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Company type | Private |
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Industry | Video games |
Founded | 24 October 2006 |
Founder | Stewart Gilray |
Headquarters | , England |
Key people |
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Products | Sniper Elite VR |
Number of employees | 25 |
Website | justaddwaterdevelopment |
Just Add Water (Development) Limited is an independent video game developer based in Leeds, UK. [1] Founded by Stewart Gilray in 2006, Just Add Water has worked on different titles for the PlayStation 3 and PC, notably the Oddworld series. They have teamed up with Oddworld Inhabitants, to recreate the series in high definition as well as working on new installments in the series.
Just Add Water (Development), Ltd. was founded in 2006 by British career developer Stewart Gilray. The studio worked as a sub-contractor on a number of titles before moving onto its first unique project, Sony-published retro shooter Gravity Crash , [2] in 2008. PS3 and PSP versions released in 2009/2010. [3]
On 16 July 2010, Just Add Water announced they would start work on multiple Oddworld projects after signing a far-reaching contract with Lorne Lanning’s Oddworld Inhabitants to develop properties in the Oddworld franchise, a move Gilray describes as a "turning point" for the studio. Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD, a conversion of the 2005 original, was released on 3 September 2010, updating Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath in HD with enhanced 720p visuals, more detailed character models, remastered dialogue, PlayStation Move Support and "additional bonus material." [4]
A collection containing all four original games called the Oddbox, for Steam service was released on 20 December 2010. Both Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee and Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath made their debut on Windows PC with updates including Steamworks, which integrated new features including stats and Steam Achievements.in 2010 for PC, then a year later for PS3, and then PlayStation VITA in 2012.
Just Add Water released Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD for the PlayStation Network on 21 December in Europe and 28 December in North America. They have released an HD Remake of Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee HD for the PlayStation Network which was released on 19 December in Europe and on Christmas Eve 2012 in North America. [5]
Towards the end of development on Stranger’s Wrath HD, the team moved over to start development on what would become Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty for PS4, Xbox One, PS3, VITA, PC, Mac and Linux.
Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty launched in July 2014 on PS4 to critical acclaim, with other platforms arriving in the months following. The title did well to beat its own 12 month sales prediction within 2 months of release.
One of the next new instalments is a 2D HD remake of the Abe's Oddysee game, Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty! came out in the Summer of 2014 (beating its own 12 month sales prediction within 2 months of release) and had a public showing of pre-alpha footage at Eurogamer Expo 2012. [6] They have announced that they will complete Oddworld: Hand of Odd, which is a real-time strategy online game which was halted in the early 2000s, and it shall be released as a free-to-play title. Oddworld Inhabitants have also stated that 'Squeek's Oddysee' is in pre-production phases, with Just Add Water as the developer. In April 2015, Oddworld Inhabitants announced that an all-new remake of Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus is in the planning stages and more information about the project will be announced later. [7]
During this time the company also revisited their title Gravity Crash , by creating a PlayStation VITA version titled Gravity Crash Ultra, [8] which was released in August 2014.
From 2014 through to 2017 Just Add Water worked with new partners and clients, such as Paradox Interactive, Rising Star Games, Bossa Studios [9] & Mike Bithell. This work was focused on porting various projects from PC to console, and assisting development of titles.
In 2017 Just Add Water completed work on Micro Machines World Series for Codemasters [10] and moved into their new office in Leeds City Centre, and sought to expand their team to begin work on several new projects. [11]
In 2018 the team grew to 25 strong and began work on titles for Outright Games and Rebellion.
In March 2019 it was announced that Just Add Water would be partnering with Rebellion to release Sniper Elite VR, [12] a standalone VR title for the Sniper Elite series that would be released for PlayStation VR, Oculus VR and Steam VR. [13] Later that year, in October, the release of Ice Age Scrat’s Nutty Adventure for Outright Games on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch and PC [14] occurred.
A teaser trailer for Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality was released in October 2020 [15] by Maze Theory, with a release date for 2021. [16]
Sniper Elite VR was released in July 2021, [17] followed by the release of Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality in October of that same year, after a two week delay for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. [18] The Nintendo Switch version was further delayed to November. [19]
By the end of 2021, Sniper Elite VR won a TIGA award for best VR/AR game. [20] It was also nominated for the Game Awards in the Best VR/AR category. [21]
On 6 January 2022, founder and CEO Stewart Gilray died from COVID-19, at the age of 51. [22] [23]
With a new management team in place, Just Add Water moved into new offices at Platform in Leeds in June where they are currently working on multiple projects on PC, consoles and VR.
In November 2023, Rebellion announced a new Sniper Elite VR title in collaboration with Just Add Water. [24] Titled Sniper Elite VR: Winter Warrior, it released later that same month on 30 November 2023. [25]
On 23 April 2024, Wired Productions hosted a virtual showcase for upcoming releases. [26] During this event it was revealed that Wired Productions have been working in partnership with Just Add Water on a new title for VR called DIG VR. [27]
Oddworld is a video game series and fictional universe, created by developers Oddworld Inhabitants under the direction of Lorne Lanning. The series has been released on various platforms such as PlayStation, Xbox, PlayStation 3, Game Boy, Windows and Wii U.
