DMA Design

United Kingdom Founded 1987

DMA Design was founded in Dundee, Scotland in 1987 by David Jones, soon hiring former classmates Mike Dailly, Russell Kay, and Steve Hammond. During its early years, DMA Design was backed by its publisher Psygnosis, primarily focusing on Amiga, Atari ST and Commodore 64 games. During this time, they created successful shooters such as Menace and Blood Money, but soon turned to platform games after the release of Lemmings in 1991, which was an international success and led to several sequels and spin-offs. After developing Unirally for Nintendo, DMA Design was set to become one of their main second-party developers, but this partnership ended after Nintendo's disapproval of Body Harvest. In 1997, DMA released Grand Theft Auto, which was a huge success; the game sparked a successful series. The company was soon acquired by Gremlin Interactive. Following the release of Grand Theft Auto 2, Gremlin was acquired by Infogrames. After the Infogrames acquisition, the DMA Design assets were sold to Take-Two Interactive. In 2001, after the release of Grand Theft Auto III, DMA Design was ultimately renamed Rockstar North and became part of the Rockstar Games label.

DMA Design at a Glance

DMA Design operated as a developer from 1987 until 2001 with no titles published under their own name in the PlayPile database. The company released 21 games across five decades, though their output was heavily concentrated in the 1990s with sixteen releases. They produced just two titles in the 1980s and only one in the 2000s. Their catalog spans multiple platforms including Amiga, DOS, PC, Nintendo 64, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Commodore C64/128/MAX, Mac, Atari ST/STE, PlayStation, and Xbox. The data shows a strong focus on shooter games with eight entries, followed by puzzle games at seven and racing titles at five. They also worked in strategy, adventure, arcade, platform, simulator, sport, and RPG genres. The average IGDB rating for the eleven rated titles stands at 73 out of 100. This score reflects a mix of performance where two games earned great ratings above 80, eight received good scores between 60 and 79, and one title fell into the mixed range. No games in their catalog scored below 40. Their highest-rated work includes Grand Theft Auto III from 2001 with a score of 89.9 and Lemmings 2: The Tribes from 1993 at 89.5. Other notable entries include Grand Theft Auto (77.6), Grand Theft Auto 2 (74.3), Hired Guns (72.2), Space Station Silicon Valley (70.9), and Body Harvest (70.9). Early in their history, the studio worked with publisher Psygnosis on Amiga and Atari ST games before creating the international hit Lemmings in 1991. This success shifted their focus toward platform games and led to several sequels. After developing Unirally for Nintendo, they attempted to become a key second-party developer for the console maker, but that partnership ended after Body Harvest faced disapproval from Nintendo. The company found massive success with Grand Theft Auto in 1997, which launched a major series. DMA Design changed ownership several times during this period, moving from Gremlin Interactive to Infogrames before selling assets to Take-Two Interactive. They released only one game in the new millennium, Grand Theft Auto III, before rebranding as Rockstar North in 2001 to join the Rockstar Games label.

Total Games

Avg Rating

1988

First Release

2001

Latest Release