What's in a Name: Ruffian Games

It's been months since we've brought you the origin story of an industry presence, so during our recent preview of Crackdown 2 we asked Ruffian Games creative director Billy Tomson how the new Scottish dev got its hooligan-inspired moniker:

"When I was younger some people thought I was a bit of a troublemaker. There was a parent's evening at our school and everybody had their work laid out -- it's an odd school -- everybody had their schoolwork laid out on the tables and the parents were basically being carted around.

"My mom and dad were there and one of my mates, his mom and dad thought I was a bad influence on him and they were just up ahead [of my parents] being carted around to look at all the work. My mom and dad ended up behind them and my mate's dad was looking at my work and he said to his wife, 'That's really good work, that.' It was just some artwork. And his wife said, "Oh that's Billy Tomson's stuff." And he kind of turned around and went, 'Oh, he's a ruffian, that boy!'

"I told this story to Gaz [Liddon], who's the studio head at Ruffian and we're all laughing about it. And it was like two weeks later, this was before the company was formed, he basically phoned me up and said, 'I think I've got a great idea for a name for the company.' He said, 'It was about something you told me. How about we call it Ruffian Games.'

"I thought he was joking. I just laughed and I thought, you can't call it 'Ruffian Games,' and after a while I thought, 'That's actually quite good. That could stick.' It was Gaz's idea. I would have never called it Ruffian Games myself, in the end I actually quite like it. I think it's a good fit for how we all are."