 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(April 2020) |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | August 1994 |
| Founder | Patrick Buckland Neil Barnden |
| Headquarters | , |
| Products | Carmageddon Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers Risk: Factions |
Number of employees | 50 |
| Website | stainlessgames.com |
Stainless Games is an independent British video game developer based in Newport, Isle of Wight, that is best known for the creation of the Carmageddon franchise.
Originally named Stainless Software, the company was founded in August 1994 by lead programmer Patrick Buckland and design director Neil Barnden. It was originally located in "The Cottage" on the Isle of Wight. [1]
Buckland was the lead programmer on Carmageddon and Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now and Barnden was the lead artist on both. Before Stainless Games, Buckland was a freelance programmer and Barnden was a senior designer at Conran and The Body Shop.
Starting with sub-contracted 3D engine work for Argonaut Games, and developing medical multimedia titles for the Times-Mirror Company, the company went on to develop what later became Carmageddon for SCi. This was launched amidst much controversy over its violent content in 1997 but received high review scores thanks to its compelling gameplay and many ground-breaking features (including a fully featured physics engine - a world-first for video games). Stainless released a sequel, Carmageddon II in 1998. Subsequent versions of the franchise ( Carmageddon TDR 2000 ) were contracted by SCi to other developers and Stainless Games had no involvement. [2]
In 2006, Stainless was sub-contracted by Blitz Games to develop one of their three Burger King games, PocketBike Racer . The company has subsequently developed in the console download field, with eleven titles released or soon to be[ when? ] released on XBLA, plus two titles on PSN (PS3). These include a range of Atari classic titles which have both the original version running under an emulator, and a completely re-written evolved version. These were also released on PSP as a single product in December 2007. Electronic Arts released the Stainless developed PSP and DS title Scrabble in early 2009. For licensing reasons, this was available for the North American market only.
The company released Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers in June 2009 on XBLA. Developed over nearly two years in conjunction with Wizards of the Coast, the title broke sales records on Xbox Live Arcade (171,000 in the first month) and was well received by both critics and players. In April 2011, it was announced by Wizards of the Coast that Stainless Games was working on the new updated client version of Magic: The Gathering Online (commonly known as MTGO or MODO). [3]
Stainless has also licensed Buckland's 1980s Mac classic Crystal Quest and has produced versions for XBLA and Windows Vista.
On 1 June 2011, Stainless announced that it had retrieved the rights to the Carmageddon brand, and that a new and completely independent game was in development, named Carmageddon: Reincarnation . [4] On 8 May 2012, Stainless announced a Kickstarter project aimed at funding Carmageddon: Reincarnation into a new game, with an initial requirement of $400,000 which was successfully completed on 7 June 2012 at $625,143. [5] Also in 2011 and 2012, ports of the first game in the franchise were released for the iOS and Android platforms. It was titled Carmageddon: Funsize and initially had a positive reception; however, the game eventually became free-to-play, and introduced ads along with bugs.
After releasing an updated version of Reincarnation titled Carmageddon: Max Damage and the smaller mobile game Carmageddon: Crashers, Stainless would sell the franchise IP to THQ Nordic. The company would then start to focus on its new venture titled ShockRods, a car combat game with arena shooting elements.
Magic: The Gathering is a tabletop and digital collectable card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast, Magic was the first trading card game and had approximately thirty-five million players as of December 2018, and over twenty billion Magic cards were produced in the period from 2008 to 2016, during which time it grew in popularity.
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Carmageddon is a vehicular combat video game released for personal computers in 1997. It was produced by Stainless Games and published by Interplay Productions and Sales Curve Interactive. It was ported to other platforms, and spawned a series.
Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now is a vehicular combat video game, the sequel to Carmageddon, and released in 1998 for Microsoft Windows. The game was developed by Stainless Games and published by Sales Curve Interactive in Europe and Interplay Entertainment in North America. Ports for Mac OS, PlayStation and Nintendo 64 were released in 1999. A 2D version for the Game Boy Color was released in Europe in 1999, and in North America in 2000.
Several video games based on the Magic: The Gathering franchise exist for multiple systems. Some have attempted to translate the card game to electronic play nearly exactly; others have taken more liberties and drawn more from the setting than the actual rules of the card game. Benefits of successful video game versions of the card game include convenience, practice, and challenge. However, artificial intelligence for a game such as Magic is an extremely hard problem, and such software usually must be continuously updated to stay current with recently released card sets. Video game versions often expand on artwork, and may include unique cards that rely on randomness, effects which would be difficult or annoying to duplicate in real life.
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Carmageddon TDR 2000, is a vehicular combat video game. The sequel to Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now, it was developed by Torus Games and released in the United Kingdom on September 8, 2000, and on December 14 in North America.
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Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers is a video game based on the popular collectible card game of the same name, published by Wizards of the Coast. It was released on June 17, 2009.
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Magic: The Gathering – Tactics was an online turn-based strategy game developed by Sony Online Entertainment, and based on the Magic: The Gathering trading card game series. First announced on November 2, 2009. The game was released January 18, 2011, for the PC, February 3, 2012, on Steam,. It is presumed that a previously announced PlayStation 3 version of the game was canceled due to the game being shut down on March 28, 2014.
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Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 is a video game based on the popular collectible card game of the same name, published by Wizards of the Coast. It was released on June 15, 2011. The game is a follow up to the highly popular Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers, which was released in 2009. An expansion for the game, called Ascend into Darkness, was released on September 14, 2011. The sequel, Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013, was released in 2012.
Carmageddon: Reincarnation is a vehicular combat game, the fourth in the Carmageddon series. The game was developed by Stainless Games.
Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 is a video game based on the popular collectible card game of the same name, first published by Wizards of the Coast in 1993. The game was released on June 20, 2012, via Steam, Xbox Live Arcade, the PlayStation Network, and iPad, and is the third game in the Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers series. The gameplay follows that of the original card game, however within a more restrained framework. It received mainly positive reviews and was number one in the PlayStation Network sales for June. The sequel, Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014, was released in 2013.
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Patrick Buckland is a British video game programmer, designer and chief executive officer of Stainless Games, which he co-founded with Neil Barnden in 1994.
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