Thunder Lotus Games

Last updated
Thunder Lotus Games
Industry Video games
Founded2014
Headquarters,
Key people
Will Dubé
Products Jotun
Sundered
Spiritfarer
Number of employees
34
Website thunderlotusgames.com

Thunder Lotus Games is an independent video game development studio based in Montreal, Canada. Founded in 2014, the company is most known for developing Jotun (2015), Sundered (2017) and Spiritfarer (2020).

Contents

History

The studio was founded in 2014 after founder Will Dubé quit his original job at a mobile video game studio to launch his own project, Jotun on Kickstarter for funding. [1] He originally wanted to name the studio "Lotus Games", though he ultimately avoided this name due to confusion with another company named Lotus Entertainment. [2] The game had a successful crowdfunding campaign which raised over $64,000, surpassing Dubé expectations. The game became a financial success after its launch in 2015, attracting more than 1 million players. [3] The success of the first game allowed the company to start development on their next game, Sundered , a Metroidvania game inspired by Rogue Legacy and Super Metroid . It reached its crowdfunding target a day after its Kickstarter campaign was launched. [4]

Following the release of Sundered, the company signed with investment fund Kowloon Nights for the release of their next game, Spiritfarer . It was a commercial success, selling more than 1 million copies. [5] The company currently has 16 employees. 14 of them are full-time developers, while the remaining two are responsible for publishing the games. [3]

Games

YearTitlePlatform(s)Genre(s)
2015 Jotun PC, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Stadia Action-adventure, puzzle
2017 Sundered PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Stadia Roguelike, Metroidvania
2020 Spiritfarer PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Stadia Management simulation
2024 33 Immortals PC, Xbox Series X/S Action, roguelike

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Fargo</span> American video game designer

Frank Brian Fargo is an American video game designer, producer, programmer and executive, and founder of Interplay Entertainment, inXile Entertainment and Robot Cache.

Obsidian Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Irvine, California. It was founded in June 2003, shortly before the closure of Black Isle Studios, by ex-Black Isle employees Feargus Urquhart, Chris Avellone, Chris Parker, Darren Monahan, and Chris Jones.

inXile Entertainment American video game developer

inXile Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Tustin, California. Specializing in role-playing video games, inXile was founded in 2002 by Interplay co-founder Brian Fargo. The studio produced the fantasy games The Bard's Tale and Hunted: The Demon's Forge, along with various games for Flash and iOS such as Fantastic Contraption in its first decade of development. In 2014, inXile released the post-apocalyptic game Wasteland 2, following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Following the game's critical success, the studio went on to raise a then-record US$4 million on Kickstarter to develop Torment: Tides of Numenera, a spiritual successor to Interplay's Planescape: Torment. The studio was purchased by Microsoft and became part of Xbox Game Studios in 2018, just as they were developing Wasteland 3, which they released in 2020. The studio is currently developing Clockwork Revolution for Windows and Xbox Series X/S.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kickstarter</span> US-based crowdfunding platform

Kickstarter, PBC is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of February 2023, Kickstarter has received US$7 billion in pledges from 21.7 million backers to fund 233,626 projects, such as films, music, stage shows, comics, journalism, video games, board games, technology, publishing, and food-related projects.

<i>Castle Story</i> 2017 RTS videogame

Castle Story is a sandbox and real-time strategy game developed by Sauropod Studio. Funded through crowdfunding website Kickstarter in 2012, the game launched in September 2013 in early access, and was fully released in August 2017.

<i>Broken Age</i> 2015 video game

Broken Age is a point-and-click adventure video game developed and published by Double Fine. Broken Age was game director Tim Schafer's first return to the genre since 1998's Grim Fandango, and was released for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox One platforms. The game was developed in two acts; the first was released on January 28, 2014, and the second was released on April 28, 2015. A retail version of the complete game for Windows, macOS, and Linux, published by Nordic Games, was released on April 28, 2015. A Nintendo Switch version was released on September 13, 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ouya</span> Android-based microconsole by Ouya Inc.

The Ouya, stylized as OUYA, is an Android-based microconsole developed by Ouya Inc. Julie Uhrman founded the project in 2012, bringing in designer Yves Béhar to collaborate on its design and Muffi Ghadiali as VP of Product Management to put together the engineering team. Development was funded via Kickstarter, raising US$8.5 million, becoming one of the website's highest earning projects in its history.

Video game development has typically been funded by large publishing companies or are alternatively paid for mostly by the developers themselves as independent titles. Other funding may come from government incentives or from private funding.

Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alpha, alpha, and/or beta, while the developer is able to use those funds to continue further development on the game. Those that pay to participate typically help to debug the game, provide feedback and suggestions, may have access to special materials in the game. The early-access approach is a common way to obtain funding for indie games, and may also be used along with other funding mechanisms, including crowdfunding. Many crowdfunding projects promise to offer access to alpha and/or beta versions of the game as development progresses; however, unlike some of these projects which solicit funds but do not yet have a playable game, all early access games offer an immediately playable version of the unfinished game to players.

