Twisted Pixel Games

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Twisted Pixel Games, LLC
Websitetwistedpixelgames.com

Twisted Pixel Games, LLC is an American

Oculus Studios
.

History

Twisted Pixel Games was founded in 2006 by industry veterans Michael Wilford, Frank Wilson and Josh Bear.[2] The company first performed contract work for the now-defunct Midway Games, providing engineering work for NBA Ballers: Chosen One and Blitz: The League II. In 2008, Twisted Pixel announced that its focus had changed to digitally distributed games based on its own new intellectual properties.[2] In 2008, the company moved from Madison, Indiana, to its current location in Austin. According to the then CEO, Michael Wilford, the move was to "tap into a broader talent pool."[3]

Initially, Twisted Pixel targeted

The Maw, which became its first Xbox Live Arcade title.[4]

Released on January 21, 2009, The Maw tells the story of the

platform game where players control an escaped science experiment with the ability to explode himself repeatedly.[6] It was released on July 22, 2009. Twisted Pixel's third title, Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley was released on October 6, 2010. Players control Captain Smiley, a comic book hero whose comics are poorly received. Seeking help from Twisted Pixel themselves he "jumps" in other comics, hoping to glean from each genre's popularity.[7] On December 3, 2010, Twisted Pixel announced Ms. Splosion Man, a sequel to 2009's 'Splosion Man.[8]
It was released on July 13, 2011.

On February 1, 2011, the company revealed its fifth original game,

The Paramount Theatre in Austin where the company is located.[10]

On September 30, 2015, Twisted Pixel Games announced that it had been separated from

Microsoft Studios and had become an independent studio again.[11]

Its games have been generally well-received by critics, and collectively have won several awards. The Maw won the 2008 Audience Choice award at

PAX10,[12] and was a finalist at the Independent Games Festival 2009.[13] 'Splosion Man was voted by the Xbox Live community as the Best Original Xbox Live Arcade Game of 2009.[14] In a September 2010 ranking, IGN listed it eleventh in its top twenty-five Xbox Live Arcade titles of all time.[15] It also received several Best of E3 awards in 2009.[16] Captain Smiley, the lead character in Comic Jumper, received the Best New Character award from Official Xbox Magazine in 2010.[17]

On November 14, 2018, it was announced that Ms. Splosion Man would be launching on the Nintendo Switch on November 22.[18]

On December 5, 2021, the website was updated to announce some changes are coming.[19] Through legal documents from the Federal Trade Commission, it became public that Twisted Pixel Games was acquired by Meta in November 2021.[20]

Technology

All of Twisted Pixel's games are powered by Beard, a proprietary engine to compete with

RAD Game Tools' Granny 3D animation toolset.[22][23] Razor can be adapted to develop in 3D or 2.5D configurations. Games are scripted using Lua, which allows the developers to share code between titles.[22]

Games developed

Year Title Platform(s) Genre
2009
The Maw
 		Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 Action-adventure
2009 'Splosion Man Xbox 360
platform
2010 Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley Xbox 360 Side-scroller, beat 'em up
2011 Ms. Splosion Man Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, Xbox 360 Platform
2011 The Gunstringer Xbox 360 Third-person shooter, rail shooter
2011 The Wavy Tube Man Chronicles Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows
Side-scroller
2013 LocoCycle Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Racing, vehicular combat
2017 Wilson's Heart Oculus Rift Horror, adventure
2018 B-Team Oculus Go Action, adventure
2019 Defector Oculus Rift First-person shooter
Path of the Warrior[24] Oculus Rift
Beat'em up

References

  1. ^ "Twisted Pixel Games Goes Indie (Again)". September 30, 2015. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  2. ^
    Gamasutra
    . Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  3. ^ "GameSetInterview: 'The Maw's Deleted Scenes – A Twisted Pixel Approach to DLC'". Game Set Watch. March 18, 2009. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
  4. ^ a b c "Game Informer" (September 2011). The Zen of Twisted Pixel
  5. ^ Whitehead, Dan (January 29, 2009). "The Maw Xbox 360 Review". Eurogamer. Retrieved October 8, 2010.
  6. G4TV
    . Retrieved October 15, 2010.
  7. ^ OXM Staff (October 4, 2010). "Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley". Official Xbox Magazine UK. Retrieved October 6, 2010.
  8. ^ Grant, Christopher (December 3, 2010). "Ms. Splosion Man makes her debut, sploding 'fall of 2011'". Joystiq. Retrieved December 3, 2010.
  9. ^ Navarro, Alex (June 7, 2011). "The Gunstringer Is a Retail Game Now, But Is It Any Good?". Giant Bomb. Retrieved June 12, 2011.
  10. ^ Fletcher, JC (January 26, 2011). "Twisted Pixel shooting video in Austin for unannounced game". Joystiq. Retrieved March 2, 2011.
  11. ^ Dyer, Mitch (September 30, 2015). "LocoCycle Developer Twisted Pixel Is An Indie Studio Again". IGN. Retrieved September 30, 2015.
  12. ^ Fahey, Mike (September 23, 2008). "The Maw Devours PAX 10 Audience Choice Award". Kotaku. Retrieved October 8, 2010.
  13. ^ "The 12th Annual Independent Games Festival: Finalists and Winners". Independent Games Festival. Retrieved October 8, 2010.
  14. ^ Hryb, Larry (April 6, 2010). "Xbox LIVE Marketplace release schedule". majornelson.com. Archived from the original on July 15, 2010. Retrieved October 3, 2010.
  15. ^ "The Top 25 Xbox Live Arcade Games". IGN. September 16, 2010. Archived from the original on September 18, 2010. Retrieved September 16, 2010.
  16. ^ Ferry (July 22, 2009). "On Xbox Live Arcade today: Splosion Man". Video Games Blogger. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  17. ^ "@OXM OfficialXboxMagazine". Official Xbox Magazine. January 13, 2011. Retrieved January 20, 2011. Well-deserved! Give the Cap our congrats. RT @mrwilford: Thanks @OXM for voting Captain Smiley as 2010's "Best New Character"! Awesome!
  18. ^ "Ms. Splosion Man is coming to Switch next week". Destructoid. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  19. ^ "Twisted Pixel Games: We Make Awesome". Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  20. ^ "U.S. Sues Meta To Stop 'Goal Of Owning The Entire Metaverse'". July 27, 2022. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
  21. ^ Gilbert, Ben (December 3, 2010). "Twisted Pixel's Josh Bear on giving Ms. Splosion Man more than just a bow". Joystiq. Retrieved December 3, 2010.
  22. ^ a b "Dev Talk-Twisted Pixel Games". Gamer's Mint. February 17, 2010. Archived from the original on January 26, 2011. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  23. ^ Alexander, Leigh (July 19, 2010). "Twisted Pixel Uses RAD's Granny 3D In Comic Jumper, BEARD Engine". Gamasutra. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  24. ^ Grubb, Jeff (December 12, 2019). "Path of the Warrior is VR's Streets of Rage, and it's out now". VentureBeat. Retrieved December 13, 2019.

External links

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