Sandy passed away on the 3rd of February 2026, and I lost one of my dearest friends. So this isn’t really for anyone else, but I had an urge to write “something”. I had a similar urge to write something when my mum died 20 years ago. It’s a strange compulsion, the need to put something down to honour the person who meant so much to me. For my mum that mean writing a poem. I’d never written one before, and I’ve never done one since. But I needed to express my emotions somehow, and now I need that release again. We all grieve in different ways I guess.
So excuse the ramblings…
I met Sandy first in passing, in the early 2000s. He was doing the rounds drumming up support for Microsoft’s new XBox. He’d been at Microsoft for decades, being the number 6 employee of Microsoft Europe (or something), and he’d been trusted by them to launch XBox in Europe. I left after hearing the pitch, not thinking much more of him other than being a dev relations guy. incidentally, he came up with the infamous XBox baby ad – that got banned.
Fast forward to 2009, and another friend – ex-DMA IT guy (and a former boss) Mark Ettle, asked if I new anyone willing to do a port of some code for a friend of his. I passed on a name, but Mark asked them, and was told they weren’t interested. So I thought, if I could get someone else to help, I could do it with them. I pestered Russell Kay and we said we’d be up for it, so while on a road trip down south, I met with Sandy to talk about it. You could call it an interview I guess, but it was just a chat really.
The thing he wanted ported, was the GameMaker runner to PSP. Around this time, GameMaker was just on Windows, having been written by Mark Overmars. It was a niche tool used by a few wannabe game developers and schools to teach game development to kids, as it was simple to pick up and make “something”.
This was the start of the GameMaker journey, one that Sandy described as making a video recorder – or YouTube, of games. Russ and I ported the runner to PSP, and Sandy was ecstatic. he’d been trying to get this thing off the ground for 3 or 4 years, and finally he was getting somewhere. We had a game running.
Sandy then gave us a choice, he could open an office in Dundee if we weren’t interested, or he’d open on in Sheffield as he knew there were loads of coders there.
Russell had already left Realtime Worlds, and I was looking for an out as well, so I said I was interested, and our journey with Sandy really began.
Sandy cut a deal with Abertay University to open an office in there, and hired Kirsty to handle sales, and brought in a young dev Andrew, to start doing some game cleanups.
Moving into the new YoYo Games office in Abertay University
Russell and a much thinner version of me, on our first day. We’d been working for YoYo for 3 months from home, and but were needing to start working more closely, so the office came at a good time.
The Initial YoYo Games team. Sandy, Alison, Mark, Russell, Kirsty and myself. it was a great time, and Sandy would drive up from his home down beside Southampton on a weekly basis in his Audi R8. We made some big choices there, all guided by Sandy, and had a right laugh in the process.
I made a load of blog posts about the specifics of YoYo and what we all did there, and I’ll link them below later. It’d be nice to move those over to the new site, but I’ll look at that later.
Sandy decided to take us to GDC Europe, he got some quick and dirty banners printed and we all went out to try and sell the latest GameMaker HTML5 to the masses!
We also got a couple of games on Gamescom Sony stand, which was Sandy doing his sales thing and getting big names interested, while Russ and I banged out the tech.
He even roped Russell and I into doing a presentation on their stand. it still amazes me that he got in with these companies so quickly, with tech that was so new and raw. He was a salesman to his core, and was damn good at it.
A month later, he then sent me to Anaheim in the US – the first time I’d done a big trip on my own, to the Microsoft Build conference. This would become a theme with Sandy, send someone out to speak to people, to make that pitch. By this time, the company had doubled in size, all driven by GameMaker sales in both public and education markets.
We’d learnt a lot during the first GDC trip, and next one – GDC in San Francisco, he got some massive banners printed, that he then got Russell and I to carry with us as hand luggage. We got 2 huge ski bags that “just” fit them, and carted them all to America. Sandy was always a big picture guy, and loved to get out there and just do it, not leaving it to others. He got Russell and I to put together a couple of demos we for the show. One of us would talk, an the other would make a game, right there on the spot. It was my first time I’d been to San Francisco, but I didn’t see any of it, Russ and I were in Sandy’s room, banging out the demo, and making the script for the show.
We were also up for some Pocket Gamer awards for our publishing efforts – that being the whole point of YoYo, take community games, clean them up, sell them, and split the profits. And Sandy loves an award ceremony!
We didn’t expect to win anything, but it was fun to go.
Mr Karoshi by Jesse Venbrux was up for the best mobile game award,
And what do you know! It won mobile game of the year! But would that bugger go up an accept the award for all his hard work? No, he sent Russell and I up to pick it up so he could laugh at us fumbling a quickly improvised thank you speech.
It speaks to how hard he worked, and his sales pitch to not just the community, but the press, that YoYo were even up for a Best Publisher award, against the proper big boys like Nintendo and EA.
After the awards – and another piss-up, It was onto the show floor for the sales pitch.
And as a side note… This is where Russell’s love of Milkshakes starts…
From here, everything ramped up, more GDCs, more shows, more sales – anything to help get big boys interested. He sent myself and Russell to CES to be in the MIPS hotel room to back them up to help GameMaker.
We were told to setup in a corner of their room, while the MIPS folks had VIPs in to show stuff to, and they’d occasionally point to us. It was strange, but Sandy knew these things could pay off big now and then. He was always accommodating as well, and let me take my wife along to see Vegas – as I figured I’d never go back after that (how wrong was I!). And in later years, he’d pay for flights, and I could top up to get better seats etc if I wanted. He always joked I shouldn’t get comfortable with the more expensive seats, or I’d never want to go back to cattle-class!
Sandy also was incapable of doing anything but thinking big! That was just who he was. We moved office, and upscaled bigtime. From the small – but perfectly functional Abertay offices, to swanky new ones, with a custom fitout.
