The Steam Review

Rag Doll Kung Fu in action.

Although Rag Doll Kung Fu was an independently-produced game, the indie production was sandwiched between chief developer Mark Healey’s full-time job at Lionhead Studios. Following the presumable success of RDKF’s Steam release, Mark today announced that he has left Lionhead, a ‘very hard decision’, to set up his own development team with co-developers Alex Evans and David Smith.

“I’ve left Lionhead – a very hard decision for me, but one I have made – my current plan is to spend rest of this year finishing the map editor with Alex, get the free demo out (sorry about delay on this – it’s in Valves hands as to when and how they release it), and then set up a dev team, to make a new game next year, with Alex and Dave, who helped out on Rag Doll. (This time, it will be full time, none of this spare time business, TOO TIRING!)

I would like to point out that I didn’t leave Lionhead on bad terms or anything, it was just time for a change really (I was there from the very start!).

Watch this space for the next game – it’s gonna be off its head. :D”

As Mark hints, he has been a key member of the Lionhead team. He spent many years working alongside Lionhead’s Peter Molyneux, including during their time at the now-defunct Bullfrog where he was lead artist for Dungeon Keeper and worked on several other influential titles. Here’s wishing him and his new team the best of luck!