Bitmap Bureau Ltd.

Bitmap Bureau is a UK development studio established in February 2016 by Mike Tucker and Matthew Cope. They are based in Southampton and several other members are spread across Europe. They are long time friends and previously worked together at Infospace Games - IOMO studio. Tucker in particular has a long history in the industry, starting with games testing at SCi Games Ltd. in 1995 and then the first mobile games at IOMO where he specialised in cross-platform mobile technology. Later he formed by studio Megadev focusing on high quality flash games and that studio developed Adult Swim's first Steam title, Super House of Dead Ninjas (2013).

The studio develops fast action arcade game with a retro vibe and pixel art graphics. The word Bitmap in the studio name was chosen particularly because they want to get across their speciality in 2D games with strong pixel art, and the word "pixel" is already used by thousands of indie developers.

The team debuted commercially with the 2D action platformer 88 Heroes in 2017. In the same year the local multiplayer action game Ninja Shodown was released. Before that, in 2016, they also created the homebrew SEGA Mega Drive title Fatal Smarties in 48 hours for a Global Game Jam, but not using the Bitmap Bureau name.

For their third game, Xeno Crisis, they launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. It is a top-down arena shooter for up to two players described as Smash TV meets Aliens made a new title for the retro systems SEGA Mega Drive / Genesis and Dreamcast, both as a physical cartridge and a downloadable ROM. The project raised £72,569 and eventually the game was released in 2019 and for many platforms. The game was created on PC, with their own engine, and several custom tools they developed. It was then ported to the other platforms.

In 2021 the studio released Battle Axe, developed together with Henk Nieborg and also following a successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign raising £73,918.

In 2022 they released Final Vendetta, a 2D side-scrolling brawler inspired by Final Fight and Streets of Rage with music by Utah Saints. Just like Xeno Crisis, Final Vendetta was also announced as an original homecart release for the Neo Geo platform.