Ruffian Games today announced a significant boost to their creative capabilities with the appointment of industry veterans Steve Iannetta and Ed Campbell as Lead Designer and Senior Designer respectively.

Steve joined VIS Entertainment in 1996 and has since worked with Red Lemon Studios, Realtime Worlds and Midway Newcastle. He entered the industry as a graphic artist before moving into design and has held a number of senior roles including Senior Mission Design on Microsoft’s Crackdown and Lead World Designer on Midway’s Wheelman.

“Given the abundance of talent, the chance to work with old friends on an ground breaking project and to be back in my beloved home town of Dundee, being a part of the Ruffian team is easily the most exciting opportunity I have ever been presented with.” said Steve.

Ed has over 20 years of experience in the games industry, cutting his teeth as an artist, animator and designer on early 16-bit classics such as Zool 2. More recently Ed has focused purely on the design side of game development on titles such as NARC, State of Emergency 2 and Microsoft’s Crackdown.

“I’m delighted to be joining the excellent team at Ruffian.” said Ed. “There’s a lot of talented, experienced guys here and that, coupled with a real knowledge and love of games, is what makes this an exciting team to be a part of.”

Ruffian Studio Head Gaz Liddon said: “We’re delighted to have these guys on board. These days most games are technically competent and look great but it’s a lot rarer for them to play well. We only want to make the very best games and you can only achieve that through great design. Steve and Ed joining is another step towards that goal.”