YoYo Games office filling up! Then packing up to move!
When the team moved in, none of us could really believe it. All the growth was down to Sandy’s trust in the team, and the hardwork they’d done. There’s loads of photos of the office, and Sandy LOVED coming here. We’d looked at other ones, but he refused to drive for 9 hours to then have a view of a carpark or motorway, so this one with the view of the Tay and the bridge was amazing! it also began my love affair with the River Tay. I got some truly amazing photos from my window over the years I was there, it was never the same twice. Sandy and Stuart Poole got the “big window” view overlooking the bridge, and it was an exciting place to be.
I’ll never forget the pride Sandy had when he brought his mum in to the office to show her around. Being from Dundee himself, having a company here was a point of pride for him, and one he could finally share that with his mother. Something he’d built from the ground up himself, not just being part of a huge company.
Sandy also included others whenever he could, he was never one to do everything himself and take all the credit, he was inclusive.
Sandy took a load of us to the Develop awards, and it was great to have more of the team there to enjoy their successes.
This isn’t to say it was all fun and games, Sandy worked hard – damn hard, and expected others to do the same. A case in point being Casual Connect, where Stuart and Sandy were off in meeting while I manned the stand for 10 hours. These were long days for all of us, so much so that when Stuart and I went out for dinner later that night, we almost fell asleep at the table.
It was always a pleasure to travel with Sandy, and he and Stuart always had a great time together, partying whenever they could. Sandy loved his wine, and loved sharing that, and he and Stuart shared that a lot, and had a huge amount of fun while doing so. Me – being the sober one, would laugh at their antics, and treasure every minute – not to mention take embarrassing pictures whenever I could.
Each show that we went to, Sandy upped his game and we got better and better stands. The one at GDC Europe was so good, we had other companies enquiring about where we got it all from, and how it went together. Gav (below) got all this ready, and did most of the build, with us holding things whenever needed.
When you look at the other stands, you can see just how much Sandy had put into upping YoYo’s image.
Sandy also introduced me to my favourite steak house – Ponchos.
But he would forever rib me about wanting my meat “properly” cooked. I was almost thrown out by the owner for wanting it “well done”, while Sandy was happy if it was just hot, and as bloody as possible. For years he’d poke fun at me, while I worked hard to bring my preference down to a “medium”. But if it wasn’t still kicking, Sandy didn’t approve.
Even today – OVER a decade later, Russell and the guys send me a picture of their steaks from Ponchos whenever they go to Gamescom, just to remind me.
I can’t emphasise enough what a wonderful place YoYo was to work, amazing people, great fun, and we did an incredible amount.
Sandy’s inclusive attitude, sense of fun, and hard work rubbed off on everyone.
The new office was an amazing place to work, amazing environment, great amenities, and impressive location – Sandy never did anything by half.
They guys really couldn’t believe it.
We even had a sink instead of a Slop Bucket!! My desk there was epic, I loved it!
The last big YoYo Games stand before the Playtech takeover, was the biggest and fanciest yet.
And boy were we busy…
Sandy had once again done the impossible. A deal with Sony to get GameMaker on Playstation 4 and Vita, and we had 20 games to show running on it. There was huge interest from Indies.
And that’s where Sandy’s legacy really comes in. Yes, he launched XBox in Europe, which was huge. But he also took GameMaker from a tiny tool, to one that indie developers could now use seriously. Thousands of developers have gotten their big break, gotten their dreams fulfilled because of Sandy, because of his drive.
For a bedroom programmer to be working with this little, easy to use tool in their bedroom, to suddenly being able to release their games across multiple platforms including consoles – was staggering. All this could be bought via the Master Collection for £800 with no royalties.
I used to laugh when Sandy used to break down a lot of expenses to how many Master Collections it’d cost. At the end of one GDC, Sandy took us all for a big meal, and bought a big, expensive bottle of wine to celebrate with everyone with, saying – it’s just one master collection.
It’s hard to underestimate just what Sandy’s influence on the games world has been. Enabling tens of thousands of developers via GameMaker – many who go onto full AAA development, is a staggering achievement. And while Russell, myself and the team might have steered the tech, that means nothing without the deals, without that sales pitch. The YoYo board – most who were long term friends of Sandy, had full faith in him to deliver, and deliver he did.
Playtech bought YoYo in 2015 with the promise of investment and taking it to the next level. While Sandy initially help steer that and start GameMaker Studio 2, he eventually left YoYo after struggling with Playtech to decide on everything he wanted to do, let alone get them to invest any anything at all.
The early years of YoYo were by far the best, it was a family, and Sandy was the daddy. he looked after us all, from bringing in developers to the office to help them get started, to giving others a safe, secure place to work from. The fun and games we had every day was something I’ll always look back fondly on. These 2 pictures for me, sum Sandy up to a tee. The serious, hard working side – the visionary, and the fun piss taking side who’s always up for a laugh and a party.
I’ll miss Sandy dreadfully. Years could go by, and we’d meet up and it’d be like it was yesterday last spoke. Now to know I’ll never see him again just leaves a huge hole that can never be filled. He changed my life in the best ways possible, and I’m heartbroken knowing he’s gone.
I love you my dear friend, I’ll miss you horribly. Rest peacefully you wonderful man.
YoYo History links:
https://dailly.blogspot.com/2019/01/yoyo-games-good-bad-cake.html
https://dailly.blogspot.com/2013/12/how-long-road.html
https://dailly.blogspot.com/2013/12/2010-fresh-start.html
https://dailly.blogspot.com/2013/12/2012-when-it-all-starts-to-change.html
https://dailly.blogspot.com/2013/12/2012-launch-of-gamemaker-studio.html
https://dailly.blogspot.com/2013/12/2013-year-of-travelling.html