For many, earning a living by playing computer games would be a far-fetched dream.

But in an office block at the John Wilson Business Park in Whitstable, eight people are managing to turn their pastime into their profession.

Run by 28-year-old James Hunt, from Herne Bay, HYPD Gaming has its sights set on turning over £500,000 in the next 12 months.

It will do this by sharing videos and broadcasting live streams of its staff playing Fortnite, Fifa, Resident Evil, Mario Kart and 007 Goldeneye.

“So far, nobody’s told me that they don’t like coming into work,” said Mr Hunt.

“They don’t have that Monday morning feeling here. Everyone who works here knows they need to know about the latest games and be good at them – they’re questions we ask at interviews.

“If gaming isn’t a part of your lifestyle then this isn’t the company for you to work for.

"Everyone jumps in and out of playing games – even the person who deals with the finances.”

The company recently advertised for people to join part-time on a salary of about £8 an hour.

"They would be broadcast playing Fortnite and Fifa on Twitch, a website dedicated to live streaming video games.

“We want to be one of the top five most-viewed gaming platforms out there,” Mr Hunt said.

“We looked at the numbers in terms of website visitors the other day and we’d need about five million unique visitors per month to get there.

“We’re waiting for our website to be launched in a couple of weeks and we definitely feel like we can be in the top five in four or five months.”

This is reflective of an increasingly-popular trend of watching others play video games online.

Walk-throughs of tricky levels, footage of players comically struggling to get past obstacles and Fifa 18 “World Cups” have received millions of views online and generated heaps of advertising revenue.

YouTuber PewDiePie has profited from this most effectively, amassing a fortune of £15 million.

Sky Sports has also tried to cash in by recently televising EA Sports’s annual Fifa 18 tournament eChampions.

“There are quite a few revenue streams for us,” Canterbury-born Mr Hunt explained.

“Sometimes a brand will come to us and say ‘we need a million views on this video within a week’ and then we’ll charge it depending on where and who it wants to target.

“Another way is platforms, like Facebook, paying us monthly per video view we get. We’ll also launch a gaming store, which will sell merchandise.”

HYPD gaming has eight staff, who are from Ramsgate, Whitstable, the Isle of Sheppey and Herne Bay. It will soon move to new offices in Links Close, Herne Bay.

Mr Hunt had run a series of other Facebook pages under the HYPD banner, which specialised in fitness, food and viral content.

After developing a large online following, he decided to move the company into the gaming industry four weeks ago.

“Gaming is now what I want us to do for the next five to 10 years,” Mr Hunt said.

“It’s a passion of quite a few people who work here already and it’s quite easy to create content because you just plug in a PlayStation and go.”

“A few people I know have built up networks and then sold them on, which is something we could do.”