Celestial Games

Last updated
Celestial Games
Industry Video games
Founded1994 (1994)
FounderTravis Bulford
Nick McKenzie
Brian Johnson
Caleb Salsbury
Headquarters,
Products Toxic Bunny
The Tainted
Toxic Bunny HD
Website www.celestial-games.com

Celestial Games is an independent video game development company based in Johannesburg, South Africa that started in 1994. They published two PC titles then closed their doors in 2001. In 2010, they reopened the company to work on a HD version of their most successful title, Toxic Bunny .

Contents

1994–2001

Celestial Games decided to work on two games when they originally started, Toxic Bunny and Arni the Mental Armadillo. [1] They quickly realized that two projects were too ambitious and focused their team of four on their more popular idea, Toxic Bunny. The team worked on this project for a year and a half. Nick McKenzie and Travis Bulford worked on the development of the game, while Caleb Salsbury focused on the art. In 1996, a local game distributor Vision Software bought into the idea of Toxic Bunny and funded the last six months of development. When published, Toxic Bunny sold 7000 units in South Africa and a further 150,000 units internationally. [2]

After Toxic Bunny was published Celestial Games started working on a new title, The Tainted, a science fiction action role-playing video game. [3] The Tainted sold a few thousand units. Celestial tried to keep its doors open for another year, but due to financial issues, decided to close the company.

2007–2010

In 2007, Travis Bulford and Nick McKenzie decided to port Toxic Bunny to Java. Realising its potential it went from being a small part-time production to a full-time production. [4] As progress was made with the port, Bulford realized the opportunity available and started exploring new graphical avenues. It was at this point, in 2010, that Celestial officially opened its doors again with a new team of developers and artists production for Toxic Bunny was in full swing. [5]

2011–2013

The production for Toxic Bunny HD was, at this point, moving quickly but carefully. Redrawing all the sprites and drawing all the levels was the team's top priority. [6] The game was set for release in the first quarter of 2011, but due to the extent of changes made to the game, the release date was moved back to the 4th quarter of 2012. Toxic Bunny was eventually released in October 2012 at the rAge Gaming Expo [7] [8] and was distributed by Apex.

In 2013, Sony made their Sony Mobile development kit available to developers around the world, [9] which Celestial saw as the perfect opportunity to start porting Toxic Bunny to the PlayStation Vita.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sega Saturn</span> Home video game console

The Sega Saturn is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it was the successor to the successful Sega Genesis. The Saturn has a dual-CPU architecture and eight processors. Its games are in CD-ROM format, and its game library contains several ports of arcade games as well as original games.

A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with employee responsibilities split between individual disciplines, such as programmers, designers, artists, etc. Most game development companies have video game publisher financial and usually marketing support. Self-funded developers are known as independent or indie developers and usually make indie games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blender (software)</span> 3D computer graphics software

Blender is a free and open-source 3D computer graphics software tool set used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, 3D-printed models, motion graphics, interactive 3D applications, virtual reality, and, formerly, video games. Blender's features include 3D modelling, UV mapping, texturing, digital drawing, raster graphics editing, rigging and skinning, fluid and smoke simulation, particle simulation, soft body simulation, sculpting, animation, match moving, rendering, motion graphics, video editing, and compositing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Psygnosis</span> British video game company, 1984–2012

Psygnosis Limited was a British video game developer and publisher headquartered at Wavertree Technology Park in Liverpool. Founded in 1984 by Ian Hetherington, Jonathan Ellis, and David Lawson, the company initially became known for well-received games on the Atari ST and Amiga. In 1993, it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) and began developing games for the original PlayStation. It later became a part of SCE Worldwide Studios. The company was the oldest and second largest development house within SCE's European stable of developers, and became best known for franchises such as Lemmings, Wipeout, Formula One, and Colony Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capcom Five</span> Five Capcom video games for GameCube

