Producers Of The Popular Gaming Youtube Channel Mashed Have Launched Spud Gun Studios, A New Short-Form Animation House

The Connected Set, the production outfit behind the popular gaming Youtube channel Mashed, has launched a new short-form animation studio called Spud Gun Studios.

For nearly a decade, Connected Set has been producing mostly live-action short-form content with frequent diversions into animation. Many of those diversions were produced for the Mashed channel, which is funded and owned by Channel 4 in the U.K.

Although much of The Connected Set’s work has been live action, the studio has produced over 750 original short-form animated videos which have accumulated more than two billion views for partners including Channel 4, the BBC, Beano Studios, and numerous video game publishers. According to company bosses, the decision to launch Spud Gun Studios was inspired by increased demand for short-form animation from brands, broadcasters, and social platforms.

That said, The Connected Set and Spud Gun Studios executive Tom Payne explained to Cartoon Brew that the company has original animation IP ambitions as well and is now “doubling down on our efforts and output in the animation space through our new label. We’ve already got branded content deals in place at Spud Gun and we’re working on some really exciting partnerships to launch our own animated IP online.”

Spud Gun will continue to produce content for current partners including Channel 4 and has inked several other branded and third-party publisher deals which will launch later this year.

The new label will be overseen by Payne and executive producer Tom Jenkins, who founded the Mashed channel and continues to play a major role in its growth and development. The duo will work closely with producer Ben Michael and Spud Gun’s team of artists.

In addition to its animation production efforts, Spud Gun is also producing a podcast that features interviews with popular online animators.

In a release, Jenkins said:

Having spent over 10 years nurturing and developing Mashed and producing hundreds of short-form animations and IP at The Connected Set, I’m incredibly hyped to bring our ideas and huge network of animators, writers, performers, and musicians to the wider market.

Payne added:

We have a truly unique understanding of what young audiences across the world want from short-form content, so taking all that knowledge and expertise to a wider market is such an exciting opportunity. We’ve already got a great track record of working with and delivering amazing results for brands and broadcasters, such as a video we did for Warframe which, with no promotion, generated 12 million organic views on YouTube, 400k watch hours, 377k likes and had 73% retention.