Ritual Entertainment was an American video game developer established in 1996 by Robert Atkins, Mark Dochtermann, Jim Dosé, Richard 'Levelord' Gray, Michael Hadwin, Harry Miller, and Tom Mustaine. Based in Dallas, Texas, Ritual Entertainment was formerly known as Hipnotic Interactive, during which period they began development of their signature video game SiN.
Myth is a series of real-time tactics video games for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. There are three main games in the series: Myth: The Fallen Lords (1997), Myth II: Soulblighter (1998), and Myth III: The Wolf Age (2001). The Fallen Lords was developed by Bungie, and published by Bungie in North America and Eidos Interactive in Europe. Soulblighter was also developed by Bungie, and was published by Bungie in North America and GT Interactive in Europe. The Wolf Age was developed by MumboJumbo, and co-published by Take-Two Interactive and Gathering of Developers for Windows and by Take-Two and MacSoft for Mac.
Baldur's Gate is a series of role-playing video games set in the Forgotten Realms Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. The series has been divided into two sub-series, known as the Bhaalspawn Saga and the Dark Alliance, both taking place mostly within the Western Heartlands, but the Bhaalspawn Saga extends to Amn and Tethyr. The Dark Alliance series was released for consoles and was critically and commercially successful. The Bhaalspawn Saga was critically acclaimed for using pausable realtime gameplay, which is credited with revitalizing the computer role-playing game (CRPG) genre.
Bejeweled is a tile-matching puzzle video game by PopCap Games, developed initially for browsers in 2001. The first game developed by PopCap under their current name, Bejeweled involves lining up three or more multi-colored gems to clear them from the game board, with chain reactions potentially following.
Black Isle Studios is a division of the developer and publisher Interplay Entertainment that develops role-playing video games. It has published several games from other developers.
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn is a role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Interplay Entertainment. It is the sequel to 1998's Baldur's Gate and was released for Microsoft Windows in September 2000. Following its predecessor, the game takes place in the Forgotten Realms, a fantasy campaign setting, and is based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition rules. Powered by BioWare's Infinity Engine, Baldur's Gate II uses an isometric perspective and pausable real-time gameplay. The player controls a party of up to six characters, one of whom is the player-created protagonist; the others are certain characters recruited from the game world.
Insaniquarium is a 2001 virtual pets simulator video game, developed by Flying Bear Entertainment and published by PopCap Games and MumboJumbo. Before PopCap Games's involvement, the game was a web-based Java game released in 2001. The game was made downloadable by PopCap Games in 2004 and was ported to mobile devices in 2006 and 2008 by Glu Mobile and Astraware respectively. Insaniquarium has the player maintain a tank full of fish while protecting it from alien attacks.
PopCap Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Seattle, and a subsidiary of Electronic Arts. The company was founded in 2000 by John Vechey, Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka.
SiN Episodes: Emergence is a 2006 first-person shooter developed and published by Ritual Entertainment. It is the first game in a planned series of episodic games for Windows that would have expanded upon the 1998 computer game SiN. A total of nine episodes were planned with only the first one released. It is powered by the Source game engine, the first episode "Emergence" was the first computer game by a major developer to both be produced episodically and delivered over the Internet without the intervention of a publisher. This was accomplished through Valve's Steam content delivery system.
MacPlay is the name used by a series of three American publishers of Macintosh video games.
Myth III: The Wolf Age is a 2001 real-time tactics video game developed by MumboJumbo and co-published by Take-Two Interactive and Gathering of Developers for Windows and by Take-Two and MacSoft for Mac OS. The Wolf Age is the third game in the Myth series, following 1997's Myth: The Fallen Lords and 1998's Myth II: Soulblighter, both of which were developed by Bungie. In 1999, Take-Two purchased 19.9% of Bungie's shares, but when Microsoft bought Bungie outright in 2000, the rights for Oni and the Myth series were transferred to Take-Two, who hired the startup company MumboJumbo to develop Myth III.