<i>Jotun</i> (video game) 2015 video game

Jøtun is an action-adventure video game developed by Canadian studio Thunder Lotus Games. It was released for Windows, macOS, and Linux on September 29, 2015. The Wii U version was released on September 8, 2016, while the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions were released on September 9, 2016. The Nintendo Switch version was released on April 27, 2018. The Stadia version was released on May 26, 2020.

<i>Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night</i> 2019 video game

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a 2019 action role-playing game developed by Japanese indie studio ArtPlay and published by 505 Games. The game's development was led by former Castlevania series producer Koji Igarashi and is considered a spiritual successor to the series. The game was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, in June 2019, for Amazon Luna in October 2020, for Android and iOS in December 2020, and for Stadia in July 2021.

tinyBuild American video game publisher

tinyBuild Inc. is an American publisher of indie games based in Bellevue, Washington. The company was established by Alex Nichiporchik and Tom Brien in 2011 to expand Brien's game No Time to Explain into a commercial release. Building from the success of the game's Steam release in 2013, tinyBuild partnered with DoubleDutch Games for the development and release of SpeedRunners, which landed tinyBuild further publishing deals. Since March 2020, the company has been founding or acquiring new studios to expand. It became a public company on the Alternative Investment Market in March 2021.

Good Shepherd Entertainment is a Dutch video game publisher based in Amsterdam. The company was founded in 2011 and opened its equity crowdfunding platform in September 2012. Gambitious' publishing label was opened in 2014, offering publishing services. In August 2017, Gambitious Digital Entertainment was rebranded Good Shepherd Entertainment whereas they ceased their crowdfunding activities and fully transitioned into being a publisher. Having been a consultant to the company prior, Brian Grigsby now became the CEO of the company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fig (company)</span> Crowdfunding platform for video games

Fig was a crowdfunding platform for video games. It launched in August 2015. Unlike traditional crowdfunding approaches like Kickstarter, where individuals can back a project to receive rewards, Fig used a mixed model that includes individual backing and the opportunity for uncredited investors to invest as to obtain a share of future revenues for successful projects. At the end of 2017, four projects had begun generating returns, returning 245% to Fig investors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harebrained Schemes</span> American video game developer

Harebrained Schemes, LLC is an American video game developer based in Seattle, Washington. It was co-founded in 2011 by Jordan Weisman and Mitch Gitelman. Prior to founding Harebrained Schemes, Weisman and Gitelman worked together on the MechCommander and Crimson Skies franchises at FASA, another company founded by Weisman. As of mid-2015, the studio had under 60 employees. The studio was acquired by Paradox Interactive in June 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piko Interactive</span> American video game company

Piko Interactive LLC is an American video game publisher based in San Antonio, Texas. Founded in early 2013 by Eli Galindo, the company focuses on physical re-releases of games from older video game consoles and digitally released ports to newer systems.

Snapshot Games is a Bulgarian video game developer headquartered in Sofia. Snapshot Games was founded in 2013 by Julian Gollop and David Kaye. Gollop is recognized for creating the X-COM video game franchise in the 1990s with X-COM: UFO Defense and X-COM: Apocalypse. Gollop also is the CEO of Snapshot Games. In addition to Gollop, the company includes about eight developers who are industry veterans with years of previous experience working for Ubisoft Sofia, Crytek Black Sea, and other Bulgaria studios.

Radiant Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Los Altos, California. Founded by twin brothers Tom and Tony Cannon in 2011, the company has developed Stonehearth, a city-building game, which was released in July 2018 after three years in early access. Radiant was acquired by Riot Games in March 2016 and Radiant's second game, Rising Thunder, was canceled during its alpha phase. The game was later replaced by a freeware "community edition" in January 2018.

<i>Spiritfarer</i> 2020 video game

Spiritfarer is an indie management sim and sandbox action game developed and published by Canadian studio Thunder Lotus Games and released for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Android and Stadia in August 2020. The main character, Stella, becomes a "Spiritfarer" whose job is to ferry spirits of the deceased to the afterlife.

Intrepid Izzy, is a independently developed, commercially released video game developed by Dutch studio Senile Team and published by Wave Game Studios. It is a Metroidvania style 2D platformer for the Sega Dreamcast and Windows.

References

  1. Billcliffe, James (June 22, 2015). "Meet the Developer Behind Hand-Drawn Viking Adventure Jotun, Thunder Lotus Games". The Escapist . Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  2. Delvillano, Ron (September 7, 2016). "Interview: Will Dubé on Mythology, Art and Big Bosses in Jotun: Valhalla Edition". Nintendo Life. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  3. 1 2 Valentine, Rebekah (July 11, 2019). "Spiritfarer wants to talk to you about death". Gameindustry.biz . Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  4. Chalk, Andy (January 18, 2017). "Sundered, the eldritch horror Metroidvania, blows away its Kickstarter goal in six hours". PC Gamer . Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  5. Robinson, Martin (September 27, 2019). "On love, death, sustaining an indie studio and following Keanu Reeves onstage". Eurogamer . Retrieved January 29, 2021.