Vector Anomaly is a small, independent, development studio based in East Anglia in the U.K. It started life in early 2006 when Mike Tipping and Mark Hatton decided to wave goodbye to the cosy ivory towers of Microsoft Research in order to continue their innovative work on video games and related technologies free from the constraints of corporate culture.

There are plenty of advantages arising from working within a big corporation, but equally, to work as an independent can be highly empowering. It presents opportunities to pursue loftier goals than would otherwise be allowed by the pressing necessity to naively inflate "stockholder value". So Vector Anomaly was formed with several "noble" objectives in mind:

• To promote genuine innovation in video game design

• To further better working practices within the games industry

• To fairly distribute compensation that is proportionate to employees' contributions to the company's success

• To promote sustainable and realistic product development processes

• To assist the industry as a whole to mature, and to improve its public image

• To put in place a working environment where creativity, diligence, innovation, honesty and productivity naturally flourish

In other words, we want to make great games (of course!) — but we also want to make them the right way.

As spelt out on our home page, genuine innovation is the key to our design philosophy. We want our games to surprise, delight even, the most jaded, seen-it-all-before, gamer. The consequence of this is that we aspire to create "The Highly Original Title", rather than churn out "Tired Old Franchise 2007". Realistically, we all know the latter will inevitably make lots more money . But, if you've worked 80-hour weeks for extended periods, given up weekends regularly, sacrificed holiday and spent weeks abroad living out of a suitcase in order to "get the job done", only to find that someone else reaps the rewards ... well, then you might appreciate that "lots more money" can be rather a moot concept.

Of course, at face value, the above all amounts to a highly optimistic philosophy. But it's been previously noted that only optimists can change the world...