Veteran Game Developer Tom Stone Takes Flight with New Studio, Second Star Games

In 2020, Tom Stone stepped down as managing director of TT Games, a studio he had led for nearly two decades, to explore new opportunities. His journey began with roles at FuturLab and Juno Capital Partners, before a conversation with The Blair Partnership and Great Ormond Street Hospital led to the creation of Second Star Games. The studio's name is inspired by the iconic Disney movie Peter Pan, which the team is currently working on, with Stone investing his own funds and receiving major investment from Grahame Chilton. The studio aims to do things differently from TT Games, with Stone reflecting on the intense culture of his former studio and expressing a desire to make fewer, higher-quality games. Second Star Games is staffed by former TT Games colleagues and is weighing up whether to partner with a publisher or go it alone. Stone acknowledges the challenges of launching into a changed market, with the rise of Roblox, Minecraft, and Fortnite, but is confident that his team can create something special. He believes that working on licensed IP can be a symbiotic relationship, where both the IP and the game benefit from each other. The studio plans to build a stable of intellectual properties and create games that bring families together in co-op mode, with Peter Pan as the flagship title. Stone concludes by highlighting the importance of cooperative play, which was a breakthrough feature in the first Lego Star Wars game, and plans to build on this success with Second Star Games.