 | |
| Company type | LLC |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 2009 |
| Headquarters | United States |
Key people |
|
| Products | AI War: Fleet Command Tidalis A Valley Without Wind 1&2 Shattered Haven Skyward Collapse Bionic Dues The Last Federation Stars Beyond Reach Starward Rogue In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor AI War 2 |
Number of employees | |
| Website | www.arcengames.com |
Arcen Games is a small video game company founded in 2009 by Chris McElligott Park. [6] The company launched their first product, AI War: Fleet Command , in mid 2009 for Windows PCs. [7]
The company became one of the early notable examples of heavy procedural generation in almost all their games. [8] They are also known for taking unusual gameplay ideas in an idiosyncratic range of genres, [9] and exploring to the extreme ends of each idea. [10] Most of Arcen's titles include some form of overarching goals with a lot of freedom as to how the player goes about reaching said goals. [11] The company founder has a stated aversion to being stuck into any one genre. [12]
Arcen Games is best known for its real time strategy game AI War: Fleet Command , [13] which had six DLC expansions released between 2010 and 2014. [14] Arcen released the puzzle game Tidalis in July 2010, [15] [16] 2D side scrolling game A Valley Without Wind in April 2012, [17] its divergent sequel A Valley Without Wind 2 in February 2013, [18] environmental puzzle game Shattered Haven in March 2013, [19] turn-based god game Skyward Collapse in May 2013 [20] with an expansion called Nihon no Mura later that year, [21] and tactical mech game Bionic Dues in October 2013. [22]
In April 2014, Arcen released The Last Federation , a space-themed strategy/simulation game. [23] [24] [25] This title did well enough to get two expansions by the end of 2015. [26] The Last Federation put the company in a "relatively cash-rich position," after which a major project by the name of Stars Beyond Reach was undertaken. [27] In October 2016, after an 18-month development cycle with the company's largest-yet team of staff and contractors, and with funds dwindling as long-term sales from other titles tapered, Stars Beyond Reach was put on indefinite hold. [28]
Arcen then rapidly developed and released the shoot 'em up roguelite Starward Rogue for January 2016, [29] but the title was a commercial failure that led to the layoff of all but three of their staff. [30] In August 2016, they released and then pulled from sale a 3D dino-vs-robots game, In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor due to overwhelmingly poor sales. [31] In January 2018, a mostly-independent group of former contractors dubbed the "Extended Team" [32] finished their work on a "labor of love" expansion for Starward Rogue, which was also well-received without generating much income. [33]
After one failed kickstarter in late 2016, a followup successful kickstarter the next month, [34] and then an extended period of early access starting in October 2018, [35] Arcen Games released AI War 2 in October 2019 [36] to positive reviews. [37] The first expansion for AI War 2 was released in February 2020. [38]
