Jump to content

Vlambeer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vlambeer
Company typePrivate
IndustryVideo games
Founded1 September 2010;14 years ago(2010-09-01)
Founders
Headquarters
Utrecht
,
Netherlands
Key people
  • Rami Ismail
  • Jan Willem Nijman
Products
Websitevlambeer.com

Vlambeeris a Dutch independentvideo game developerbased inUtrecht.Founded in 2010, the studio was composed ofRami Ismailand Jan Willem Nijman. The studio is known for the gamesSuper Crate Box(2010),Serious Sam: The Random Encounter(2011),Ridiculous Fishing(2013),Luftrausers(2014), andNuclear Throne(2015), as well as for their stand againstvideo game cloning.[1]

History

[edit]
Vlambeer'sRami Ismail(left) and Jan Willem Nijman at the 2013Game Developers Conference

Vlambeer was founded in 2010 byRami Ismailand Jan Willem Nijman after both dropped out from a game design course at theUtrecht School of the Arts.According to Ismail, they had been developing a game outside of the school, but when the school found out, the school demanded the rights to the game, which they refused, leading to their decision to drop out.[2]Ismail and Nijman began by working together to develop a prototype, initially created by Nijman, called "Crates from Hell". It was released on 11 May 2010 asSuper Crate Boxand earned the studio recognition in the form of anIndependent Games Festivalfinalist position in the Excellence in Design category.[3]During the development ofSuper Crate Box,Vlambeer developedRadical Fishing.It was released in November 2010.Radical Fishingwas the first of many games released by the studio under a "Not Vlambeer" label, which encompasses the studio's games that are developed for money or as an experiment.

Vlambeer was approached by publisherDevolver Digitalto develop a game in theSerious Samfranchise. The studio and Devolver Digital agreed to develop and publish a turn-based role-playing game. The result,Serious Sam: The Random Encounter,was released on 24 October 2011. During the development ofSerious Sam: The Random Encounter,Vlambeer released many small games, most notablyLuftrauser.Vlambeer started development on an iOS version ofRadical FishingcalledRidiculous Fishing.Development was halted after a San Francisco–based studio released a clone ofRadical Fishingon iOS. This generated discussion about the cloning of video games and led Vlambeer to be somewhat of an icon on the topic.[4]The term "Vlambeer'd" was introduced by several media outlets.[5]In November 2013, the browser gameVlambeer Clone Tycoonwas launched to provide a satirical comment on the issue of Vlambeer's cloning ordeals.[6]

In February 2012, Vlambeer releasedGun Godz,a first-person shooter inspired by hip-hop, in collaboration with Brandon Boyer's Venus Patrol.[7]Ridiculous Fishingwas nominated for the 2012Independent Games Festival"Best Mobile" award.[8]At the conference where the award ceremony was held, Vlambeer releasedYeti Hunter.[9]

On 2 December 2012, Vlambeer announced a sequel toLuftrausercalledLuftrausers.On 19 December 2012, Vlambeer released theiOSversion ofSuper Crate Box.Its success prevented the studio from going out of business due to the financial ramifications of the decreased motivation caused by the cloning incident.[10][11]On 14 March 2013, Vlambeer releasedRidiculous Fishingon iOS after resuming its development.

In 2015, they experimented with live streaming their development process and had at one point over 12,000 paid subscriptions to their Twitch channel.[12][13]

On 5 December 2015, Vlambeer releasedNuclear Throne,atop-down shooterroguelikewhich had been inSteam's early access program since 2013. The game was released forMicrosoft Windows,OS X,Linux,PlayStation 4andPlayStation Vita,receiving positive reviews from users.[14]

On 8 August 2016, Vlambeer announced120 Years Of Vlambeer And Friends. Bringing back arcade games since 1896,an art and history book of the company written by Arjan Terpstra and published byCook & Becker.[15]

Ismail received the Ambassador Award at the March 2018Game Developers Choice Awardsfor his support of independent video game development through both Vlambeer and other activities.[16]

