Software and game development · Winsford, Cheshire
Done.
Most software does not fail. It stalls, quietly, somewhere around month four. We scope in writing, build in fortnights, and keep something running that you can open and use the whole way through.
Three stages. One team. A written estimate before anybody opens an editor, and a repository you own at the end of it.
Rates
What a project with us costs
These are starting points. The number we hold to is the one in the estimate at the end of the scoping week, and it does not move unless you change the brief.
Scoping week
Five days with the people who will actually use the thing. You leave with a written spec, a build order and a fixed estimate. Take it elsewhere if you like — it is yours.
from £1,450
Web application build
Booking systems, member portals, dashboards, the internal tool that currently lives in a spreadsheet. Postgres and unfashionable frameworks, so the next developer can read it.
from £11,800
iOS and Android app
One codebase, both stores. We handle the submissions, the screenshots and the rejection emails that follow.
from £16,500
Game prototype
A playable vertical slice in eight to ten weeks: one level, the core loop, the controls sorted. Enough to put in front of a publisher without apologising for it.
from £9,200
Unity and Unreal production
Full production for small studios and self-publishers, from the slice through to release builds, storefront pages and platform certification.
from £26,000
Support, hosting and fixes
A monthly retainer. Uptime monitoring, dependency updates, and a named person who picks up the phone rather than a ticket queue.
from £690/month
We do not quote fixed-price work without the scoping week first, and we turn down projects where nobody on the client side is allowed to make a decision. Both rules came from losing money.
Method
How a build actually runs
01
The scoping week
We sit with the people who will use the software, not only the person paying for it. It ends with a spec, a build order and a number.
02
Fortnights
Two-week blocks. At the end of each one there is a build on a URL you can open, on your phone, in front of whoever needs convincing.
03
You use it early
Your team is inside the software from block two, long before it is finished. That is where the requirements nobody thought to mention come from.
04
Handover
Repository, deployment keys, environment notes, and a screen-recorded walkthrough for whoever inherits it in two years' time.
05
Afterwards
Retainer or no retainer, the phone still works. Most clients keep us on through the first six months, and a few never call again — which is also fine.
The studio
We learned this the expensive way, on a game that never came out.
Rilshaw Development Ltd started around one Unity title. It ran months over, the scope moved every fortnight, and it was eventually shelved with the art finished and the game unplayable. The post-mortem took an afternoon and reached one line: nobody had ever written down what finished meant.
Everything since has been built on that. We scope first and in writing. We work in blocks small enough that a wrong turn costs a fortnight rather than a year. We take on six to eight projects a year from Winsford — games for small studios, and the unglamorous internal software that quietly holds a business together. When we cannot staff something properly, we say so and pass it on.
Winsford, CheshireUnity & UnrealTypeScriptPostgresSix to eight projects a year
Next step
Book the scoping week, or just ask what it would take.
Scoping slots open a fortnight ahead. If you only want a rough number over the phone, say so and we will give you one.
This website is operated by Rilshaw Development Ltd, a company registered in England & Wales under Company No. 17236422, whose registered office is at 259 Rilshaw Lane, Winsford, CW7 3PE. In this policy "we", "us" and "our" mean Rilshaw Development Ltd. We are the data controller for the personal data described below.
2. How to contact us about your data
Email [email protected] or write to the registered office above. You can also call +44 7473 980 546.
3. What personal data we collect
Contact form: your name, email address, any services you tick, and the message you write.
Email or phone enquiries: whatever you choose to send us, including a phone number if you give one.
Server logs kept by our hosting provider: IP address, browser type, pages requested and timestamps.
Cookies: a single local record of your cookie choice. We set no advertising or profiling cookies.
4. Why we process it, and the lawful basis
Replying to your enquiry and preparing a quote — legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR): we cannot answer an enquiry without reading it. Where the exchange leads to work, the basis becomes performance of a contract (Article 6(1)(b)).
Keeping the website available and secure, including server logs — legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)).
Any analytics or non-essential cookies — consent (Article 6(1)(a)), given through the cookie banner and withdrawable at any time.
Invoices and accounting records — legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c)) under UK tax law.
5. How long we keep it
Enquiries that do not become work: 24 months from the last message, then deleted.
