Mat Dickie facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mat Dickie
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Dickie in 2018
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| Born | 1980/1981 (age 43–44) Brigg, North Lincolnshire, England
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| Other names | MDickie |
| Alma mater | University of Salford (BSc) |
| Occupation | Video game developer |
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Notable work
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Mat Dickie (born in 1980 or 1981), also known as MDickie, is a video game creator from England. He makes his own games, especially ones about professional wrestling. One of his popular games is Wrestling Revolution for phones and tablets. It was downloaded over 100,000 times in just two months after it came out in 2012.
Later, Wrestling Revolution got more than 10 million downloads. Its next version, Wrestling Revolution 3D, became a popular choice against bigger games like WWE 2K on phones and computers. Mat Dickie started making games in 2000. He stopped for a while in 2009 to work as a teacher. He returned to making games in late 2011, focusing on mobile games. He stopped full-time game development again in 2018. In 2019, he announced a new wrestling game. This game, Wrestling Empire, was released in early 2021 for the Nintendo Switch and mobile devices.
Many of Mat Dickie's games are known for their simple graphics and sometimes tricky controls. He has explained that using lower-quality graphics helps his games run better. This allows him to try new things in his games. Because his games are made by one person and have a small budget, they often become very popular. Mat Dickie has even said he is "single-handedly responsible for the best games to ever be enjoyed by millions of people."
Contents
Early Life and Game Ideas
Mat Dickie was born in Brigg, a town in North Lincolnshire, England. His parents owned a small newsstand. He spent time there while they worked. To keep himself busy, he would make his own toys from things he found around the shop.
He went to Brigg Primary School and then Franklin College in Grimsby. From a young age, he was interested in making games. He often drew out his ideas for games. Some of his early work was inspired by games he played as a child. These included WWF No Mercy, Super Fire Pro Wrestling, and WWF WrestleFest.
Mat Dickie also experimented with a program called Deluxe Paint on his Commodore Amiga computer. In 1998, he got a PC, which marked the start of his journey into game development.
Mat Dickie's Game Development Journey
Making PC Games (2000–2011)
Mat Dickie started making his first game after finding a program called DIV Game Studio. This program promised to make game development easy. He bought it from his local Woolworths store. He spent the summer of 2000 learning how to use it.
In August 2000, he released his first game, Hardy Boyz Stunt Challenge. In this game, players could play as one of the Hardy Boyz, who were wrestlers in the WWF (now called WWE). The game took two weeks to make. He put it on a wrestling website, where it was downloaded 15,000 times and got good reviews. This encouraged him to keep making games. In November 2000, he created his own website to share his games.
In 2001, he moved to Manchester to study video games and computers at the University of Salford. That same year, he released his first full game, Federation Online. This was a wrestling game that you could play in your web browser.
In 2007, Mat Dickie created his first big game that wasn't about wrestling, called Hard Time. This game was a simulator where you played as someone in prison. Games for Windows Magazine even named it the "Indie Game of the Month." This game was almost released by a company connected to THQ.
In early 2009, Mat Dickie released The You Testament. This game was loosely based on the New Testament and followed the life of Jesus Christ. He made it in just three months. After this, he decided to stop making games. He felt he couldn't meet the growing expectations of players and critics. He then started making educational software for teachers. He wanted to make learning more fun. By 2017, his educational materials were used in 10,000 classrooms.
Making Mobile and Console Games (2012–Present)
In early 2012, Mat Dickie was unemployed and about to become a father. This motivated him to return to game development. He decided to focus on mobile games. His first big mobile game was Wrestling Revolution. He also released mobile versions of his older PC games, like Popscene in 2014 and Hard Time in 2017.
His most successful game, Wrestling Revolution 3D, reached 50 million downloads by 2017. It was the first sports game on Google Play to achieve this.
In July 2018, Mat Dickie announced he was stopping full-time game development again. He mentioned that digital stores were becoming difficult to work with. He also said that players' demands increased after big games like WWE 2K19 came out. Mat Dickie explained that he didn't want to compete directly with WWE games. Instead, he wanted to offer a "cheaper... lighter... [and] more creative alternative" made by a small team or just one person.
Wrestling Empire Game
In 2019, Mat Dickie confirmed he was working on a new wrestling game for the Nintendo Switch and mobile devices. This game was later revealed to be Wrestling Empire. It was released on January 11, 2021. Mat Dickie had hoped to release it in 2020 to celebrate 20 years of making games. However, the COVID-19 pandemic caused delays. He decided to release Wrestling Empire even though it wasn't fully finished. He planned to add more features through regular updates.
The game reminds players of wrestling games from the Nintendo 64 era. Mat Dickie was inspired by those games' focus on "gameplay over graphics." He felt this fit his style as an independent game developer. Chris Scullion from Nintendo Life gave the game a 6/10 rating. He liked the detailed roster, customization options, and career mode. He also noted that the game engine could be "laughably prone to botches." Overall, he found the game "overwhelmingly impressive," especially since it was made by a single person.
Mat Dickie's Games
List of Games
PC Games
- Hardy Boyz Stunt Challenge (2000)
- The Rock's Promo Cutter (2000)
- Case 3:16 (2000)
- Con-chair-to (2000)
- THAT Love Triangle (2000)
- Wrestling Vs Boxing (2000)
- Big Bumps (2001)
- Federation Online (2001)
- EEW's Total Annihilation (2001)
- Big BumpZ (2001)
- CVG Strikes Back (2001)
- Rocky (2002)
- Sure Shot (2002)
- Sure Shot: Star Wars Edition (2002)
- Federation Wrestling (2002)
- Big BumpZ (Made with Blitz 3D)
- Federation Booker (2003)
- The MDickie Show (2003)
- Wrecked (2004)
- Wrestling MPire 2004 (2004)
- Booking MPire 2004 (2004)
- Popscene (2004)
- Sure Shot 3D (2004)
- Popcorn (2005)
- Wrestling Encore (2005)
- Booking Encore (2006)
- Grass Roots (2006)
- World War Alpha (2006)
- Talksport: Clash Of The Titans (2006)
- Hard Time (2006)
- Reach (2007)
- Wrestling MPire 2008: Career Edition (2008)
- Wrestling MPire 2008: Management Edition (2008)
- Popscene: Track 2 (2008)
- The You Testament (2008)
- The Making Of A Prophet (2010)
- Under Development (2010)
- Wrestling Mpire Remix Career Edition (2011)
- Wrestling Mpire Remix Management Edition (2011)
- Wrestling Revolution 3D (2017)
- Wrestling Empire (2021)
- Old School (2023)
- Hard Time III (2024)
Mobile Games
- CM Punk's Promo Cutter (2011)
- Moksha (2011)
- Sure Shot (2011)
- Flash Stuntz (2012)
- Wrestling Revolution (2012)
- Booking Revolution (2013)
- Hard Time (2013)
- Popscene (2014)
- Wrestling Revolution 3D (2014)
- School Days (2015)
- Weekend Warriors MMA (2015)
- Super City (2016)
- Wrecked (2017)
- Extra Lives (2017)
- Back Wars (2018)
- The You Testament: The 2D Coming (2018)
- Wrestling Empire (2021)
- Old School (2023)
- Hard Time III (2024)
Console Games
- Wrestling Empire (2021, Nintendo Switch)
- Old School (2023, Nintendo Switch)
- Hard Time III (2024, Nintendo Switch)
See also
In Spanish: Mat Dickie para niños
