Three former University of Bradford students are hoping to capture the imagination of millions of mobile phone users around the world with a new game.

Jon Shaw, David Deacon and Nick Teasey hope Soccer Rally 2, which combines football and car racing, will mimic the addictive success of games such as Candy Crush and Angry Birds.

Mr Shaw, 29, said: “I think you always are, that’s always the dream to recreate that success.”

The three are former students of the Computer Animation and Special Effects course at the university and graduated in 2006.

They have worked for companies including Blitz Games, Warner Brother’ TT Fusion and Red Star Studio.

In 2011 IceFlame was founded by Mr Shaw and Mr Deacon, and Mr Teasey is their fellow creator on Soccer Rally 2, which has been worked on for 18 months. The company has quickly gained a reputation and works with the Apples Features team and develops games for Nintendo.

Mr Shaw said: “Ever since I had Sonic the Hedgehog on Mega Drive I knew I wanted to make computer games.

“Soccer Rally 2 is a great example of the games we want to create and for which IceFlame is already becoming known worldwide. It’s highly entertaining, captivating and great fun to play, but fantastic quality too and demonstrates real innovative thinking and creativity.

“People will love playing it and we can be really proud of it.”

The trio hopes the game, which uses 3D graphics and is set to music from bands across the world, will up their status in the global games market.

Mr Shaw said: “It’s quite strange coming to the end of such a long process. We’re excited about getting it out there and seeing what people think about it.”

Players can play challenging soccer from behind the wheel of their own customised cars and post the results on Facebook and Twitter. There is also a multi-player mode so two people can compete against each other at the same time on the same device, something rare in mobile games.

IceFlame has already had success with Soccer Rally, which was released in 2012 and its first game, Aiko Island, in 2011.

The new game has many more features and they say it is different in both quality and quantity. It will be available from April 24.