Funatics
| Funatics Software GmbH
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1998 |
| Seat | Schermbeck |
| management | Thomas Friedmann, Thorsten Kneisel, Thomas Häuser |
| Website | www.funatics.de |
The Funatics Software GmbH is a German developer of computer games based in Schermbeck , North Rhine-Westphalia .
history
The studio was founded in 1998 as Funatics Development by the former Blue Byte employees Thomas Friedmann, Thorsten Kneisel (née Knop) and Thomas Häuser , who were partly involved in many projects at Blue Byte, especially Die Siedler II: Veni, Vidi, Vici . The company's headquarters at that time was Mülheim an der Ruhr , where the Blue Byte headquarters were also located.
Funatics' first project Catan - The First Island was the PC implementation of the popular board game The Settlers of Catan , which received good reviews mainly due to its detailed graphics and convincing animations of the characters. At the same time, Die Erste Insel laid the foundation for further implementations of the Catan universe on the PC by, for example, Catan - Das Kartenspiel ( USM ) and Star Ship Catan (rockazonga / Take 2 ), some of which use the character animations of the Funatics title.
The second project, Cultures - The Discovery of Vinland, is a real-time / building strategy title in which Funatics used their experience from The Settlers II . Unlike Die Siedler III and its successors, Cultures offers more in-depth micromanagement. In the Cultures series , an add-on for the first part as well as three sequels and two compilations were also released.
Due to the success that Funatics achieved with Die Erste Insel and Cultures , the studio grew, which is why a second team was able to take care of the action adventure Zanzarah , while the team around the founders worked on the successor to Cultures .
After the release of Cultures , 75 percent of the studio became the property of Phenomedia AG , whose bankruptcy in 2002 also affected Funatics Development. After the bankruptcy, the founding trio founded the successor company Funatics Software with some of the former employees in order to be able to continue the projects.
Since 2004 the studio has also appeared in supporting activities for other studios ( freelancing ). For example, Funatics was hired to support the game development company in completing the ParaWorld project .
The Joshua - The Seals of Darkness project was announced in May 2003. However, the release date is unclear.
Since 2007 Funatics has also been developing games for the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable handheld consoles . The first title, Tom Clancy's EndWar , was released in early November 2008. In contrast to the versions for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PCs, which belong to the real-time strategy genre, the handheld versions are turn-based strategy à la battle Isle , in whose development the Funatics founders were also partly involved.
In March 2016 it was announced that Funatics would be closed and the three founders would move to InnoGames .
However, in 2018 the studio received funding from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in the amount of 100,000 euros to develop a free-to-play mobile game in a pirate setting under the title Kaboom . According to the company website, Funatics has been in a restart phase since the beginning of 2018 in which they want to implement new projects with a small team.
Projects
| Funatics Development: | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| year | Surname | platform | Publisher |
| 1999 | Catan - The first island | Windows , PlayStation | Ravensburger Interactive |
| 2000 | Cultures - The discovery of Vinland | Windows | THQ |
| 2001 | Cultures - Revenge of the Rain God ( Add-on ) | Windows | THQ |
| 2002 | Zanzarah - The hidden portal | Windows | THQ |
| 2002 | Cultures 2 - The gates of Asgard | Windows | JoWooD |
| Funatics software: | |||
| year | Surname | Platform (s) | Publisher |
| 2002 | Stories from the World of Cultures: Journey to Nordland |
Windows Linux 1 Mac OS X 1 |
Self-distribution |
| 2003 | Stories from the Cultures World: The Eighth Wonder of the World | Windows Mac OS X 1 |
Self-distribution |
| 2003 | Cultures - The Adventure Box | Windows | Self-distribution |
| 2003 | Cultures - The Saga | Windows | Self-distribution |
| 2006 | The Settlers 2: The Next Generation | Windows | Ubisoft |
| 2007 | The Settlers 2: The Next Generation - Vikings (Add-on) | Windows | Ubisoft |
| 2008 | The settlers: the emergence of cultures | Windows | Ubisoft |
| 2008 | Tom Clancy's EndWar | Nintendo DS , PlayStation Portable | Ubisoft |
| 2010 | Cultures Online | Browser game (Flash) | gamigo |
| 2011 | UFO online | Browser game (Flash / Unity) | gamigo |
| 2015 | Valhalla Hills | Windows | Daedalic Entertainment |
| Freelancing : | |||
| year | Surname | platform | Freelancing for / publishers |
| 2004 | The Settlers: The Legacy of Kings | Windows | Blue Byte / Ubisoft |
| 2006 | ParaWorld | Windows | Game Development Combine / Sunflowers , Deep Silver |
Web links
- Official website
- Funatics at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bernd Schmidt: Funatics founders switch to InnoGames. In: spiel.de. March 15, 2016, accessed August 25, 2019 .
- ↑ Thomas Friedmann: Statement on the hearing of the Committee on Culture and the Media on February 7, 2019. (PDF) In: landtag.nrw.de. January 30, 2019, accessed August 25, 2019 .
- ↑ Games funding NRW: 305,000 euros for the development of five prototypes. In: Film- und Medienstiftung NRW. August 15, 2018, accessed August 25, 2019 .
- ↑ Corporate. In: Funatics. Retrieved August 25, 2019 .