On 1 September 2020, the tenth anniversary of the studio's formation, Vlambeer announced that the studio would come to a close. Ismail and Nijman had made the decision a few weeks prior, having come to recognize they were moving in separate directions within the video game industry since 2016. They had plans to release a final game,Ultrabugs,which has yet to be released as of July 2024.[17]Ismail plans to continue to work on supporting advocacy for diversity within the video game industry while Nijman expects to continue to help develop smaller games similar toMinitwith other teams.[18]

In April 2024, Ismail sold his shares of the company to Nijman, giving him 100% ownership.[19]Nijman reopened the studio, intending to release improvements to their existing games as well as to completeUltrabugsafter he finished his current unannounced project outside the Vlambeer label.[20]

Games

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^Frushtick, Russ (22 February 2012)."Cloning Case Files: Vlambeer".Polygon.Archivedfrom the original on 20 May 2020.Retrieved15 April2020.
  2. ^Sarkar, Samit (14 February 2014)."Vlambeer: Just making games is the key to becoming successful".Polygon.Archivedfrom the original on 31 January 2018.Retrieved30 January2018.
  3. ^The 14th Annual Independent Games Festival FinalistsArchived7 August 2016 at theWayback Machine.Igf.com. Retrieved on 13 August 2012.
  4. ^Someone Else’s SolutionsArchived15 May 2012 at theWayback Machine.PocketNext. Retrieved on 13 August 2012.
  5. ^SF Molyjam: A Tale Of Three Parkour RomancesArchived8 May 2012 at theWayback Machine.Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved on 13 August 2012.
  6. ^Vlambeer Clone TycoonArchived17 December 2013 at theWayback Machine.IndieStatik. Retrieved on 13 December 2013.
  7. ^VENUS PATROL: charting a new course for videogame culture by Brandon Boyer — KickstarterArchived11 May 2012 at theWayback Machine.Kickstarter.com (7 September 2011). Retrieved on 2012-08-13.
  8. ^The 14th Annual Independent Games Festival FinalistsArchived8 December 2012 at theWayback Machine.Igf.com. Retrieved on 13 August 2012.
  9. ^Vlambeer to release Yeti Hunter from GDC show floorArchived15 June 2012 at theWayback Machine.The Verge. Retrieved on 13 August 2012.
  10. ^Pitts, Russ (24 April 2013)."Cloned at Birth: The Story of Ridiculous Fishing".Polygon.Vox Media.Archivedfrom the original on 5 June 2013.Retrieved12 June2013.
  11. ^"Video game history of the Netherlands".6 October 2024.
  12. ^Choudhary, Amita (March 2016)."How Gaming Will Change For The Better In 2016".Endgadget.com.Archivedfrom the original on 26 April 2016.Retrieved2 March2016.
  13. ^"Vlambeer Twitch Profile".Twitch.Archivedfrom the original on 6 March 2016.Retrieved2 March2016.
  14. ^"Nuclear Throne Reviews (PC)".Metacritic.Archivedfrom the original on 11 March 2017.Retrieved14 March2017.
  15. ^"Announcement!".Vlambeer.8 August 2016. Archived fromthe originalon 9 August 2016.Retrieved14 March2017.
  16. ^"Nolan Bushnell, Tim Schafer, and Rami Ismail to be honored at the 2018 GDC Awards!".Gamasutra.30 January 2018.Archivedfrom the original on 30 January 2018.Retrieved30 January2018.
  17. ^Conduit, Jessica (1 September 2020)."Influential indie studio Vlambeer is shutting down after a decade".Engadget.Archivedfrom the original on 1 September 2020.Retrieved1 September2020.
  18. ^Carpenter, Nicole (1 September 2020)."It's Vlambeer's 10-year anniversary, and the studio's breaking up".Polygon.Archivedfrom the original on 2 September 2020.Retrieved1 September2020.
  19. ^"New Beginnings".Levelling The Playing Field.4 April 2024.Retrieved5 April2024.
  20. ^Wales, Matt (4 April 2024)."Nuclear Throne studio Vlambeer details future as Rami Ismail sells shares".Eurogamer.Retrieved4 April2024.
  21. ^Crecente, Brian (1 April 2019)."Why Vlambeer Returned to Its Roots With 'Ultrabugs'".Variety.Archivedfrom the original on 29 September 2019.Retrieved15 April2020.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vlambeer&oldid=1250571778"