5 Hutchies share their favourite Hutch memories to celebrate our 10 year anniversary! Find out how it all began, including how Josie ended up stranded in the French countryside and why we still owe Matt a kettle…

Matt, Development Support Director (7 years at Hutch)

Earliest Hutch Memory:

I joined Hutch back in 2013 after 8 years at EA, so only really knew the big studio, big corporation life. We had a tiny, non-air-conditioned office surrounded by ongoing building work and none of the home comforts that come with big office life. It was on return from one of a milk run that I discovered a loaf of bread at the back of the fridge, which had been there so long it had actually liquidised…!

It really hammered home that we were a start-up and that we would really have to work for success. Nothing would be handed to us, out of date food wouldn’t clear itself and if the kettle broke there was no budget for a new one, we needed to bring one from home (… Hutch you owe me a kettle!)  A shock to the system after working for big studios but I remember it all very fondly.

Favourite Hutch Moment:

There have been many, but I think it was the day we got a proper Hutch sign on the wall. In the early days it was literally a post-it note on a door, so it felt incredibly significant when we moved to the new office and had a real, custom made Hutch logo. It took us 5 years to get that logo but it felt like we had officially made it and we’ve gone from strength to strength ever since!

Jay, Founder and Head of Production

Earliest Hutch Memory:

Sitting in Will's kitchen early 2011, an evening with beers, pizza and post-it notes, all five of us together properly for the first time. Jim had just signed up and the team was complete so it was a mix of a celebration that 'we were actually gonna do this!' and working out our first steps, discussion of ideas and what to do to get things rolling. It was both hugely exciting but also extremely scary, I had just turned down a well-paid job to work unpaid for the foreseeable future, but it felt 100% the right thing to do.

Favourite Hutch Moment:

The day we moved into Easy Office June/July 2011, after working from home full time for a while we finally had our own office space. Sure it was small, hot and filled with shouty salesmen talking into their phones through the walls, but it was ours. We felt legit, it was serious now. Serious and cheap, we had no fridge so to keep the milk cold we would sellotape it to the outside window overnight during the cooler months.

Josie, Associate Product Manager (4 years at Hutch)

Earliest Hutch Memory:

Signing up to a bowling tournament charity event in my first week and hitting a strike in front of Shaun, our CEO!

Favourite Hutch Moment:

Going to F1's pre-season testing in Barcelona in 2018, and seeing my F1 heroes up close and personal both on and off track. We had the most incredible time and it was so valuable for hutchies to gain brand insight.

And I have to mention the Twin Town Challenge - where teams compete in challenges and drive from Oxfordshire to Le Touquet to raise money for SpecialEffect. My diesel crapcan broke down in the French countryside and we ending up arriving late to the drinks reception desperately trying to find someone who could help us!

Sean, Founder and Head of Canada Studio

Earliest Hutch Memory:

The five of us meeting up at a local coffee shop and agreeing to give it 3 months to see if we could make a game prototype before we all started applying for jobs. That and in the same moment realising I was the only coder and I was going to have to design and write all the software! Good memories of early days and lofty goals for what we could do on mobile!

Favourite Hutch Moment:

Smash Cops getting game of the week on iTunes! Massive vindication for breaking out on our own to bring a proper 3D arcade action driving game to mobile.

And a more recent favourite moment is the first time I flew back to the UK with the newly formed Canadian team in 2019. We were on a trip to meet the London studio - a special moment as it marked the beginning of Hutch becoming an international company. We'd been working remotely for a long time but getting everyone together in person sort of made it real and felt for the first time like this was going to be a very cool thing.

Andy Bass, Art Director (8 years at Hutch)

Favourite Hutch moment:

Coming into the office for the first time after the first Scrutton Street refurbishment. Nice

Earliest Hutch memory:

My first memory is having my interview with Will, one of the founders, when Hutch was based in Farringdon. I walked into the office (which was tiny and freezing cold!) and no one was there bar myself and Will who still had his coat on - I did say it was cold! It transpired no one else was in the office as it was a WFH day - which I thought was cool, although concerned at the same time that maybe there actually weren't any other people employed and Will was a crazy guy and I'd be equally crazy to take the job if it was offered. I did take the job and to my relief there were other people in the office on my first day.

Find out more about the Hutch story here. And if you fancy working with us, we’d love to hear from you!

Current vacancies here.