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee is a platform video game developed by Oddworld Inhabitants and published by GT Interactive. It was released in 1997 for the PlayStation game console, and computers running MS-DOS and Windows. A Game Boy version was released as Oddworld Adventures in 1998.
Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus is a platform video game developed by Oddworld Inhabitants and published by GT Interactive. Although the game is a sequel to the video game Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, it is considered a spin-off title in the Oddworld series, and not part of the Oddworld Quintology. It was released in November 1998 for the PlayStation video game console and in December 1998 for Microsoft Windows. A Game Boy Color version, titled Oddworld Adventures 2, was released in 2000. The PlayStation version was re-released on the PlayStation Network in October 2009.
Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee is a 2001 video game, released for the Xbox. It is the third game made by Oddworld Inhabitants, the second chapter of the Oddworld Quintology, following Abe's Oddysee, and the third overall Oddworld game.
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath is an action-adventure video game developed by Oddworld Inhabitants and published by Electronic Arts for the Xbox. It is the fourth overall entry of the Oddworld series. It was released on January 25, 2005.
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex is a 2001 platform game developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Universal Interactive. It was first released for the PlayStation 2 and later ported to the Xbox, and GameCube, with Eurocom developing the GameCube version. It is the fourth main installment and the sixth overall in the Crash Bandicoot video game series, being the first of the series to not be released solely for a PlayStation console.
Lorne Lanning is an American game designer, director, writer and voice actor. He is also co-founder and president of the video game developer Oddworld Inhabitants. He is best known for creating the Oddworld series including the games Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty! and Oddworld: Soulstorm.
Oddworld Inhabitants Inc. is an American video game, film and television company founded in 1994 by special-effects and computer-animation veterans Sherry McKenna and Lorne Lanning. The company is primarily known for the Oddworld, series of video games about the fictional planet of Oddworld and its native creatures. The series debuted with Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee in 1997 and continued with Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee in 2001 but the studio has also developed standalone titles Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus in 1998 and Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath in 2005.
Super Stardust HD is a downloadable multidirectional shooter released for the PlayStation 3 by Sony Interactive Entertainment, developed by the Finnish company Housemarque. In Asian regions, it is known as Star Strike HD. In 2015, a port for the PlayStation 4, called Super Stardust Ultra, was released. In 2016, Super Stardust Ultra VR, a PlayStation VR compatible version that contains Super Stardust Ultra, was released for the PlayStation 4. It is also available as paid downloadable content for Super Stardust Ultra.
Bluepoint Games Inc is an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2006 by Andy O'Neil and Marco Thrush, the studio is known for video game remasters and remakes, such as Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection (2015), Shadow of the Colossus (2018), and Demon's Souls (2020). Sony Interactive Entertainment acquired the company in September 2021, making them a first-party developer for PlayStation Studios.
Gravity Crash is a multidirectional shooter released on the PlayStation Network. Its visual style pays homage to arcade games of the 1980s. A PlayStation Vita port was released in August 2014 under the title Gravity Crash Ultra.
Four Door Lemon Ltd was a video game company based in Bradford, West Yorkshire and was one of the UK's longest-lived independent video games and middleware developers. Commonly known as "FDL", the company’s name derived from a children’s joke.
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection is a compilation of remastered ports of Metal Gear video games released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2011 and PlayStation Vita in 2012. The compilation contains Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater on all three platforms, plus Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker on the home console versions, with the individual games all branded as HD Edition. Bluepoint Games handled the conversions of Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, while Genki worked on Peace Walker.
Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty! is a 2014 cinematic platform video game developed by Just Add Water and published by Oddworld Inhabitants as a "ground-up remake" of Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. The game was released in North America on 22 July 2014 and in Europe on 23 July 2014 for the PlayStation 4. The title was also released for Linux, Microsoft Windows, OS X, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and Wii U. It has been ported on iOS and Android and released worldwide on 14 December 2017. A Nintendo Switch version was released on 27 October 2020.
Numerous video games were released in 2016. New hardware came out as well, albeit largely refreshed and updated versions of consoles in the PlayStation 4 Pro, PlayStation 4 Slim, and Xbox One S. Commercially available virtual reality headsets were released in much greater numbers and at much lower price points than the enthusiast-only virtual reality headsets of earlier generations. Augmented reality also became mainstream with Pokémon Go. Top-rated games originally released in 2016 included Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Inside, Overwatch, Forza Horizon 3, Madden NFL 17, WWE 2K17, NBA 2K17, Dark Souls III, and Battlefield 1 and Doom 2016. The top five highest-grossing video games of 2016 were League of Legends, Honor of Kings/Arena of Valor, Monster Strike, Clash of Clans, and Dungeon Fighter Online.
Oddworld: Soulstorm is a 2021 platform game developed and published by Oddworld Inhabitants. The game is the sequel to 2014's Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty! and a re-imagining of 1998's Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus as it was originally envisioned. It was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Windows in April 2021, with an enhanced edition released in November 2021, alongside versions for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. A port for Nintendo Switch, subtitled Oddtimized Edition, was released in November 2022. It received mixed reviews from critics.
Sniper Elite VR is a 2021 virtual reality video game developed by Just Add Water and published by Rebellion Developments. The player plays as an elite sniper in the Italian resistance. The game was released for Oculus Quest, Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4. The game is part of the Sniper Elite series.