CEO / Founder
Hey there, my name is Kevin Wolstenholme and I run RisingHigh. We’re a 2 person Indie Game Game Studio based in the South West of England.
After being made redundant from a much loved Creative Director role in the largest online party retail network in the UK, I found myself at a cross roads. I’d seen some modest success with my first App as a side hustle, so in super boot strap style and very little runway backup, I decided to take the leap and set off on my own.
Presenting at the Bluecloud Live Event Amsterdam.
After trying to build many many source codes using remote teams, it had come to the point where, as good as my team was, I lacked the spontaneity I truly needed to be contempt as a creative type. It was time for a change, and this is when Buildbox was launched, praise above!
I’d always kept a keen eye on the mobile games market and with free traffic becoming harder to come by, I decided straight off the bat that I’d head for a publishing deal now that I could create truly unique games, and more importantly just the way I wanted to.
So to cut long story short, we teamed up with Appsolute games, and with 3 games created by us, burst onto the App App Store with all 3 games Featured by Apple. Now of course, the founder and my good buddy David, is now one of the premiere Mobile Publishers on the App Store. We’ve actually launched 7 games in total with Appsolute and all have been featured by Apple with millions of downloads.
But that wasn’t quite enough for us, so in February of last year, we decided to Launch our own game Label RisingHigh Studio, and subsequently go onto release 5 games, all of which have been Featured by Apple in New Games We Love all over the globe and we’ve also a had a couple of features on the Amazon App Store too.
So out of the 13 games we’ve built, all 13 games have been featured by Apple on the homepage of the App Store, pretty incredible stuff!
I couldn’t of course done any of this without Jilly, who along with her constant support, looks after Game Design, Level Design, Game Direction and Quality control, and together we run the Studio very much together.
Game Design / Level Direction
Hey there, my name is Jilly Duff and I’m really in charge 🙂
I have come from a background of no programming, no photoshop and very little website knowledge. Kevin saw I had a eye for detail and an imaginative flair, when he challenged me to learn the photography for a website called ‘Mask Heaven’, a sister site to the company we both previously worked for. A major thing for me, and I walked away several times before I told myself ‘I CAN do this‘!
He took me on to help with ASO and I gradually side stepped into helping with the games too. For me, although once again a big leap, the creative pull was too great and another challenge was set.
I’m now getting my way around photoshop, helping get the website sorted and handling most of the Level creation inside Buildbox. It’s an exciting place to be, building a game that looks good, plays good and then hits the feature spot is just the best feeling of accomplishment ever! To have achieved it 13 times over is still a ‘pinch me I’m dreaming’ moment.
I still have to coach myself every day, learn new stuff and keep up with what’s current in the gaming world and it can all be so scary! If you think you’re alone, you’re not. You have to just keep pushing on past the doubts, the fears, and embrace the sheer damn hard work it takes to learn. The results can be amazing!