A casual game is a video game targeted at a mass market audience, as opposed to a hardcore game, which is targeted at hobbyist gamers. Casual games may exhibit any type of gameplay and genre. They generally involve simpler rules, shorter sessions, and require less learned skill. They do not expect familiarity with a standard set of mechanics, controls, and tropes.
Luxor is a game and series of tile-matching action puzzle video games, developed and published by MumboJumbo, with the initial release in 2005. The first sequel to this game was Luxor: Amun Rising, which was released in 2005 followed by Luxor 2, which was released in 2006 and included new gameplay, levels and bonus. After that came Luxor 3, which featured seven gameplay modes and improved graphics. It was followed by Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife.
Bejeweled Twist is a tile-matching puzzle video game developed and published by PopCap Games. It is the third game overall and first spin-off game in the Bejeweled series, as well as being the first PopCap title to be released in high definition and feature widescreen support.
Bejeweled Blitz is a puzzle video game, originally a Facebook application which was developed and published by PopCap Games; since 2011 Electronic Arts took over the publishing and distribution duty after EA acquired PopCap. It developed into a downloadable game, based on the then-in-development Bejeweled 3 engine, due to popularity of the differences from Bejeweled 2 and its new graphics. As with the Bejeweled series, Bejeweled Blitz is based on the Shariki game mechanic. It is the fourth game of the Bejeweled franchise and initially was available on iOS as part of the Bejeweled 2 iOS application, later on with the standalone iOS application. The game was then released on Android devices.
Bejeweled 3 is a tile-matching puzzle video game developed and published by PopCap Games. It is the fifth game in the Bejeweled series following Bejeweled Blitz and succeeds Bejeweled 2 as the latest mainline title in the Bejeweled series. It was released for PC and Mac on December 7, 2010, as part of the 10 Years of Bejeweled celebration, which celebrated the 10th anniversary of Bejeweled, and has been ported to several other consoles afterward.
Bejeweled is a series of tile-matching puzzle video games created by PopCap Games. Bejeweled was released initially for browsers in 2001, followed by seven sequels: Bejeweled 2 (2004), Bejeweled Twist (2008), Bejeweled Blitz (2009), Bejeweled 3 (2010), Bejeweled LegendBejeweled Stars (2016), and Bejeweled Champions (2020) all by PopCap Games and its parent, Electronic Arts. More than 10 million copies of Bejeweled have been sold, and the game has been downloaded more than 350 million times. By February 2010, Bejeweled sales hit 50 million. The figure includes the original game, plus the Blitz and Twist versions. An arcade version was released in Q3 2013.
Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition is a remaster of the 1998 role-playing video game Baldur's Gate, developed by Overhaul Games, a division of Beamdog, and published by Atari. It was released for Microsoft Windows on November 28, 2012, with additional releases between 2012 and 2014 for iPad, OS X, Android and Linux and most recently for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch on October 15, 2019. The remaster combines the original game, Baldur's Gate, with its expansion Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast, retaining the original elements from both, while including additions, a separate arena adventure entitled The Black Pits, and a number of improvements some of which were imported from Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn.
Baldur's Gate 3 is a 2023 role-playing video game developed and published by Belgian game developer Larian Studios. The game is the third main installment in the Baldur's Gate series, based on the tabletop fantasy role-playing system of Dungeons & Dragons. A partial version of the game was released in early access format for macOS and Windows in October 2020. It remained in early access until its full release for Windows in August 2023, with versions for PlayStation 5, macOS, and Xbox Series X/S releasing later that year.
George Fan is an American video game designer who currently works as the creative director of All Yes Good. He designed Insaniquarium (2001), Plants vs. Zombies, Octogeddon (2018), and Hardhat Wombat (2023). Before going into game design, Fan graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2000 with a degree in computer science. After graduating, he worked under Arcade Planet to develop games for their website, Prizegames.com. He eventually formed Flying Bear Entertainment and created Insaniquarium, which became a finalist for the 2002 Independent Games Festival. He then joined Blizzard Entertainment and worked there while simultaneously developing Insaniquarium further for PopCap Games, releasing the "Deluxe" edition in 2004.
