How did you first get involved with the amusements industry?

It would perhaps be more accurate to say that the amusement industry got involved with me. I had studied at college for an HND and HNC in graphic design and advertising, then started work with an advertising agency in Leeds. We had two automotive accounts that were just about at polar ends of the car spectrum, Lada and Maserati, and I was working up felt-tip-pen-on paper designs for those. If art represents personality perhaps you can understand how I developed a reputation, in creative terms, for being big, bold and brash.

John Wain of Barcrest happened to see some of my visuals and he called up and invited me to come for an interview. Now that sparked my interest as, during my college years, I had often enjoyed playing the machines in pubs; particularly as their designs were pretty funky and, to be honest, I was impressed that somebody from another line of business was impressed enough by my work to even think of giving me a job.

Why? What attracted you to this sector?

The people, first of all. My initial interview was with Barry Marchini and Mike Evans then, once I started with Barcrest, John Wain himself. He was a visionary in that he created a games team and everyone in that team was challenged to come up with ideas. Nothing was ruled out, so you could let your imagination run riot. John Austin was director of sales and his skill was to take our wacky ideas and give them a commercial perspective.

So, as well as the people, there was an atmosphere of creative freedom that, ultimately, generated real products for real people. The biggest buzz then, and through to today, is to watch a player walk up to a game you’ve helped to create and seeing him or her choose to play it...with their own money!

Do you think it has changed much since then?     

Conceptually, no. In practice, yes. The industry of today is far more challenging, in commercial terms, than ever before but the skills required to create ever better games are just the same.

What are the biggest positive factors for the sector right now – the drivers of growth and development?

Research and development is always the key and that is where the bigger companies such as Astra – as part of the Novomatic Group – have a huge advantage. They can, and do, invest in people and in technology. One is no good without the other. Get the right people, give them the right tools to do the job and free them from the constraints of doing anything other than being creative. R&D technology moves on, of course, but it is still the key to innovation, and it always will be.

And what are the negative ones – the obstacles to growth?

In two words: bad legislation. When there is a political unwillingness to listen to the industry, there is a stifling of the creative process. That, in turn, creates factors that affect the industry commercially and make it even harder to combat situations such as the economic downturn of the past few years.

Looking at your whole career, what do you reckon was your smartest move (large or small)?

Learning from my father and developing a sense of loyalty. I had four great years, honing my trade, at Barcrest, then spent 15 years with John Stergides at Electrocoin before coming to my dream job at Astra Games four years ago. I have never been a journeyman in my career and I see no chance of me becoming one in the future.

And your dumbest one?

In all probability, it would turn out to be having answered this question...

Where do you hope you’ll be, professionally, in ten years’ time?

In a happy place. Still within this industry that has been so good to me and still being capable of being creative in terms of game design.

And finally – if you’d never embarked on this career, what other line(s) of work would you have liked to pursue?

If No Tick (the band’s name came from a sign behind the bar in the White Swan pub in Leeds) had hit the charts I could have had a career in the music business. And then I’d have been in the entertainment business. But, hold on, I am in the entertainment business; so it’s all turned out, as we say in Yorkshire, “reet grand”.

A quarter century in games

Now design director for Astra Games, Andy Dinning has been steeped in amusement industry games design since he first packed a single holdall and a pocketful of pens to cross the Pennines from Yorkshire to Lancashire at the start of what, to date, has been a quarter-century career of creating entertainment.

Married to Suzy and with two children (Emily, nine, and Zak, seven), he still holds dear the strong pragmatic values of the Yorkshireman learned from his policeman father.

A lifelong supporter of Leeds United and the former frontman of the Goth-rock band No Tick (which cut a record and came pretty close to making the big time), Andy is, at six foot six inches, a big man in both size and presence. He’s also, together with Ron Watts, the creative driving force behind Astra Games.

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