Client project records and correspondence: for the length of the engagement plus 6 years.
Invoices and financial records: 6 years after the end of the accounting period, as HMRC requires.
Server logs: as retained by our hosting provider, typically no more than 90 days.
Your cookie choice: stored in your own browser until you clear it.
6. Who else sees it
Our website hosting provider and our email provider process data on our behalf under written terms. Our accountant sees invoicing records. We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it for anyone else's marketing.
7. Transfers outside the UK
Our email provider may process data on servers outside the UK. Where that happens, the transfer is covered either by UK adequacy regulations or by the International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. If you would like details of the safeguards in place, ask us and we will send them.
8. Your rights
Under UK GDPR you have the right to be informed, and the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability, and objection to processing based on legitimate interests. Where processing rests on consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time — for cookies, clear this site's stored data in your browser and the banner will ask you again. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing carried out before you withdrew it.
9. How to exercise them
Email [email protected] with what you want. We respond within one month of receiving the request, as UK GDPR requires. We may ask you to confirm your identity first.
10. Complaints
Please raise anything with us first. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK supervisory authority, at www.ico.org.uk, by calling 0303 123 1113, or by writing to Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF.
These terms govern services supplied by Rilshaw Development Ltd, a company registered in England & Wales under Company No. 17236422, whose registered office is at 259 Rilshaw Lane, Winsford, CW7 3PE. In these terms "we", "us" and "our" mean Rilshaw Development Ltd, and "this website" means the site you are reading.
2. What we supply
Software development services: scoping and specification work, web application development, iOS and Android application development, game prototyping and production in Unity and Unreal, and ongoing support, hosting and maintenance retainers. Unless the written scope says otherwise, we do not supply content writing, marketing, licensed third-party assets, app store developer accounts, or hosting fees payable to third parties — those remain your cost.
3. How work is commissioned
Enquiries come in through the form on this website, by email or by telephone. Nothing on this website is an offer capable of acceptance, and no payment is taken on this website. We issue a written scope and estimate; a contract forms only when you accept that document in writing and we confirm the start date.
4. Prices and quotes
Prices shown on this website are indicative starting points, not fixed quotes. A quote issued after a scoping week is valid for 30 days from its date and holds for the scope described in it. Changes you request to that scope are estimated separately and confirmed in writing before we build them. Prices exclude VAT where VAT applies.
5. Payment
Unless the scope states otherwise, we invoice the scoping week in advance, and build work in stages: 40% on start, the balance on handover. Retainers are invoiced monthly in advance. Invoices are payable within 14 days by bank transfer. Late payment carries statutory interest and compensation under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 for business clients.
6. Delivery
Timelines are agreed in the written scope and worked in two-week blocks, each ending in a build you can access. Delivery depends on your side providing content, access, credentials, decisions and review within the agreed windows. Where a delay is caused by waiting on you, dates move by the length of the wait and we will tell you when that happens.
7. Cancellation
If you are a consumer contracting at a distance, you have the right to cancel within 14 days of the contract forming, under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. If you ask us to begin within that period, and we complete the service, the right to cancel is lost; if you cancel partway through, you pay for what has been done. Business clients may cancel on 14 days' written notice, paying for work completed and for work committed within that notice period.
8. Refunds
Where a service falls short of reasonable care and skill, tell us and we will put it right at our cost. If we cannot, you are entitled to an appropriate reduction in price. Nothing here limits your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 if you are a consumer. Deposits covering work already carried out are not refundable.
9. Intellectual property
You own the material you supply to us. We retain ownership of everything we produce until the final invoice for it is paid in full; on full payment, ownership of the bespoke code and assets written for your project transfers to you. We retain ownership of our own pre-existing libraries, tools and techniques, and grant you a perpetual, non-exclusive licence to use them within the delivered work. Third-party components stay under their own licences.
10. Liability
Our total liability arising from a project is limited to the fees you have paid us for that project. We are not liable for loss of profit, loss of business, loss of data or any indirect or consequential loss. Nothing in these terms excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded.
11. Disputes
Raise it with us first, by email to [email protected] — most things are settled in a phone call. If that does not resolve it within 30 days, both parties agree to attempt mediation before starting court proceedings.
12. Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.
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