imaginations will run riot.

“It’s a world-class facility. It’s perfect for film and television units to do music videos, advertising or small parts of much larger productions.

“It can act as a catalyst for businesses to come to Dundee and we want local companies to use it.

“At the Courier Business Conference I’ll also talk about how the games industry’s next chapter is going to stretch way beyond what people think of as games today.”