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Blendo Games

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Blendo Games
Company typePrivate
IndustryVideo games
Founded2010;14 years ago(2010)
FounderBrendon Chung
Headquarters
Culver City,California
,
United States
Products
Websiteblendogames.com

Blendo Gamesis an Americanindependentvideo gamedevelopment company based inCulver City, California.It was founded by Brendon Chung in 2010 and is primarily a one-person effort. Blendo Games gained more widespread exposure with the short form stand alone titleGravity Bone;the following gamesFlotillaandAtom Zombie Smasherwere met with critical praise. The studio has also released several other games in several genres.

Background

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Brendon Chung at the 2017Game Developers Choice Awards

Chung had done hobbyist programming, such asmoddingfor games likeQuake 2andHalf-Life,for about a decade before being hired as a designer atPandemic Studios.[1][2]While there, he worked onThe Lord of the Rings: ConquestandFull Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers,although he continued to work on personal projects including an episodicCitizen Abelseries that toyed with traditional mechanics offirst-person shooters.[2]Chung considered his first officially released game to be the espionage gameGravity Bonein 2008.[2][3][4][5]In November 2009,Electronic Artsshut down Pandemic Studios and Chung began development onFlotilla,a space combat game that takes cues from an abandoned personal project Chung had worked on previously.Flotillawas released in 2010.[6][7]

Later that same year, Blendo Games releasedAir Forte,anedutainmentgame in which the player indicates their knowledge about math, geography, and vocabulary by flying a plane in response to prompts.[8][9][10]In 2011, Chung releasedreal-time strategygameAtom Zombie Smasher,which received critical praise from several outlets and was featured at the 2011Penny Arcade Expo,as well as being part of the 3rdHumble Indie Bundlecharity drive.[11][12][13][14]

A sequel toGravity Bone,Thirty Flights of Loving,was developed to support aKickstarterproject for theIdle Thumbspodcast, and released in 2012.[15][16][17]FollowingThirty Flights of Loving,Chung began what would become over four years of development onQuadrilateral Cowboy,which released in 2016.[1][18][19]Flotilla 2,avirtual realitysequel toFlotilla,was released in August 2018.[20]In October 2018, a new project titledSkin Deepwas revealed to be in development at Blendo Games although no release date has yet been announced.[21][22]Blendo Games later announced in April 2021 thatSkin Deepwould be published throughAnnapurna Interactive.[23]

Culture

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Blendo Games remains a one-man studio, though according to a 2016 feature inGamasutra,Chung spends some time working in ashared office spacecalled Glitch City.[24]He has also directly collaborated with several individuals on several projects. The musical score ofThirty Flights of Lovingwas composed byChris Remo,and the design ofQuadrilateral Cowboywas a joint effort between Chung and Tynan Wales. TheMacandLinuxports ofQuadrilateral Cowboywere done by Aaron Melcher, and the game's art book was ported to those same platforms by Ethan Lee. Chung has also indicated he gets play testing help from his friends and family.[25]

Barista

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Baristais a series of four first-person games forMicrosoft Windowsby Brendon Chung. All of the games involve the player character waking up.[26]

The first game is amodificationforDoom II: Hell on Earth.In an interview, Chung stated that his inspirations for the first game included theDoom Bibleand Bungie'sMarathon.[4][26]

Chung has indicated the second game was an independent study project developed while he was in college.[4]It centers on a nameless spaceship pilot, and features a disjointed story line. There are several characters featured, including a talking skull and an unidentified woman. The skull mentions a person named Hannah, though when an interviewer suggested the unidentified woman was Hannah, Chung said "she's not Hanna. You never meet Hanna."[4][26]

The third game is a modification forDoom 3.[26]Chung has indicated he developed the game so he could learn the constraints of theId Tech 4engine before using it on a larger project.[27]

The fourth game is a modification forHalf-Life 2.

