A CIRENCESTER company that designs applications for the iPhone is celebrating after its first game flew off the shelves.

Neon Play, in Castle Street, is a brand new iPhone games studio set up in May by Oli Christie, ex-creative director of InboxDMG .

The first ever game produced by the company, Flick Football, landed at number six in the list free apps in the UK with 200,000 downloads, a feat which Mr Christie said is beyond anything he hoped for.

"It certainly caught us by surprise," he said. "We would have been happy with a top 25 place."

"We are thrilled to bits and blown away."

Mr Christie, of Northleach, privately-funded the set up of the company and so far only has three employees working for him. He is hoping to expand the company within the next 12 months to bring as much expertise on board as possible.

"We are going through a massively exciting time here "We are already designing new games. We want to create something which is easy to play but challenging to master."

Flick Football requires the player to guide the ball into the net past five defenders and a goalkeeper. The full version, which costs 59p, means the user can play for a country and even play interactive against other users.

"It is thoroughly addictive," said Mr Christie. "We want our next game to be even better."

Mr Christie has promised to donate one percent of profits every year to local Cirencester causes.

‘Cirencester is a great place to be, with potential for a large talent pool so we want to give something back," he added.

‘We are having so much fun. If you can’t enjoy making games for a living, you shouldn’t have a job."

The next game launched by Neon Play will be a golf-putting game, due out later this year.

For more, go to neonplay.com