Stainless was founded on the Isle of Wight (two hours travel time from London, UK) towards the end of 1993 and incorporated in August 1994. The company was formed by Patrick Buckland, an industry veteran with extensive games programming experience dating back to 1982, and Neil Barnden, a senior designer at Conran and The Body Shop. Following the closure of the VIS IOW studio in July 2003, a number of the original team rejoined Stainless, including its original co-founder, Neil Barnden.