Spellbound Entertainment
| Spellbound Entertainment AG
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1994 |
| resolution | 2012 |
| Reason for dissolution | insolvency |
| Seat | Offenburg , Germany |
| management | Andreas Speer |
| Number of employees | 60 (as of 2012) |
| Branch | Software development |
| Website | www.spellbound.de |
The Spellbound Entertainment AG was a German computer game developer based in Offenburg . The company was founded in 1994 by Armin Gessert , who was managing director until his death in 2009 . In 2012 the development studio was closed after bankruptcy . Shortly afterwards, former employees founded Black Forest Games .
history
After Armin Gessert had already worked at Rainbow Arts and Blue Byte , he founded his own development studio in 1994 together with Jean-Marc Haessig . The team consists mainly of developers from Germany and France . The annual surplus of the stock corporation amounted to 6,708.13 euros in the 2009 financial year.
Initially, the studio provided graphics for the third part of Attic's Nordland trilogy before it was commissioned to develop a real-time strategy game for the German science fiction novel series Perry Rhodan .
In 1998 the first own game Airline Tycoon appeared , an economic simulation , which was characterized by high complexity and at the same time good accessibility. The comic style in which the game was implemented was retained in the following games, albeit in a somewhat weaker form. Airline Tycoon received several add-ons and new editions in the following years with AT First Class , AT Evolution and AT Deluxe . The work on the successor Airline Tycoon 2 was ended after the naming and marketing rights were sold to the publisher Kalypso Media.
The first big hit was the game Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive , which was viewed by many game magazines and gamers as more well thought-out and more coherent than the previous genre primus Commandos . However, disputes with Publisher Infogrames about free extensions, the so-called " Webisodes ", clouded the success, as they were announced but never published.
The quasi-successor Robin Hood - The Legend of Sherwood and Chicago 1930 could not build on this success due to some radical changes to the gameplay (emphasis on action elements) and the disappointment with the "Webisodes". However, at least with Robin Hood , some of the innovative ideas were welcomed.
During this time, was also called "game for a" Gunsmoke , a kind of grouse - clone , the Spellbound offered by self-distribution.
The Desperados successor Desperados 2: Cooper's Revenge , which was released on April 26, 2006, tied back to the elements of the first part and was positively received by both buyers and game magazines.
Company founder Armin Gessert died on November 8th, 2009. His previous deputy, Andreas Speer, has led the company since then, and co-founder Jean-Marc Haessig was in charge of the creative process.
The game Arcania - Gothic 4 , the fourth part of the role-playing game series Gothic , was released on October 12, 2010 for the Austrian publisher JoWooD .
In March 2012, Spellbound was forced to file for bankruptcy. However, business operations continued as normal for the time being.
Black Forest Games
In July 2012 it was announced that a large part of the workforce had founded a new development studio under the name Black Forest Games. 35 of the last 60 employees moved to the new studio and also took over the projects recently developed by Spellbound. Formally, the Black Forest Games GmbH was created by changing its name from Spellbound Entertainment GmbH, Berlin.
In August 2017, the Swedish group THQ Nordic took over the developer Black Forest Games.
Developed games
| Publishing year | title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Perry Rhodan - Operation Eastside | Fantasy Productions |
| 1998 | Airline tycoon | Infogrames |
| 1999 | Airline Tycoon First Class | Infogrames |
| 2002 | Airline Tycoon Evolution |
Ubisoft Monte Cristo Multimedia |
| 2003 | Airline Tycoon Deluxe | Infogrames |
| 2001 | Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive | Infogrames |
| 2002 | Robin Hood - The Legend of Sherwood | Wanadoo Edition |
| 2003 | Chicago 1930 | Wanadoo Edition |
| 2003 | Smoking colts | Spellbound Entertainment |
| 2006 | Desperados 2: Cooper's Revenge | Atari SA |
| 2007 | Helldorado | dtp entertainment |
| 2009 | Giana Sisters DS | dtp entertainment |
| 2010 | Arcania - Gothic 4 | JoWooD |
| 2011 | Arcania - Fall of Setarrif | Nordic Games |
Web links
- Official website
- Spellbound Entertainment at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Spellbound Entertainment AG: Annual financial statements for the financial year from January 1 , 2009 to December 31 , 2009, ebundesanzeiger accessed on November 7, 2010
- ↑ Eric Caoili: Giana Sisters Co-Creator Armin Gessert Passes ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM, plc . November 10, 2009. Retrieved May 3, 2012.
- ↑ Release date . In: pcgameshardware.de , July 20, 2010. Retrieved October 12, 2010.
- ↑ Yves Günther: German developer files for bankruptcy. In: Gameswelt.ch. March 22, 2012. Retrieved March 22, 2012 .
- ↑ Sebastian Clix: Spellbound Entertainment - Bankruptcy survived & renaming. In: Gamestar.de. July 14, 2012. Retrieved July 14, 2012 .
- ^ Badische Zeitung: Black Forest Games: Offenburg company Spellbound is reinventing itself , last accessed on November 29, 2012.
- ^ Commercial register, Freiburg District Court HRB 708729, announcement of August 6, 2012.
- ↑ James Brightman: THQ Nordic acquires Black Forest Games on gamesindustry.biz, accessed on August 24, 2018