Teacher set to release video game set in Derbyshire and the Peak District - with Hathersage, Buxton and Tideswell among the locations featured

Richard Brown is a teacher and independent game developer who is originally from Derbyshire - and was inspired to create point and click adventures after playing similar titles with his dad as a child.

Richard said: “I used to play those games with my dad, and I’ve now got an eight-year-old daughter. I thought she’d get a kick out of Monkey Island, so we started playing it together, and she really liked it.

“I kind of touched on it 10 or 15 years ago, trying to program and not really getting anywhere with it. I literally just got up one day and said, I’m going to make a game.”

Richard has already released two games on Steam, a PC gaming platform. He said that initially, he never planned on publishing his first game - but said that the reaction from players far exceeded his own expectations.

He said: “The first game wasn’t something I ever intended to release. I was learning as I went, but I ended up putting so much into it, and I thought that people might get a kick out of it. I pulled in a lot of friends from Chesterfield and Dronfield for their songs, and it just snowballed.

“I thought 30 people might buy it, and it might pay for the £80 platform fee. More than 500 people have bought copies of the first game, and we’ve sold it to people all over the world, who are playing this niche game in a niche genre of point and click adventures.”

Richard is currently working on his third game, called Brownie's Adventures: The Final Resolution. It is another point and click adventure, set in a post-apocalyptic version of North East Derbyshire - which has seen Richard recreate the area where he grew up.

He said that the third game will see players delve into a number of Derbyshire locations, taking inspiration from classic comedy adventures and echoing the humour of Monty Python and Blackadder.

Richard said: “I just absolutely fell in love with it. I’ve been doing music for the previous 20 years, playing folk music and stuff. There’s so many disciplines to get into - drawing and animation, composing and recording music, being able to write lots of silly dialogues and jokes. I really fell in love with the process and I’ve not really stopped for the last year.

“All the spare time that I would spend watching TV or playing a game is now being spent working on these games.

“The game I’m working on now is a much-bigger scale, and is set in Derbyshire. I’ve got St John the Baptist Church in Tideswell, which has become the cult of the three-headed sheep in this post-apocalyptic Peak District. Buxton Opera House features quite heavily, and we’ve got Hathersage and Padley Gorge.

“There are quite a lot of references to Chesterfield stuff in my other games, but they’re mostly set in Sheffield and that sort of area. In this one you plunge straight into Derbyshire.”

Richard is part of a growing movement of indie developers, taking advantage of new technologies and tools to create games from the comfort of their own homes.

Richard said he also felt there was a growing appetite for games that recreate areas that are recognisable to British gamers.

‘Thank Goodness You’re Here!’, which was released in August 2024, is set in a town loosely inspired by Barnsley - and was named the Best British Game at the British Academy Game Awards 2025.

‘Atomfall’, a recently-released action survival game, is set in Cumbria - with players delving into an alternate 1960s timeline where the Windscale nuclear accident has turned the area into a radioactive quarantine zone.

Richard said: “I think it’s a lot easier to do now with technology. Someone like me can go home after work and, if you put in an insane amount of hours and you’ve got the tools, which are mostly free, you can create something. It’s the same with music, you’re getting a lot of weird genres and crossovers coming up, because people have got the freedom to do it. People who are doing it as a hobby can take a lot more risks.

“The Atomfall thing worked on me, I was really intrigued to see our regions represented in games - normally it’s an American setting so it’s nice and refreshing to see. I’m taking it a step further and going to one specific region of Derbyshire. I think it’s empowered people to be a bit bold and adventurous. If it’s something you love, you put it into your game.

“My daughter voice-acts one of the cats in the first game, and I’ve sampled my eighteen-month-old son in one of the tracks in the new game. It’s pulling together everything personal and putting it into the game, and I can take those risks because there’s no business riding on it, it’s just me working away. Hopefully we will see more of it. With games like Thank Goodness You’re Here!, it’s a novelty and a nice change.”

Richard added that, after increasing the level of work that has gone into his latest creation, he was excited to release his third game later this year.

He said: “We’re on track for the game to be finished by autumn. This game has taken a lot longer than the others, and I’ve put a lot more effort into it.

“We’ve got an audio designer, Jonno Richards, who is going to some real lengths to drive out to the Peak District and record ambient sound and stuff to bring the game to life. I’m really excited about this one, it’s going to be quite different and hopefully people will play it.”