- PARENTS & STUDENTS
- Don't Miss Our Communication
- Exams and Certificates
- School Bus Information
- Instrumental and Vocal Tuition
- Parent Pay
- Safeguarding and E-Safety
- School iPad Scheme
- Severe Weather Procedure
- Young Carers
Robert Troughton
What do you do now?
I’ve worked in Video Games since 1995. I’m an Outsource Video Games Optimization Programmer - if a studio is having problems getting their game to run smoothly, or if it’s crashing due to errors, I’m often able to help them.
I’ve spent much of the last 15 years running my own companies. I get to do a bit of everything, including finance; business development, human resources, recruitment, health and safety and office logistics. Occasionally, I have spare time for programming.
My first game was Destruction Derby, a PlayStation launch title, followed by some games in the Test Drive series, LA Rush and Bin Diesel’s Wheelman. I then went on to work with Epic Games, and many others, on Gears of War; Fortnite, Sea of Thieves, Lawbreakers, Conan; Exiles and more.
I co-founded development studio Pitbull Syndicate in 1997, which was sold to Midway Games in 2004. I founded Pitbull Studio in 2010, which sold to Epic Games in 2014. I also founded Coconut Lizard in 2015, which sold to Keywords Studios in 2020. Following that, I moved to Thailand to semi-retire with my family - we now own a restaurant here in a rice field in rural North East Thailand.
What advice would you give your 17-year-old self?
I loved my time at South Craven. My school reports were pretty awful on the whole - I was a good kid, but I struggled in anything that wasn’t Computing or Maths. So this would be my advice if I could go back in time…
Study harder and focus on where your passion is. It doesn't matter too much whether you know what job you want to do at the end - you'll figure that out when the time comes. Put the work in and you'll reap the rewards later in life.
Also, don't be scared to do what you want to do rather than what others want you to do - this is often the only way that you'll reach your peak.
What are you most proud of?
Selling my second company to Epic Games. Me and my team worked on Unreal Engine, Gears of War, Infinity Blade, Fortnite and other Epic Games products.
The company was renamed to ‘Epic Games UK.’