Klei entertainment

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Klei Entertainment Inc.
legal form Incorporated
founding July 2005
Seat Vancouver , CanadaCanadaCanada 
management Jamie Cheng & Jeffery Agala
Number of employees 35
Branch Software development
Website http://www.kleientertainment.com

Klei Entertainment is a Canadian development studio for computer games based in Vancouver . The company, founded in 2005, specializes primarily in small and medium-sized productions, including the titles Shank , Mark of the Ninja and Don't Starve .

history

The company was founded in July 2005 by Jamie Cheng, who previously worked as a programmer at the development studio Relic Entertainment u., Which belongs to the game publisher THQ . a. worked on the real-time strategy game Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War . After three years at Relic, during which Cheng rose from intern to full-time employee, the number of employees increased from 40 to 100 employees. Because Cheng wanted to work in a smaller environment, he ultimately decided to start his own company. With a starting capital of 10,000 Canadian dollars, which he raised by selling his block of shares to THQ, he founded together with his college and school friends Marcus Lo, Alex Colbert and Steve Chen Klei Entertainment. Thanks to a loan from Telefilm Canada , a state institution for the promotion of televisual media, the team was able to move from the basement of a family friend in Cheng to their own office space for the first time in March 2006. The studio's first work, the puzzle platform Eets , was based on a college demo by Cheng. After a long and unsuccessful search for a publisher, Frogster finally acquired the publication rights for Germany and France for around 90,000 euros in 2006, but was only able to sell small quantities. Eets was launched in March 2006 exclusively for Microsoft Windows , in April 2007 an expanded version called Eats: Chowdown for Xbox 360 was released and in December 2010 a port of the original version for Mac OS was finally released .

In November 2006, Alex Garden, founder of Relic Entertainment, was appointed head of the North American subsidiary by the South Korean game manufacturer Nexon . While looking for a new product, Garden contacted his former employee Cheng and finally hired Klei to develop a massively multiplayer online game for casual gamers called Sugar Rush . Klei was also able to rent space within the Nexon office complex. The workforce was increased and the artist Jeff Agala, who had previously supported Klei on a part-time basis, now joined the team full-time. After two years of development and extensive beta testing, the release of Sugar Rush was imminent when Nexon suddenly dismissed all employees due to the financial crisis in 2008 and ceased all company activities in Vancouver. This also brought Klei Entertainment into unexpected difficulties. Since the offices had originally been rented by Nexon, the studio had to find new premises, among other things, as well as secure follow-up financing for a new project. Among other things, Klei assisted Slick Entertainment with the Xbox 360 porting of the flash game N , which was released in 2008 via Xbox Live Arcade . However, Klei also tried to find a new publisher with an early prototype of the game Shank , a bloody comic-style side-scrolling beat 'em up, initially in vain. To keep the business going, Cheng and Agala mortgaged their homes. In 2009 the developer presented the game at the Penny Arcade Expo . As a result, the studio received a publishing contract with Electronic Arts through the EA Partners program . The completion of Shank takes place under enormous time pressure and with the provision of massive overtime (so-called crunch mode), as the contract required Klei to publish in the third quarter. Shank was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in August 2010, and finally for Microsoft Windows in October.

The experiences from the development of Shank led to a reorientation and restructuring of the work processes, with the aim of aligning the company to more family-friendly working conditions. In order to minimize the risk of a project failure, work on several titles was started simultaneously and more flexible development periods were negotiated. Klei worked for EA on the sequel Shank 2 , which appeared in 2012. For Microsoft , Klei developed Mark of the Ninja , another comic-style side-scroller, which was also published in 2012, but unlike Shank, the focus was on clandestine and sneaking.

In April 2013 Klei published the survival simulation Don't Starve . The game was created largely with the involvement of the public. Klei made very early development versions of the game available to buyers and allowed the feedback to flow into the further development process, first through publication via the Google Chrome webshop, then as part of the Early Access program of the online sales platform Steam . It was also an experiment for company founder Cheng, whether an unusual game with a manageable budget and reasonable working hours could be brought to market at a fair price and be successful. In the same year the title was sold over a million times on the PC alone. This was followed by publications for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita . In Don't Starve , Klei pursued the approach, instead of charting a course for the player through precisely defined objectives (so-called extrinic rewards), to animate him to continue playing with intrinsic rewards (e.g. success through personal discovery).

On July 2, 2013, the development of the turn-based spy game Incognita was announced, which was finally renamed Invisible, Inc. in January 2014 .

Corporate philosophy

Instead of expensive blockbuster productions, Klei Entertainment has specialized in small developments and niche products. Company founder Cheng positioned himself against the widespread philosophy of other studios that successful games can only be achieved with many man hours, large budgets and extensive marketing. Happy, healthy employees with creative freedom and financially secure employees are much better suited to creating interesting and successful games.

The studio also calls it part of its corporate philosophy of not wanting to produce regular sequels to its successful titles. Instead, new ideas should be pursued.

Published games

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alistair Wallis: Road To The IGF: Klei Entertainment's Eets . In: Gamasutra . September 29, 2006. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Chris Plante: The birth and re-birth of Klei ( English ) In: Polygon . May 29, 2013. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  3. ↑ Mike Fahey: Another XBLA Double: Pinball and Eets . In: Kotaku . April 23, 2007. Archived from the original on October 16, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 17, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / kotaku.com
  4. ↑ Randy Nelson: Eets unleashed on Mac, 75% off via Steam ( English ) In: Joystiq . December 9, 2010. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved on December 17, 2010.
  5. ↑ Legend of Zelda remade in N + . Klei entertainment. March 20, 2008. Archived from the original on November 24, 2010. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 21, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / kleientertainment.com
  6. ↑ Sophia Tong: Shank Hands-On ( English ) In: GameSpot . September 4, 2009. Archived from the original on September 7, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 5, 2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / pax.gamespot.com
  7. ^ Jamie Cheng: Klei signs with EA Partners for Shank . Klei entertainment. March 4, 2010. Retrieved December 7, 2010.
  8. ↑ a b Erik Kain: 'Mark Of The Ninja' And The Business Of Stealth: How Klei Entertainment Set Out To Make The Perfect Stealth Game ( English ) In: Forbes Magazine . September 7, 2012. Retrieved September 7, 2012.
  9. ↑ a b Don't Starve breaks one million players as Klei looks to Vita, iOS and new projects ( English ) In: Edge . January 20, 2014. Archived from the original on February 2, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  10. ↑ Jamie Cheng & Kevin Forbes: Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic rewards in Klei's latest game: Do not Starve ( English ) In: Forbes Magazine . October 19, 2012. Retrieved October 19, 2012.
  11. ↑ Chris Holzworth: Mark of the Ninja Devs Announce Turn-Based Tactical Espionage Title 'Incognita'. In: Electronic Gaming Monthly . July 2, 2013, accessed July 20, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Chris Holzworth: Klei Entertainment renames Incognita to Invisible, Inc., releases new trailer. In: Electronic Gaming Monthly . January 16, 2014, accessed July 20, 2019 .
  13. ^ Oxygen Not Included on Steam . Retrieved August 26, 2018.