A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with employee responsibilities split between individual disciplines, such as programmers, designers, artists, etc. Most game development companies have video game publisher financial and usually marketing support. Self-funded developers are known as independent or indie developers and usually make indie games.
Game Developer is a website created in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa and acted as the online sister publication to the print magazine Game Developer prior to the latter's closure in 2013.
Grasshopper Manufacture Inc. is a Japanese video game developer founded on March 30, 1998 by Goichi Suda. They are well known for creating titles such as Killer7 and the No More Heroes series.
An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. Because of their independence and freedom to develop, indie games often focus on innovation, experimental gameplay, and taking risks not usually afforded in AAA games. Indie games tend to be sold through digital distribution channels rather than at retail due to a lack of publisher support. The term is analogous to independent music or independent film in those respective mediums.
Acquire Corp. is a Japanese video game developer and publisher, mainly known for their Tenchu and Way of the Samurai series.
Renegade Kid LLC was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. The studio was founded in 2007 by Gregg Hargrove and Jools Watsham, video game development veterans formerly of Iguana Entertainment. In August 2016, Hargrove and Watsham announced that they had split their operations, with the intellectual property rights distributed between each's own studios, Atooi (Watsham) and Infitizmo (Hargrove).
Xbox Live Indie Games were video games created by individual developers or small teams of developers released on Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace for the Xbox 360. The games were developed using Microsoft XNA, and developed by one or more independent developers that are registered with App Hub. Unlike Xbox Live Arcade titles, these were generally only tested within the local creator community, had much lower costs of production, and generally were less expensive to purchase. The service was released to widespread use alongside the New Xbox Experience, and as of November 2014, over 3,300 games had been released on the service, many receiving media attention. All Indie Games currently require the user to be logged into their Xbox Live account to initiate the start-up of each game. Indie Games were not available in Australia due to local classification requirements which were unable to be fulfilled, though there were workarounds which allowed Australian users to download them regardless. The Xbox Live Indie Games program did not continue with the release of the Xbox One, and the marketplace for these games was shuttered on October 7, 2017.
Fez is a 2012 indie puzzle-platform game developed by Polytron Corporation and published by Trapdoor. The player-character Gomez receives a fez that reveals his two-dimensional (2D) world to be one of four sides of a three-dimensional (3D) world. The player rotates between these four 2D views to realign platforms and solve puzzles. The objective is to collect cubes and cube fragments to restore order to the universe.
Runic Games was an American computer game developer based in Seattle. It was formed by former Flagship Studios developers in August 2008. In 2009, the company released Torchlight, a single-player action role-playing game. It was acquired by Perfect World in May 2010. They released a sequel, Torchlight II, in 2012. It was at this time the developers revealed they were no longer pursuing plans to create an MMO in the Torchlight universe.
Titan Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Seattle. Formed by Epic Games China in November 2008, it comprised the team of the former Fat Princess developer Darkstar Industries. Titan Studios was disestablished in June 2011 and was succeeded by Carbon Games and Fun Bits.
GungHo Online Entertainment, Inc. is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. They are primarily known for hosting the Japanese server of Ragnarok Online, as well as their development of Ragnarok DS for the Nintendo DS. More recently, the company has reported huge financial success thanks to its mobile game Puzzle & Dragons, which, in 2013, was reportedly responsible for 91% of the company's $1.6 billion revenues for the year.
Virtuos is a video game development company headquartered in Singapore with studios across Asia, Europe, and North America. Virtuos specializes in game development and art production for AAA consoles, PC, and mobile titles – working as an external developer for other companies.
Blendo Games is an American independent video game development company based in Culver City, California. It was founded by Brendon Chung in 2010 and is primarily a one-person effort. Blendo Games gained more widespread exposure with the short form stand alone title Gravity Bone; the following games Flotilla and Atom Zombie Smasher were met with critical praise. The studio has also released several other games in several genres.
Galak-Z: The Dimensional is a shooter video game developed and published by 17-Bit. It was released in August 2015 for the PlayStation 4 and October 2015 for Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux. A Nintendo Switch port, subtitled Deluxe Edition, was released in March 2019 by Golem Entertainment. It was announced during Sony's pre-E3 2013 press conference in June 2013. 17-Bit CEO Jake Kazdal describes it as "modern Halo and Far Cry 3 combat in a 2-dimensional shell." Reflecting its inspiration in part by Japanese anime, the game is also known officially by the Japanese title of Uchuu Senshi Galak-Z.
William Timothy Rogers Jr. is an American video game journalist, developer, and video essayist. His work is associated with mid-2000s New Games Journalism, a style of video game journalism that emphasizes the author's subjective and personal experiences in relation to the game world. The Guardian cited his 2005 opinion piece "Dreaming in an Empty Room: A Defense of Metal Gear Solid 2" as a core example of the genre. Rogers is additionally known for his verbose writing style and his video game reviews website ActionButton.net. He has also written for Next Generation, GamesTM, Play, Game Developer, and Kotaku. He later edited videos for Kotaku before resigning from the site and becoming an independent YouTuber.
In the video game industry, AAA (Triple-A) is a buzzword used to classify video games produced or distributed by a mid-sized or major publisher, which typically have higher development and marketing budgets than other tiers of games. In the mid-2010s, the term "AAA+" was used to describe AAA type games that generated additional revenue over time, in a similar fashion to massively multiplayer online games, by using games-as-a-service methods such as season passes and expansion packs. The similar construction "III" (Triple-I) has also been used to describe high-production-value games in the indie game industry.
Sickhead Games, LLC is an American independent game development studio founded in 2002. It is best known for its multiplatform turn-based strategy game ARMED!, its involvement with the MonoGame framework and Torque series of game engines, and the development of several PlayStation 4/5, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch ports of indie games including TowerFall Ascension, Stardew Valley, Darkest Dungeon, Octodad: Dadliest Catch, Slay the Spire, and Axiom Verge. The studio has updated classic console and PC games from the late 1990s and early 2000s, including ExZeus, Enclave, and Grandia, to run on modern gaming systems.
G2A.COM Limited is a digital marketplace headquartered in the Netherlands, with offices in Poland and Hong Kong. The site operates in the resale of gaming offers and others digital items by the use of redemption keys. G2A.COM’s main offerings are game key codes for platforms such as Steam, EA app, Uplay, PlayStation Network, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch, as well as gift cards, top-ups, and other digital products. As a marketplace, G2A.COM does not sell any digital items itself. Instead, the platform is an intermediary between buyers and sellers. G2A.COM served online over 30 million customers from over 180 countries, 40 thousand sellers globally, and its catalog entails over 75,000 digital items. G2A also offers additional services, such as G2A Direct, a partnership program for video game developers and publishers.
Video gaming in Finland consists of a video game industry which includes 260 active video game developer studios, roughly a dozen professional players and countless enthusiastic amateurs.