The Capcom Five are five video games that were unveiled by Capcom in late 2002 and published from March 2003. At a time when Nintendo's GameCube console had failed to capture market share, Capcom announced five new GameCube titles with the apparent goal of boosting hardware sales and showing off third-party developer support. Capcom USA followed up with confirmation that they would be exclusive to the GameCube. The five games were P.N.03, a futuristic third-person shooter; Viewtiful Joe, a side-scrolling action-platformer; Dead Phoenix, a shoot 'em up; Resident Evil 4, a survival horror third-person shooter; and Killer7, an action-adventure game with first-person shooter elements. Though not directly related to each other, they were all overseen by Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami and, except Killer7, developed by Capcom's Production Studio 4. Capcom USA later clarified that only Resident Evil 4 was intended to be exclusive; the initial announcement was due to a miscommunication with their parent company.

<i>Kings Field</i> (video game) 1994 video game

King's Field is a 1994 action role-playing game by FromSoftware for the PlayStation. Their debut video game project after developing business software for eight years, it was the first game in the King's Field series and has players navigating a vast underground labyrinth to discover the source of an invasion of monsters. Attacking and using spells are tied to a stamina meter, which is depleted with each action and must refill before the player can act again.

Toxic Bunny is a side-scrolling action platform game for DOS computers released in 1996 by Celestial Games. The premise of the game is that a bunny named Toxic, a coffee guzzling, gun slinging maniac who is having a really bad day. The game covers four large levels in which Toxic hunts the person responsible for interrupting his coffee break, brainwashing all his friends, and covering the planet with a decaffeinated goo. Within the game you can use any number of incredibly large weapons including a Nitric Hamster Launcher, while squashing aliens with rusty nautical equipment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PlayStation 3 technical specifications</span> Overview of the PlayStation 3 technical specifications

The PlayStation 3 technical specifications describe the various components of the PlayStation 3 (PS3) video game console.

<i>Torchlight</i> 2009 video game

Torchlight is an action role-playing hack and slash dungeon crawler video game developed by Runic Games and published by Perfect World, released for Windows in October 2009. The fantasy-themed game is set in the fictional town of Torchlight and the expansive caverns and dungeons nearby, which adventurers explore to collect valuable loot and battle hordes of monsters. Following the October 2009 digital distribution release, a Windows retail box version was released in the U.S. in January 2010 by Encore, Inc, and JoWooD Entertainment published a retail box in Europe in April 2010. A port for OS X was developed by World Domination Industries and released through Steam on May 12, 2010. Runic Games and World Domination Industries developed a port for Xbox Live Arcade which was released on March 9, 2011. A Linux port was released as part of the game's inclusion in the Humble Indie Bundle 6.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">High Voltage Software</span> American video game development company

High Voltage Software, Inc. (HVS) is an American video game developer based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Founded in April 1993 by Kerry J. Ganofsky, the company is best known for developing Lego Racers (1999), Hunter: The Reckoning (2002) and The Conduit (2009).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Runic Games</span> Defunct video game studio

Runic Games was a Seattle-based American computer game company formed by Travis Baldree, Max Schaefer and Erich Schaefer, Peter Hu, and the Flagship Studios Seattle team responsible for Mythos. It was a subsidiary of Perfect World. In 2009, the company released Torchlight, a single-player action role-playing game. They released a sequel, Torchlight II, in 2012. It was at this time the developers revealed they were no longer pursuing plans to create an MMO in the Torchlight universe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Video games in Japan</span> Overview of video games in Japan

Video games are a major industry in Japan. Japanese game development is often identified with the golden age of video games, including Nintendo under Shigeru Miyamoto and Hiroshi Yamauchi, Sega during the same time period, Sony Computer Entertainment when it was based in Tokyo, and other companies such as Taito, Bandai Namco Entertainment, Capcom, Square Enix, Konami, NEC, and SNK, among others.

<i>Pier Solar and the Great Architects</i> 2010 video game

Pier Solar and the Great Architects is a homebrew role-playing video game developed and published by WaterMelon for the Sega Mega Drive. The game was released worldwide on December 20, 2010. The game optionally utilizes the Mega CD expansion device to enhance its audio capabilities.

