A legacy that began 40 years ago, around the time that Pacman was born. A game developer back then had a 1 MB computer or console to write for, so playability was everything and still is.

David Darling's experience and enthusiasm for the gaming world has not been lost to us, as founder and CEO of Kwalee, an expanding highly successful game developing empire, he employs nearly 400 staff globally that create games played by billions.

This is his story.

What were the influences that drove you and your brother to learn coding at such a young age and what exactly were you coding ? 

My brother Richard and I were driven to learn coding at a young age due to a combination of factors. Firstly, our fascination with electronics was instilled by our Grandad, an electronics engineer who designed some of the very first colour televisions in Australia. He taught us how to build radios and various electronic gadgets. By the time we were 10 or 11, we had already constructed a multitude of devices, laying the foundation for our technical interests. Another key influence would be our love for gaming, where we would spend hours in the local arcades playing classics like Space Invaders, Galaxian and Asteroids. 

Our childhood consisted of frequent moves across the globe, to countries like England, Netherlands, Australia and Canada; this also played a vital role, as David opens new office in Bengaluru, India [1]

2020 David wins Outstanding Leadership Award at TIGA 

2020 David opens new office in Beijing, China [2]

2021 Ten year anniversary of Kwalee

2021 David Darling opens a new office in Bangalore, India. 

2022 David receives Warwickshire College University Centre Fellowship [3]

2022 Kwalee wins TIGA Game Industry Award as Publisher of the Year [4]

2022 Kwalee announces Draw it received 100 million downloads  [5]

2022 David opens new office in Lisbon, Portugal

2023  In January Darling announces Kwalee has hit the milestone of 1 billion game downloads [6]

2023 Kwalee publishes desert survival gardening game Wildmender on Steam, Xbox and Playstation [7]