Batcat and Bitsmith move into Digit games studio

INDIE GAMES studio Digit has announced the first companies that will join its games incubator.

Batcat Games and Bitsmith Games are the first two companies to take up residence in the new studio, where they will have access to mentors and the experience of Digit’s team.

Batcat Games was founded earlier this year and has already released one game, P-3 Biotic, on PC and Xbox. A second title is under development.

Bitsmith Games concentrates on tablet gaming, and is about to unveil its first title Ku, an action role playing group.

Both games start-ups have recently received CSF [Competitive Start Fund] funding from Enterprise Ireland.

“It is in our interest to help to grow the base of great game companies in Ireland and a games incubator initiative made the most sense to us,” said chief executive Richard Barnwell.

“The first high potential teams to move into Digit’s incubator, Bitsmith and Batcat, not only get access to purpose-built office space, but also access to mentoring from the Digit team, the most experienced games development team in the country.

“We are not an accelerator offering investment for equity; instead we are looking to continue the great initiatives already in place from EI [Enterprise Ireland] by giving game start-ups the biggest chance of success.”

The incubator is part of the Digit studio, which was announced in June. The company develops cross-platform games for tablet, mobile, browser and social networks, and is currently working on a series of strategy games. Founded by a group of former EA, Jagex, Popcap and Monumental workers, Digit is set to create 47 jobs.