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.
Gobliiins is a puzzle adventure video game series, consisting of five entries, released by Coktel Vision for the Amiga, Atari ST, DOS, and Macintosh platforms. The first three titles were released in the early 1990s, the fourth in 2009. The visual look of the series and its characters were created by French artist Pierre Gilhodes, whose style was used in another game from Coktel Vision: Woodruff and the Schnibble of Azimuth.
Leviathan is a Biblical sea monster.
Commander Keen in Keen Dreams is a side-scrolling platform video game developed by id Software and published by Softdisk in 1991 for DOS. It is the fourth episode of the Commander Keen series. The game follows the titular Commander Keen, an eight-year-old child genius, in an adventure in his dreams as he journeys through a vegetable kingdom to defeat the evil potato king Boobus Tuber and free enslaved children from the Dream machine. The game features Keen running and jumping through various levels while opposed by various vegetable enemies; unlike the prior three episodes, Keen does not use a pogo stick to jump higher, and throws flower power pellets to temporarily turn enemies into flowers rather than shooting a raygun to kill them.
5th Cell is an independently owned American video game developer founded in 2003 as 5th Cell Media, LLC. led by Jeremiah Slaczka and Marius Falhbusch. The company is most well known for creating the Drawn to Life and Scribblenauts series.
Skullgirls is a 2D fighting game developed by Reverge Labs and published by Autumn Games. In Skullgirls, players fight each other with teams of one, two, or three characters, attempting to knock out their opponents or have the most cumulative health when time runs out. The setting of the game revolves around the "Skull Heart", an artifact which grants wishes for women. If a wisher with an impure soul uses the Skull Heart, she is transformed into a monster known as the "Skullgirl". The game was released through the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade in April 2012, and received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the animation and gameplay mechanics, while criticizing its initial roster size and online multiplayer features.
Them's Fightin' Herds is an indie fighting game developed by Mane6 and published by Modus Games. It features a cast of ungulate characters fighting each other to find a champion worthy of gaining a magical key that will protect their world from predators. First released into early access in February 2018, the full release was on April 30, 2020 for Microsoft Windows, followed by Linux on March 25, 2021 and a beta macOS version was added on October 27, 2021. The game was released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on October 18, 2022.
TableTop is a web series about games, directed by Jennifer Arnold. It was created by Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day and was hosted by Wheaton. TableTop was published on Felicia Day's YouTube channel, Geek & Sundry. In each episode, following a brief explanation of one or more tabletop games, Wheaton plays the games with one or more guests—usually web or TV personalities.
Train Fever is a business simulation game by Swiss developer Urban Games, funded via the crowdfunding platform Gambitious on 20 March 2012 for a total budget of €300,000 and therefore published digitally by Gambitious Digital Entertainment and to retail by Astragon.
Riot is a 2019 indie video game about a riot simulator based on real events. The project started with an Indiegogo campaign in February 2014, which ended in a success. The game was released on December 6, 2017, for Steam's early access. The director of the game and previously an editor and cinematographer at Valve, Leonard Menchiari, has experienced riots personally and the game "Riot" was created as a way to express it and to tell the stories of these events. The player can pick between playing as police or rioters. The game will potentially be released on Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android. The producers are interested in bringing the game to these platforms, but are currently restricted by their budget.
Caffeine is an episodic First-person adventure video game created by Dylan Browne and developed by Incandescent Imaging. The creator posted the game on Indiegogo to help crowdfund the development. The game takes place on a derelict spaceship used to mine caffeine, and it is inspired by Condemned: Criminal Origins, F.E.A.R., and Doom 3. Caffeine was released in five episodes for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux on 5 October 2015, although it has yet to release any episodes after the first.
Secrets of Rætikon is an action-adventure open world video game developed and published by Broken Rules. The player controls a bird and must explore the environment of Rætikon to find its secrets. Game elements include animals with specific behaviors and ancient puzzles. Development began in 2011 and the game was formally announced in July 2013 and followed by alpha and Steam Early Access releases. Secrets of Rætikon was released on April 17, 2014 for Windows, OS X, and Linux platforms. It received mixed reviews from reviewers, who praised its artwork and movement physics, but criticized its inconsistency, lack of cohesion, and technical issues.
Elysian Shadows is an upcoming multiplatform indie 2D role-playing video game in development by GyroVorbis. The game is set to be published by WaterMelon, which previously developed and published the Sega Genesis title Pier Solar and the Great Architects in 2010. The development of Elysian Shadows has been chronicled in a YouTube series titled Adventures in Game Development. Elysian Shadows has been marketed as a "next-gen 2D role-playing game" (RPG) due to its hybrid 2D/3D graphical style.
Hand of Fate is an action role-playing video game developed and published by Australian studio Defiant Development for Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, released via early access on 7 July 2014, and then in the full release on 17 February 2015. A PlayStation Vita version was announced but ultimately cancelled due to development issues.
Indivisible is an action role-playing platform game developed by the now-defunct Lab Zero Games and published by 505 Games. The game was initially released in October 2019 for Linux, macOS, Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One and on April 28, 2020 for Nintendo Switch. It was released in Japan on July 16, 2020. A version for Amazon Luna was released on October 20, 2020, despite Lab Zero Games going defunct 11 days prior, thus discontinuing all additional content for the game.
Darkwood is a survival horror video game developed and published by Acid Wizard Studio. The game was first released through Steam Early Access on July 24, 2014, eventually becoming a full game release on August 17, 2017 for Linux, macOS, and Windows. The game takes place in a mysterious dark forest somewhere in the Polish People's Republic or according to the developers, another region of the Soviet Bloc wherein the main characters have been trapped. On March 20, 2019, a Nintendo Switch version was announced during the Nindies Nintendo Direct and was released on May 16, 2019. The game was also ported and released for the PlayStation 4 on May 14, 2019, for Xbox One on May 16, under the publisher Crunching Koalas, and for Google Stadia on September 17, 2021. It later released for PlayStation 5 on October 28, 2022 and for Xbox Series X/S on December 23, 2022.
Long Gone Days is a dystopian role-playing video game for Windows, OSX and Linux, being developed by BURA. The original demo was written, developed, and illustrated by Camila Gormaz. It features the first hour of the story, and was released for Windows and OSX on May 13, 2016. The game was released on March 28, 2018.
CrossCode is a 2018 action role-playing game developed by Radical Fish Games and published by Deck13. Players control Lea, a player in a fictional MMORPG called CrossWorlds who wakes up with no memory and is unable to speak. Gameplay involves the player employing both ranged and melee shots to solve puzzles and defeat enemies, with differing elemental modes granting different powers used in combat and exploring.
Heartbound is an upcoming role-playing video game developed by American indie developer Pirate Software. The game centers around a boy who deals with depression, anxiety, and fear as he embarks on a journey through different locations in search of his dog, Baron. The narrative changes with different pathways and endings, depending on how the player interacts with the environment, other characters, and combat system. Each choice or interaction has the potential to change the game by adding dialog, encounters, or interactive objects to the world.
