 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | |
| Founders | Steven Frank Cabel Sasser |
| Headquarters | Portland, Oregon, U.S. |
Key people | Steven Frank Cabel Sasser |
| Products | Transmit, Coda, Playdate |
| Website | panic |
Panic Inc. is an American software development and video game publishing company based in Portland, Oregon. The company specializes in macOS and iOS applications and began publishing video games in 2016.
Panic is known for their flagship app Transmit, [3] as well as their Audion media player, Unison usenet client, and Nova code editor (a successor to their web development app Coda). The company has won multiple Apple Design Awards for their products. [4] [5] [6]
In 1999, Audion was introduced as a skinnable MP3 media player. One of its competitors, SoundJam MP, was acquired by Apple in 2000 and was further developed into iTunes 1.0, which became available in 2001. [7] Panic retired Audion in 2004 and began distributing it free of charge. [8]
After Audion, Panic focused development on two other software applications. In 2004, they released Unison, a Usenet reader, [9] and Stattoo, a tool that shows "digital statistics" overlayed on the Mac OS X desktop wallpaper. [10] In 2007, the web development application Coda was introduced. [11] In 2019, Panic announced a successor to Coda named Nova. [12]
| App | Platform | Type | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active development | |||
| Transmit | macOS | FTP client | |
| Nova | macOS | Web development | |
| Prompt | iOS | Command line | |
| Panic Pals | iOS | iMessage stickers | |
| Playdate Sticker Pack | iOS | iMessage stickers | |
| Discontinued | |||
| “Code Editor” | iOS | Web development | |
| Audion | macOS | Music player | [8] |
| CandyBar | macOS | Icon customization | [13] |
| Coda | macOS | Web development | |
| Desktastic | macOS | Desktop annotation | |
| Stattoo | macOS | Computer statistics | |
| Status Board | iOS | Information display | [14] |
| Transmit | iOS | FTP client | [15] |
| Unison | macOS | Usenet client | [16] |
The company published their first video game, Firewatch , on February 9, 2016. [17] Panic published their second game, Untitled Goose Game , on September 20, 2019. [18]
On May 22, 2019, Panic unveiled Playdate, a handheld gaming device, designed by Panic in collaboration with the Swedish firm Teenage Engineering. The device features a 400x240 pixel 1-bit screen, a directional pad on the left, two buttons on the right, and a mechanical crank on the right edge of the device. [28]
Games will be released in "seasons", at a rate of two games per week for twelve weeks. [29] Games will automatically download to the device when available. While some video games for Playdate are being produced at Panic, most games are created by indie game developers such as Keita Takahashi, Zach Gage, Bennett Foddy, and Shaun Inman. [30]
| Year | App | Award | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Transmit 2 | Apple Design Awards | Best Mac OS X User Experience | Runner-up | |
| 2004 | Unison 1.0.2a | Apple Design Awards | Best Mac OS X Product | Runner-up | |
| 2004 | Unison 1.0.2a | Apple Design Awards | Best Mac OS X User Experience | Won | |
| 2005 | Transmit 3 | MacWorld | MacWorld Best of Show | Won | [31] |
| 2005 | Transmit 3.2 | Apple Design Awards | Best Mac OS X Tiger Technology Adoption | Won | [4] |
| 2007 | Coda 1 | Apple Design Awards | Best Mac OS X User Experience | Won | [5] |
| 2013 | Coda 2 | Apple Design Awards | Mac OS X | Won | [6] |
| 2021 | Nova | Apple Design Awards | Interaction | Nominated | [32] |
The BAFTA Games Awards or British Academy Games Awards are an annual British awards ceremony honouring "outstanding creative achievement" in the video game industry. First presented in 2004 following the restructuring of the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards, the awards are presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).
Shadowgate is a point-and-click adventure game developed by ICOM Simulations and published in 1987 for the Macintosh as part of the MacVenture series. The game takes place in the Castle Shadowgate, residence of the evil Warlock Lord. The player, as the "last of a great line of hero-kings", is tasked with saving the world by defeating the Warlock Lord, who is attempting to summon the demon Behemoth out of Hell. The original Macintosh version was only in black-and-white, but color versions of the game were later released for the Amiga and Atari ST, and in 1989 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was generally well-received, and was followed by several sequels and remakes for various systems.
Jeffrey L. Robbin is an executive and software engineer at Apple, Inc. He developed the SoundJam music player software, which was acquired by Apple in 2000. There, he created iTunes, and was "closely involved" with the iPod's development. In 2011, Bloomberg reported that he was leading development of an Apple television set, a device rumored in Steve Jobs's autobiography. As of 2018, he led the Apple Music product and engineering teams.
Aspyr Media, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher founded by Michael Rogers and Ted Staloch in Austin, Texas. Originally founded to port gaming titles to macOS, the company, since 2005, has become a publisher and developer of entertainment for multiple gaming platforms.
