Bithell independently developed an early version of the '' Thomas Was Alone '' video game in 2010 while working for Blitz Games , where he was a junior designer , and later a level designer on games such as '' Tak and the Guardians of Gross '' , '' Invincible Tiger : The Legend of Han Tao '' and '' Dead to Rights : Retribution '' , from 2007 to 2011 . He developed the prototype game in 24 hours and released it for free online through the Kongregate website , receiving 100,000 ' plays ' in the first week . He joined Bossa Studios in February 2011 , working to expand the flash-based '' Thomas '' to a full title and learning how to use the Unity engine in his time there . The full game was released on 30 June 2012 and went on to sell over a million copies , winning a BAFTA at the 9th British Academy Games Awards in the " Best Performer " category ( for narrator Danny Wallace ) and receiving a further two nominations ( " Best Original Music " and " Best Story " ) . He left Bossa in January 2013 to " concentrate on indie development " . He since worked on a Robin Hood-based stealth game named '' Volume '' , which was released on 18 August 2015 for Windows , OS X , and PlayStation 4 and Vita platforms . In 2016 , Bithell released '' EarthShape '' , a virtual reality game for Google Daydream . Bithell collaborated with composer Russell Shaw and animator Tim Borelli on the project . The game featured voice acting from British comedian Sue Perkins . In August 2017 , Bithell released a new game '' Subsurface Circular '' , a first of what he calls " Bithell Shorts " that are designed as short , focused narrative games . In May 2018 , Bithell released another short titled '' Quarantine Circular ''
9th British Academy Games Awards
9th British Academy Games Awards
Mike Bithell