Martin Kenwright is a British video game designer and the founder of British-based virtual and augmented reality innovation company vTime Limited, digital media, entertainment and technology company Starship, and video game development studios Digital Image Design (DID) and Evolution Studios. He created seminal computer games such as F29 Retaliator and EF2000. He is also responsible for the World Rally Championship franchise and PlayStation 3 launch title, MotorStorm, along with its respective franchise.
Early life
Kenwright began life in the video game industry as a 2D graphics artist and game designer in 1987, working at Rowan Software on games such as Falcon[1] and Tetris[2] straight after leaving Widnes Sixth Form College in Cheshire.
Digital Image Design
Kenwright founded Digital Image Design (DID) in 1989 with Philip Allsopp in Runcorn, Cheshire. The studio specialised in flight simulation titles, with military using the technology from EF2000 as a training tool. His original IP, F-22, won the "Milia D'Or"[3] for 'Best Game' and 'Best Flight Simulator' in 1997.[4]Wargasm won the "Milia D’Or" for Best Action Game in 1998.[5]
The studio broke new ground with the world's first 3D accelerated game in EF2000 and the world's first Pentium accelerated game with Wargasm.
Kenwright returned to the industry in 2013, announcing new digital entertainment studio Starship in March 2014.[14] Developing original content across the VR, games, entertainment and lifestyle sectors, Kenwright announced details of the studio's first products, CyberCook and Playworld[15] in May 2014.[16][17]
With Kenwright as CEO, Starship unveiled Playworld Superheroes in January 2015[18] and released VR demo CyberCook Taster on the Gear VR in February, 2015.[19]
vTime Limited
Kenwright announced new product vTime in August 2015, before launching the virtual reality social network on Samsung Gear VR on 22 December 2015. vTime Limited was established as a standalone venture in April 2016 with Kenwright as CEO, having been housed previously under the umbrella of parent company Starship Group.[20]
In April 2018, Kenwright announced that vTime Limited had raised $7.6 million (£5.4 million) in a series A funding round[21] and announced plans for the studio to release a social augmented reality experience later in 2018.[22]