Keita Takahashi is a Japanese game developer and artist. He is best known for creating the Katamari game franchise and working as director and lead designer on Katamari Damacy as well as its sequel, We Love Katamari. The original game was a surprise hit and soon garnered a cult following. After leaving Namco, Takahashi co-founded the indie game studio Uvula in 2010 with his wife Asuka Sakai.
WayForward Technologies, Inc. is an American independent video game developer and publisher based in Valencia, California. Founded in March 1990 by technology entrepreneur Voldi Way, WayForward started by developing games for consoles such as the Super NES and Sega Genesis, as well as TV games and PC educational software. In 1997, they relaunched their video games arm, placing the company as a contractor for publishers and working on a variety of licensed assets.
Coda was a commercial and proprietary web development application for macOS, developed by Panic. It was first released on April 23, 2007 and won the 2007 Apple Design Award for Best User Experience. Coda version 2.0 was released on 24 May 2012, along with an iPad version called Diet Coda. Although formerly available on the Mac App Store, it was announced on May 14, 2014 that the update to Coda 2.5 would not be available in the Mac App Store due to sandboxing restrictions. Coda was discontinued in 2020 and replaced by Nova.
iOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple exclusively for its iPhone mobile devices. It was unveiled in January 2007 for the first-generation iPhone, which launched in June 2007. Major versions of iOS are released annually; the current stable version, iOS 18, was released to the public on September 16, 2024.
The iPhone 3GS, stylized as iPhone 3G🅂, is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the third generation of the iPhone and the successor to the iPhone 3G. It was unveiled on June 8, 2009 at the WWDC 2009, which took place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
Campo Santo Productions LLC is an American video game developer based in Bellevue, Washington. Founded in September 2013 by Sean Vanaman, Jake Rodkin, Nels Anderson, and Olly Moss, the studio is best known for its debut game released in 2016, Firewatch. The company was acquired by Valve in April 2018.
Chucklefish Limited is a British video game developer and publisher based in London. Founded in 2011 by Finn Brice, the company specialises in retro-styled games. Chucklefish is best known for developing Starbound and Wargroove, as well being the former publishers of Risk of Rain and Stardew Valley.
House House Pty Ltd is an independent video game developer based in Melbourne, Australia. They are known for their video games Push Me Pull You (2016) and Untitled Goose Game (2019). The indie studio comprises four people: Nico Disseldorp, Jake Strasser, Stuart Gillespie-Cook, and Michael McMaster.
In the video game industry during 2019, both Sony and Microsoft announced their intent to reveal their next-generation consoles in 2020, while Nintendo introduced a smaller Nintendo Switch Lite, and Google announced its streaming game platform Stadia. The controversy over loot boxes as a potential gambling route continued into 2019, with some governments like Belgium and the Netherlands banning games with them under their gambling laws, while the United Kingdom acknowledging their current laws prevent enforcing these as if they were games of chance. The first video cards to support real-time ray tracing were put onto the consumer market, including the first set of games that would take advantage of the new technology. The Epic Games Store continued its growth in challenging the largest digital PC game distribution service Steam, leading to concern and debate about Epic Games' methods to seek games for its service. Dota Auto Chess, a community-created mod for Dota 2, introduced a new subgenre of strategy games called auto battlers, which saw several games in the genre released throughout the year. Blizzard Entertainment faced criticism due to their involvement in the Blitzchung controversy, which began after they had banned a Hearthstone player for making comments during a tournament regarding the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests.
Untitled Goose Game is a 2019 indie puzzle stealth game developed by House House and published by Panic Inc. Players control a goose who bothers the inhabitants of an English village. Players must use the goose's abilities to manipulate objects and non-player characters to complete objectives. It was released on macOS, Nintendo Switch, and Windows on 20 September 2019, and PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 17 December 2019.
Apple Arcade is a video game subscription service offered by Apple. It is available through a dedicated tab of the App Store on devices running iOS 13, visionOS, tvOS 13, iPadOS 13, and macOS Catalina or later. The service launched on September 19, 2019.
Playdate is a handheld video game console developed by Panic. The device features a mechanical crank and a black-and-white screen.
Mighty Goose is a run and gun video game developed by Blastmode and published by Playism. It was released for Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S. The game follows Mighty Goose, a bounty hunter travelling across the galaxy to defeat the Void King.
Thank Goodness You're Here! is an adventure video game developed by Coal Supper and published by Panic. Players take the role of a travelling salesman who performs odd jobs for the residents of a bizarre town in Northern England. It is available for macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Windows. It was released on 1 August 2024. It received positive reviews from critics, with praise for its absurdist humour.
| Software | |
|---|---|
| Video games | |
| Hardware | |
