 | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | April 1999 |
| Founders | Ed Del Castillo, Mike Grayford |
| Defunct | 2018 |
| Fate | Dissolved [1] |
| Headquarters | , U.S. |
Key people | Ed Del Castillo, Holly Newman |
| Products | Battle Realms Dragonshard Desperate Housewives |
| Website | goliquid |
Liquid Entertainment was an American independent video game developer based in Pasadena, California. The studio was founded in April 1999 by Ed Del Castillo and Mike Grayford.
Liquid Entertainment was founded in April 1999 by Ed Del Castillo and Mike Grayford. [2] [3]
Liquid's first game was Battle Realms , published by Crave Entertainment in November 2001 to critical acclaim. [4] Battle Realms is a real-time strategy PC game for Windows that features an unconventional approach to resource management and unit development. It was well received by reviewers, [5] many of whom praised its at-the-time state of the art 3D engine and East Asian-inspired setting and aesthetics but sale numbers were disappointing. It was also chosen for Computer Gaming World's Top 10 Games of E3 2001. [6] Battle Realms was followed up with a stand-alone expansion pack, Battle Realms: Winter of the Wolf in April 2002. Winter of the Wolf was received with less enthusiasm than Battle Realms by the gaming community; [7] some reviewers compared it unfavorably to 2002's blockbuster real-time strategy titles Warcraft III and Age of Mythology . [8] [9]
Since the release of Winter of the Wolf, Liquid has developed two real-time strategy PC games based on intellectual property licenses: In November 2003, Sierra released The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring , based on Vivendi Universal's license to Tolkien's literary works, and in October 2005 Atari published the Dungeons & Dragons PC game Dragonshard . Dragonshard has since been re-released on GOG.com.
In October 2006, Buena Vista Games released Desperate Housewives: The Game , a life simulation computer game adaptation of the popular television series Desperate Housewives . Desperate Housewives: The Game won PC Gamer Adventure Game of the Year for 2007.
Liquid's next game Rise of the Argonauts , released in December 2008 and published by Codemasters, is a Greek mythology-themed action role-playing game for Windows , PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 that received mixed reviews, [10] with criticisms centering on technical problems, derivative art direction and repetitive gameplay. [11] In 2011 Sega published Liquid's second console game for Xbox 360 and PS3 Thor: God of Thunder that coincided with Marvel Studios's release of the film Thor in May 2011.
In 2012 Liquid pivoted into developing casual games for Facebook. They did some contract work on InstantJam, a music rhythm game for Facebook, Deadline Hollywood: Game based on the popular Hollywood news blog Deadline Hollywood by Nikki Finke and Paramount Digital Entertainment for Facebook and iOS and Dungeons and Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter, a turn-based strategy game published by Atari on Facebook.
Later in 2013 and 2014 they continued their pivot into mobile games with titles like Karateka (console and mobile), Cuddle Pets, Paper Galaxy, and Max Steel . By the end of 2014, Ed decided to downsize Liquid to its current position as a holding company and consultancy; selling off some of its holdings, licensing some of its technology, and keep the rest for future opportunities.
Liquid currently manages a number of properties that are available online and published Battle Realms: Zen Edition as Early Access on Steam in December, 2019. [12]
Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories. Several years later, Greenwood brought the setting to publication for the D&D game as a series of magazine articles, and the first Realms game products were released in 1987. Role-playing game products have been produced for the setting ever since, as have various licensed products including novels, role-playing video game adaptations, comic books, and the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Neverwinter Nights is a third-person role-playing video game developed by BioWare. Interplay Entertainment was originally set to publish the game, but financial difficulties led to it being taken over by Infogrames, who released the game under their Atari range of titles. It is the first installment in the Neverwinter Nights series and was released for Microsoft Windows on June 18, 2002. BioWare later released a Linux client in June 2003, requiring a purchased copy of the game to play. MacSoft released a Mac OS X port in August 2003.
Gold Box is a series of role-playing video games produced by SSI from 1988 to 1992. The company acquired a license to produce games based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game from TSR, Inc. These games shared a common game engine that came to be known as the "Gold Box Engine" after the gold-colored boxes in which most games of the series were sold.
Neverwinter is a fictional city-state in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Neverwinter was founded by Lord Halueth Never. It sits on the northwestern coast of the subcontinent of Faerûn.
Neverwinter Nights 2 is a role-playing video game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Atari Interactive. It is the second installment in the Neverwinter Nights series and is the sequel to BioWare's Neverwinter Nights, based on the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy tabletop role-playing game. Neverwinter Nights 2 utilizes an adaptation of the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition rules. Players create player characters to represent themselves in the game, using the same character creation rules as found in the Dungeons & Dragons game. They may gain the assistance of additional party members, and they eventually acquire a keep that can be used as a base of operations. Neverwinter Nights 2 is set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting—in and around the city of Neverwinter. The story is mostly unrelated to Neverwinter Nights and follows the journey of an orphaned adventurer investigating a group of mysterious artifacts known as "silver shards" and their connection to an ancient, evil spirit known as the King of Shadows.
Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard is a real-time strategy role-playing video game, developed for Microsoft Windows by Liquid Entertainment, and published by Atari in September 2005. It takes place in Eberron, one of the official Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings. The game combines elements of traditional real-time strategy gameplay with role-playing elements such as hero units, and questing. Dragonshard includes two single-player campaigns, single-player skirmish maps, and multiplayer support. The single-player campaign follows the struggles of three competing factions to gain control of a magical artifact known as the Heart of Siberys.
Dungeons & Dragons Online is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Turbine for Microsoft Windows and OS X. The game was originally marketed as Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach. Upon switching to a hybrid free-to-play model it was renamed Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited. The game was rebranded Dungeons & Dragons Online, with the introduction of Forgotten Realms-related content. Turbine developed Dungeons & Dragons Online as an online adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), originally based loosely on the D&D 3.5 rule set. The game is set on the unexplored continent of Xen'drik within the Eberron campaign setting, and in the Kingdom of Cormyr within the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
Stormfront Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer based in San Rafael, California. In 2007, the company had over 50 developers working on two teams, and owned all its proprietary engines, tools, and technology. As of the end of 2007, over fourteen million copies of Stormfront-developed games had been sold. Stormfront closed on March 31, 2008, due to the closure of their publisher at the time, Sierra Entertainment.
Battle Realms is a real-time strategy video game published and released by Crave Entertainment and Ubi Soft in November 2001. It was the first game created by Liquid Entertainment. An expansion pack Battle Realms: Winter of the Wolf was released in November 2002. In 2012, the game was re-released on GOG.com. In 2019, the game was re-released on Steam as Battle Realms: Zen Edition, in its early access state with functioning online multiplayer.
Crave Entertainment was an American video game publisher founded in 1997 by Nima Taghavi. Its headquarters was in Newport Beach, California. It was acquired by Handleman Company in 2005 in a deal valued up to $95,000,000 but was then sold to Fillpoint LLC in early 2009 for only $8,100,000 due to Handleman's bankruptcy and pending liquidation. During its lifetime it published games for Dreamcast, Wii, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, GameCube, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox, and Xbox 360. Crave mainly focused on budget titles, and imported games such as Tokyo Xtreme Racer series.
Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark is an expansion pack for the role-playing video game Neverwinter Nights produced by BioWare and published by Atari. The follow-up to the Shadows of Undrentide expansion, Hordes of the Underdark adds a campaign, prestige classes, and other features. The Windows version also includes new scripting options for the Aurora toolkit.
Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer is a role-playing video game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Atari Interactive. It is an expansion pack for Neverwinter Nights 2. It was released in 2007 for Microsoft Windows in North America, Europe, and Australia. Like the first game, Mask of the Betrayer is set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of the fantasy tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons and employs the 3.5 edition rules.
Battle Realms: Winter of the Wolf is an expansion pack for the real-time strategy video game Battle Realms, developed by Liquid Entertainment and co-published by Ubisoft and Crave Entertainment. The game was announced on July 7, 2002, and released on November 5, 2002, in North America.
Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate is an expansion pack for the role-playing video game Neverwinter Nights 2. It was developed by Ossian Studios and published by Atari Interactive on April 29, 2009. The player creates a character and controls it, along with a group of three pre-designed companions, journeying through the game world. The gameplay is very similar to that of the base game. Mysteries of Westgate also includes new monsters, music, and other tools, which can be used by players to create their own Neverwinter Nights 2 levels.
Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir is an expansion pack for the role-playing video game Neverwinter Nights 2, developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Atari Interactive. It was released in late 2008 in North America, Europe, and Australia. Like previous entries in the Neverwinter Nights series, Storm of Zehir is based on the paper and pencil fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, and uses the game's 3.5 edition ruleset.
Get Medieval is a 1998 hack and slash dungeon crawl video game developed and published by Monolith Productions and Microïds for Microsoft Windows. The player controls one of four characters looking for the exit in a series of dungeons. The game is similar to that of the 1985 Atari Games arcade video game Gauntlet.
Neverwinter Nights is a series of video games developed by BioWare and Obsidian Entertainment, based on the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Aside from also being set around the city Neverwinter, it is unrelated to both the 1991 Neverwinter Nights online game and the 2013 online game called Neverwinter.
Neverwinter is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Cryptic Studios for Microsoft Windows in 2013, Xbox One in 2015, and PlayStation 4 in 2016. Based on the fictional Forgotten Realms city of Neverwinter from Dungeons & Dragons, Neverwinter is a standalone game and not part of the previous Neverwinter Nights series.
Edward Del Castillo is the Founder, Executive President, and Chief Creative Officer of Liquid Entertainment.
| International | |
|---|---|
| Other | |
