Double Fine Productions, Inc. is an American first-party video game developer of Xbox Game Studios based in San Francisco, California. Founded in July 2000 by Tim Schafer shortly after his departure from LucasArts, Double Fine's first two games – Psychonauts and Brütal Legend – underperformed publishers' expectations despite critical praise. The future of the company was assured when Schafer turned to several in-house prototypes built during a two-week period known as "Amnesia Fortnight" to expand as smaller titles, all of which were licensed through publishers and met with commercial success. Schafer has since repeated these Amnesia Fortnights, using fan-voting mechanics, to help select and build smaller titles. Double Fine is also credited with driving interest in crowdfunding in video games, having been able to raise more than US$3 million for the development of Broken Age, at the time one of the largest projects funded by Kickstarter, and more than US$3 million for the development of Psychonauts 2.
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.
Fruit Ninja is a video game developed by Halfbrick originally released on August 12, 2010. In the game, the player must slice fruit that is thrown into the air by swiping the device's touch screen with their finger(s) or the player's arms and hands, and must not slice bombs. It features multiple gameplay modes, leaderboards and multiplayer.
Broken Age is a point-and-click adventure video game developed and published by Double Fine. Broken Age was game director Tim Schafer's first return to the genre since 1998's Grim Fandango, and was released for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox One platforms. The game was developed in two acts; the first was released on January 28, 2014, and the second was released on April 28, 2015. A retail version of the complete game for Windows, macOS, and Linux, published by Nordic Games, was released on April 28, 2015. A Nintendo Switch version was released on September 13, 2018.
The Cave is a puzzle-platform, adventure game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by Sega in January 2013 on the PlayStation Network, Nintendo eShop and Xbox Live Arcade storefronts via the PlayStation 3, Wii U and Xbox 360 consoles and on Steam for Microsoft Windows, OS X and Linux. It was later released on October 3, 2013 on iOS devices and Android. On December 2, 2013 it was also released on the Ouya. The game has been delisted from console storefronts as of April 2, 2018, making it a Steam exclusive until 2023.
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II is a 2012 episodic platform video game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, and the sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I. The game was developed by Dimps, with assistance from Sonic Team, and published by Sega. The game was intended to emulate the original Sonic the Hedgehog games on the Sega Genesis.
The Ouya, stylized as OUYA, is an Android-based microconsole developed by Ouya Inc. Julie Uhrman founded the project in 2012, bringing in designer Yves Béhar to collaborate on its design and Muffi Ghadiali as VP of Product Management to put together the engineering team. Development was funded via Kickstarter, raising US$8.5 million, becoming one of the website's highest earning projects in its history.
Middle Manager of Justice is a simulation video game for iOS and Android developed and published by Double Fine Productions. The iOS version was accidentally released in all territories on September 5, 2012, but was quickly pulled. That build was later branded beta, with the final release planned for later that year. The final release of the iOS version occurred on December 3, 2012 in Canada. The worldwide release of the iOS version occurred ten days later on December 13, 2012. The Android version was released on August 14, 2013.
Madfinger Games is a Czech publisher and developer of video games headquartered in Brno. Known as the authors of a series of games Dead Trigger, Samurai, Shadowgun and many others. The studio is made up of experienced developers who have worked on games such as Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, Vietcong and Hidden & Dangerous 2.
The Room is a puzzle video game developed by Fireproof Games. The game was originally developed for the iOS platform and released in 12 September 2012. The Android version debuted as part of a Humble Bundle in March 2013 and was subsequently released on Google Play. A free expansion for the title was released in August 2013. An enhanced version of the game was released for Microsoft Windows in July 2014, and for the Nintendo Switch in October 2018.