<i>Resident Evil</i> (2002 video game) 2002 video game

Resident Evil is a survival horror video game developed by Capcom Production Studio 4 and published by Capcom. Released for the GameCube video game console in 2002, it is a remake of the 1996 PlayStation game Resident Evil, the first installment in the Resident Evil video game series. The story takes place in 1998 near the fictional Midwestern town of Raccoon City where a series of bizarre murders have taken place. The player takes on the role of either Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine, S.T.A.R.S. agents sent in by the city to investigate the murders.

<i>Oddworld: New n Tasty!</i> 2014 video game

Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty! is a 2014 cinematic platform video game developed by Just Add Water and published by Oddworld Inhabitants as a "ground-up remake" of Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. The game was released in North America on 22 July 2014 and in Europe on 23 July 2014 for the PlayStation 4. The title was also released for Linux, Microsoft Windows, OS X, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and Wii U. It has been ported on iOS and Android and released worldwide on 14 December 2017. A Nintendo Switch version was released on 27 October 2020.

<i>Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines</i> 2014 video game

Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines is a 2014 Japanese role playing game developed by Alfa System and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation Vita. Oreshika is the sequel to the 1999 PlayStation game Ore no Shikabane o Koete Yuke, which received a remake in 2011 for the PlayStation Portable.

<i>Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster</i> Remastered video game

Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster is a high-definition remaster of the role-playing video games Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2, originally developed by Square on the PlayStation 2 in the early 2000s. It also features story content previously only found in the International versions, and a new audio drama set a year after the events of X-2. The collection saw graphical and musical revisions and is based on the international versions of both games, making certain content accessible to players outside of Japan for the first time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stereoscopic video game</span>

A stereoscopic video game is a video game which uses stereoscopic technologies to create depth perception for the player by any form of stereo display. Such games should not to be confused with video games that use 3D game graphics on a mono screen, which give the illusion of depth only by monocular cues but not by binocular depth information.

Luminous Engine, originally called Luminous Studio, is a multi-platform game engine developed and used internally by Square Enix and later on by Luminous Productions. The engine was developed for and targeted at eighth-generation hardware and DirectX 11-compatible platforms, such as Xbox One, the PlayStation 4, and versions of Microsoft Windows. It was conceived during the development of Final Fantasy XIII-2 to be compatible with next generation consoles that their existing platform, Crystal Tools, could not handle.

<i>Final Fantasy Type-0 HD</i> 2015 video game

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD is an action role-playing game developed by Square Enix and HexaDrive, and published by Square Enix for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and later for Windows via Steam. It was released worldwide in March 2015, while the Steam port was released in August. Type-0 HD is a high-definition remaster of the Japan-exclusive PlayStation Portable game Final Fantasy Type-0, a spin-off from the main Final Fantasy series and part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis subseries, a set of games sharing a common mythos. The story focuses on Class Zero, a group of fourteen students from the Dominion of Rubrum who must fight the neighboring Militesi Empire when they launch an assault on the other Crystal States of Orience. In doing so, the group become entangled in both the efforts to push back and defeat the forces of Militesi, and the secret behind the war and the existence of the crystals.

References

  1. "Celestial - About". Archived from the original on 2013-09-06. Retrieved 2013-05-20.
  2. "Celestial - 1996 - 1997". Archived from the original on 2014-07-20. Retrieved 2013-05-20.
  3. "Celestial - 1997 - 2001". Archived from the original on 2014-07-20. Retrieved 2013-05-20.
  4. "Celestial - 2007 - 2010". Archived from the original on 2014-07-15. Retrieved 2013-05-20.
  5. "Interview with Travis Bulford of Celestial Games | Through the Dirty Window". Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2013-05-20.
  6. "Celestial - 2011 - 2012". Archived from the original on 2014-07-15. Retrieved 2013-05-20.
  7. "Home". rageexpo.co.za.
  8. "SA-born Toxic Bunny gets an HD re-launch" . Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  9. "Need help finding something? – Developer World". developer.sonymobile.com. Retrieved 2017-08-31.