Born Ready Games was founded for the love of space combat experiences and a desire to do the genre real justice. Incorporating some of the categories best classical elements, while building upon them with the latest technology, was their vision.
The studios first project would be Strike Suit Zero, a game that tasked the player with saving Earth from destruction by taking control of The Strike Suit - a revolutionary fighter craft with the ability to transform into a lethal suit of space armour. It promised to put the players dog-fighting skills to the test as an interstellar war raged on.
As the Born Ready team reached the end of 2012, their investor's funding had dried up and there was talk of launching the game in order to keep the studio running. This was well before Steam had launched their Early Access program, the public expectation was that a playable game was a finished game. The team knew that the stakes were high. They had set out to revive a beloved genre and after two years of hard work, they could not release a game that they were any less than 100% happy with. Kickstarter's fundraising platform provided a potential solution.. but was it OK to finish a game that way? It was unconventional... but everyone agreed that it just might work.
Setting their sights on a goal of raising $100,000 - the Born Ready team pushed the button on a month-long Kickstarter campaign. They quickly hit their target and by the time the campaign ended, Born Ready had raised a total of $174,000 - proving once and for all that Strike Suit Zero had a waiting player base. It wasn't just the money that made a difference though, backers who pledged more than $50 gained early access to the game, allowing them to contribute to the games final quality as beta testers. This direct community action helped to iron out bugs, ensure compatibility with a range of PC specs and perfect the balancing ahead of launch. It was an early insight into the way game development processes would transform in the coming years.
The launch of the game was very successful by all accounts. Sales surpassed the
teams expectations and the reviews from critics were good too. After launch, development focused on expanding the Strike Suit Zero game
universe through downloadable content, adding missions and new mechanics that
kept things fresh.
In the background, one of the games coders had been working on a
more accessible arcade shooter version of the game. Given the teams heritage in
infinite-play shooters at doublesix games, it made perfect sense. Strike Suit
Infinity was born. The new game sold well in its own right whilst also boosting
sales of the main game. A VR version was also developed and while never released, created enough hype to cause queues of more than 2.5 hours at trade shows around the world. It was one of the earliest games created for Oculus Rift.
A year after the launch of Strike Suit Zero, the games industry was on the precipice of a new console generation. Born Ready had been working on a Director's Cut of the game, incorporating a year's worth of valuable player feedback. It wasn't typical for an independent developer like Born Ready to release games on brand new consoles, you needed a big publishing partner for that. The team agreed that the timing was too perfect to ignore, there had to be a way to make it work.
Securing a brand new claim to fame for Guildford, Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut was the first ever game to launch under the ID@Xbox program. ID@Xbox has since grown into a way for game developers of all sizes to unleash their creativity on Xbox platforms, no publisher necessary.
Born Ready Games are no longer actively developing but their legacy lives on through Strike Suit Zero on Steam, as well as the studios subsequently founded by the team like Edge Case Games (Wargaming UK) and Absolutely Games.