Amnesia Fortnight 2012 is a bundle of prototypes made during a two-week public prototyping session in 2012 by Double Fine Productions, which was held in conjunction with the Humble Bundle group in 2012. Everyone that paid a minimum of $1 had the opportunity to vote on 23 concept ideas. After the completion of the voting period, Double Fine developed the top five voted ideas into game prototypes that became available to those that purchased the bundle after they were completed. There were also three bonus prototypes included, including two from the first Amnesia Fortnight that were made into commercial games, and one prototype from the previous year's Amnesia Fortnight that hadn't been released to the public before that point. 2 Player Productions filmed a documentary about the making of the prototypes, which was included with purchase of the bundle. Amnesia Fortnight 2012 was later released on physical media as part of a special edition bundle.
A microconsole is a home video game console that is typically powered by low-cost computing hardware, making the console lower-priced compared to other home consoles on the market. The majority of microconsoles, with a few exceptions such as the PlayStation TV and OnLive Game System, are Android-based digital media players that are bundled with gamepads and marketed as gaming devices. Such microconsoles can be connected to the television to play video games downloaded from an application store such as Google Play.
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse is a 2013 2.5D platform game developed by Sega Studios Australia and published by Sega. The game is a remake of the original 1990 Sega Genesis/Sega Mega Drive video game of the same name, which was the first title in the Illusion series of Mickey Mouse video games. The game was released on PlayStation 3, Windows, and Xbox 360, in September 2013, and later for iOS, Windows Phone, Android, and OS X.
Star Wars: Tiny Death Star is a business simulation video game developed by Disney Mobile and NimbleBit, and published by Disney Mobile for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and Windows 8/RT devices. It was based on NimbleBit's previous game, Tiny Tower, and was set in the Star Wars universe.
The Room Two is a puzzle video game developed by British-based Fireproof Games as a sequel to The Room. The game was originally developed for the iPad and released in December 2013; it was made universal to work with the iPhone in January 2014. The Android version was released in February 2014. A Windows version was released on 5 July 2016. An Apple Arcade version, named «The Room Two+», was released on 2 April 2021. It was also released for Nintendo Switch in August 2022.
Monument Valley is an indie puzzle game developed and published by Ustwo Games. The player leads the princess Ida through mazes of optical illusions and impossible objects while manipulating the world around her to reach various platforms. Monument Valley was developed over ten months beginning in early 2013 based on concept drawings by company artist Ken Wong. Its visual style was inspired by Japanese prints, minimalist sculpture, and indie games Windosill, Fez, and Sword & Sworcery, and was compared by critics to M. C. Escher drawings and Echochrome. The art was designed such that each frame would be worthy of public display.
Greg Wohlwend is an American independent video game developer and artist whose games include Threes! and Ridiculous Fishing. He originally formed Intuition Games with Iowa State University classmate Mike Boxleiter in 2007 where they worked on Dinowaurs and other small Adobe Flash games. Trained as an artist, Wohlwend worked mainly on the visual assets. As Mikengreg, they released Solipskier, whose success let the two take a more experimental approach with Gasketball, which did not fare as well. At the same time, Wohlwend collaborated with Asher Vollmer to make Puzzlejuice, and with Adam Saltsman to make Hundreds based on Wohlwend's first game design. He later released Threes! with Vollmer in 2014 to critical acclaim. His later games TouchTone and TumbleSeed were also the products of collaborations. Wohlwend was named among Forbes' 2014 "30 under 30" in the games industry.
Hundreds is a puzzle video game where players touch circles to make them grow without overlapping. In the game's 100 levels, the player interacts with different types of circles to bring a counter to the number 100. The game was developed and published by Semi Secret Software in collaboration with Greg Wohlwend and was released for iOS on January 7, 2013, and on Android later that year.
The Elder Scrolls: Legends is a free-to-play digital collectible card video game, published by Bethesda Softworks for Microsoft Windows, iOS, macOS and Android in 2017.
Puzzle Fighter was a free-to-play competitive puzzle video game for Android and iOS devices, which is developed by Capcom Vancouver and published by Capcom. It is the successor to 1996's Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, and features playable characters from various Capcom franchises. The game launched in November 2017 and was discontinued in July 2018.
