Let’s address the elephant in the room. My name is actually Chris Kemp-Salt. The ‘Kempt’ moniker stuck when I founded Kempt Ltd in 2003 and people began referring to me that way. I realised pretty quickly that leaning into it made sense. Personal work promoted the company, and the company promoted me, so I kept it.

Okay, now that’s out of the way – thanks for your interest in both me and my work! You can find a more formal summary of my career on my LinkedIn profile, but I want to be a little more relaxed here.

Early web and games work

In the late nineties, after graduating in Fine Art, I fell into the then fledgling internet industry. Over the following years I worked my way up from basic web design to developing what were, at the time, genuinely cutting-edge web applications, including the world’s first online 3D CAD system, interactive educational tools, and some of the earliest internet games.

In 2001 I was headhunted to run production for the world’s biggest dance music website, ministryofsound.com. But I couldn’t shake the potential I saw in viral games and Flash as a format, so in 2003 I went freelance to chase that opportunity. What started as solo development quickly turned into collaboration with artists, animators, designers, and programmers far better than me. By 2007, Kempt had grown into a fully fledged studio employing ten people full-time, releasing around ten games a year and entertaining hundreds of millions of players in the process.

We were privileged to work with a diverse range of clients, from brands like Sony and King of Shaves, to media businesses such as MTV and Nickelodeon, and institutions including the United Nations and Mensa.

Studios, scale, and exits

Around 2009, Kempt made a successful transition to mobile games. We spent much of the following few years working on Red Bull’s biggest ever game franchise, Kart Fighter, which received many tens of millions of installs. Alongside that we worked on a number of original IP projects, including The Magnificent Stunts, which was featured on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den.

We later raised a six-figure sum to grow the studio business, separated the company’s IP activities, and re-launched the studio as Burke & Best. During this period we worked with Adult Swim to produce the chart-topping Amateur Surgeon 4, among other titles.

The core team and I exited Burke & Best in July 2019 and set up Dead Five, a hyper-casual game studio designed to capitalise on what I saw as a clear opportunity to refine production values and improve monetisation in that space. Over the following two and a half years we built more than fifty prototypes to run CPI tests with, built several out to release, and even won an award. Sadly, the all-important hit proved elusive, so in early 2022 we took the decision to close the studio and pursue other opportunities. You can read about the reasons behind that decision here.

Outside of work

Alongside all of that, I also managed to father two remarkably well-balanced sons, learn to skate surprisingly well for a bloke in his forties, drive moderately quickly around a track, and mostly hit an archery target at 50 yards.

I’m also a Mental Health First Aider and believe strongly in the power of good counselling and therapy.