Games

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Year Title Platform(s) Publisher
2008 Gravity Bone Windows Blendo Games
2010 Flotilla Xbox 360,Windows
Air Forte Xbox 360, Windows,Linux,macOS
2011 Atom Zombie Smasher Windows, Linux, macOS
2012 Thirty Flights of Loving
2016 Quadrilateral Cowboy
2018 Flotilla 2[28] Windows (HTC Vive/Oculus Rift)
tba Skin Deep[21] Windows Annapurna Interactive

References

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  1. ^abWawro, Alex (23 February 2017)."Road to the IGF: Blendo Games' Quadrilateral Cowboy".www.gamasutra.com.Retrieved2019-03-05.
  2. ^abcAlexander, Heather (January 3, 2020)."Blendo Games Has Been At It For 10 Years, And Has Consistently Kicked Ass".Kotaku.RetrievedJanuary 14,2020.
  3. ^"Brendon Chung".insights from the greatest minds in video games.Retrieved2019-03-05.
  4. ^abcdYang, Robert (15 November 2011)."Level With Me, Brendon Chung".Rock Paper Shotgun.Retrieved2019-03-03.
  5. ^"Gimme Indie Game: Gravity Bone - Offworld".Archived fromthe originalon 2009-04-06.Retrieved2010-02-12.
  6. ^"The Making Of: Flotilla | Features | Edge Online".Edge.2014-03-16. Archived fromthe originalon 2014-03-16.Retrieved2019-03-12.
  7. ^Macgregor, Jody (2018-08-20)."Five new Steam games you probably missed this week (August 19, 2018)".PC Gamer.Retrieved2019-03-09.
  8. ^"AIR FORTE Official Site".blendogames.com.Retrieved2019-03-11.
  9. ^"Air Forte on Game and Player".www.gameandplayer.net.Retrieved2019-03-05.
  10. ^"Air Forte Review | bit-tech.net".bit-tech.net.Retrieved2019-03-05.
  11. ^Curtis, Tom (2011-12-19)."Gamasutra Best Of 2011: Top 5 PC Games".Gamasutra.Retrieved2011-12-19.
  12. ^"2012 Independent Games Festival Announces Main Competition Finalists".Independent Games Festival.2012-01-10. Archived fromthe originalon 2012-01-13.Retrieved2012-01-10.
  13. ^Schrier, Jason (2011-07-13)."10 Clever Indie Games Ready to Shine at PAX".Wired.Retrieved2011-08-05.
  14. ^de Matos, Xav (2011-08-05)."Humble Indie Bundle 3 adds 'Atom Zombie Smasher'".Shacknews.Retrieved2011-08-05.
  15. ^Caoili, Eric (2012-02-28)."Kickstarter drive offers exclusive game from Atom Zombie Smasher dev".Gamasutra.Retrieved2012-02-28.
  16. ^Blendo Games.Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  17. ^Meer, Alec (February 28, 2012)."Gravity Bone’s Sequel: Thirty Flights Of Loving".Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  18. ^"The curious case of 'Quadrilateral Cowboy'".Engadget.29 April 2016.Retrieved2019-03-12.
  19. ^"Become a 1980s hacker in 'Quadrilateral Cowboy' on July 25th".Engadget.12 July 2016.Retrieved2019-03-09.
  20. ^O'Connor, Alice (2018-08-20)."Flotilla 2 jacks in to blast off".Rock Paper Shotgun.Retrieved2019-03-12.
  21. ^abTarason, Dominic (2018-10-17)."Skin Deep is Die Hard in space from the creator of Quadrilateral Cowboy".Rock Paper Shotgun.Retrieved2019-03-05.
  22. ^"Blendo's sneaky shooter Skin Deep draws from Die Hard and Far Cry 2".Destructoid.17 October 2018.Retrieved2019-03-05.
  23. ^Van Allen, Eric (April 20, 2021)."Blendo Games partners with Annapurna for its immersive space FPS Skin Deep".Destructoid.RetrievedApril 21,2021.
  24. ^Parkin, Simon (August 2016)."WorkStation: The spaces where 22 different game-makers build worlds".www.gamasutra.com.Retrieved2019-03-05.
  25. ^"Quadrilateral Cowboy FAQ".blendogames.com.Retrieved2019-03-05.
  26. ^abcd"BLENDO: Older Projects".Blendogames.com.Retrieved2013-10-08.
  27. ^Alexander, Leigh (23 June 2014)."Quadrilateral Cowboy: Good old-fashioned digital bliss".www.gamasutra.com.Retrieved2019-03-11.
  28. ^Brown, Fraser (April 26, 2018)."Flotilla 2 will fling you into tactical space battles in VR".PC Gamer.RetrievedApril 26,2018.
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