Oxeye Game Studio: Difference between revisions

In 2002, as ''Whispers in Akarra'' was being developed by Jens, Daniel and Pontus also began to contribute to the project with artwork,<ref>[http://www.oxeyegames.com/ten-years/ Bergensten, J. (2012, April 28). ''Ten Years!'' Oxeye Game Studio. http://www.oxeyegames.com/ten-years/]</ref> and Oxeye Game Studio was founded the following July with the intent of remaking ''Whispers in Akarra'' in 3D,<ref name=":3" /> though ultimately becoming a standalone entity. In 2005, ''Strategist'' was published as Oxeye's first game using a modified version of the [[wikipedia:Irrlicht_Engine|Irrlicht Engine]] (called ''Daisy'')<ref name=":2" /> while ''Dawn of Daria'' (the spiritual successor to ''Whispers in Akarra'')<ref>''Dawn of Daria FAQ''. Dawn of Daria. (2006a). <nowiki>https://web.archive.org/web/20061125052310/http://www.dawnofdaria.com/index.php?page=5</nowiki></ref> was still being developed. In 2006, the rights to ''Whispers in Akarra'' were sold, though development on ''Dawn of Daria'' continued.<ref name=":3" />

In the spring of 2007, Oxeye managed to move into its first dedicated office area at [https://www.venturelab.lu.se/ VentureLab] in Lund, hosted by Lund University. The property was won after the team pitched "a minigame arcade platform", though first creating ''Strategist''.<ref>Jens "jeb" Bergensten via the Project Oxeye Wiki Discord server: ''In spring 2007, Oxeye moved into it's first "office" at a business incubator called VentureLab in Lund. Oxeye's room was the left-most window on the first picture. We got the place on the pitch to make a minigame arcade platform, but first we developed and released The Strategist, followed by Harvest: Massive Encounter.''</ref> That May, Oxeye presented an open beta of ''Harvest: Massive Encounter'', at the Swedish Game Awards, a student competition,<ref>Jens "jeb" Bergensten via the Project Oxeye Wiki Discord server: ''In May 2007, Harvest was nominted for "best game" at the Swedish Game Awards (a student competition). Harvest won second prize and received 20,000 SEK (about $1944 at today's exchange rate). Here is a picture of the exhibition hall (Jens in an Oxeye t-shirt and yellow/brown hoodie), and the Harvest stand.''</ref> in which it earned second place in the Best PC Game category,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071222075509/http://gameawards.se/news/harvest-open-beta Steve. (2007, December 19). ''Harvest open beta''. Swedish Game Awards. https://web.archive.org/web/20071222075509/http://gameawards.se/news/harvest-open-beta]</ref> and that October, Daniel and Pontus developed ''Spacefest'' in Multimedia Fusion live for Spelfest, which was being held in Malmö.<ref>Jens "jeb" Bergensten via the Project Oxeye Wiki Discord server: ''In October 2007, Oxeye participated at Spelfest in Malmö. We displayed Harvest, and Daniel and Pontus gamejammed a new shoot-em-up in Multimedia Fusion live. We also met with Yokaj Studios.''</ref> In February of 2008,<ref>http://www.oxeyegames.com/oxeye-office-level-up/</ref> the lease at VentureLab expired and the studio was moved to the Akademiska Hus, also in Lund.<ref>Jens "jeb" Bergensten via the Project Oxeye Wiki Discord server: ''New office at Akademiska Hus, Lund''</ref> On the 5th of March, coinciding with Pontus' birthday, ''Harvest: Massive Encounter'' was officially released to the public.<ref>http://www.oxeyegames.com/birthdays-and-postcards/</ref>

In order to add modding support to ''Harvest'', the ''Daisy'' engine was modified to use the [[wikipedia:Lua_(programming_language)|Lua]] programming language, becoming ''DaisyMoon'' in the process.<ref name=":2" /> This would become Oxeye's engine of choice, as every subsequent game would be developed in it, primarily games for game jams, such as ''Fillauth'' and ''House Globe''. At some point between late 2008<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20080929152133/http://www.oxeyegames.com/strategist/download-strategist/</ref> and early 2009,<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20090803184601/http://www.oxeyegames.com/strategist/download-strategist</ref> the rights to ''Strategist'' were sold. According to Pontus, it's likely the new owners went defunct.<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/oxeyegames/comments/6zocqr/the_strategist_what_happened/dqfakb5/</ref> Also in 2009, ''Dawn of Daria'' was cancelled<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20111112131624/http://www.dawnofdaria.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2720 Bergensten, J. (2009, September 26). ''Daria No Longer an Oxeye Project''. Dawn of Daria. https://web.archive.org/web/20111112131624/http://www.dawnofdaria.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2720]</ref> due to lack of time.<ref>http://www.oxeyegames.com/dawn-of-daria-discontinued/</ref>

In August 2009, work began on a new project (known then as ''Project B'') based on a prototype Daniel had made in 2001 known as ''Blueface''.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idEyxi9vbWU YouTube. (2010). ''Project B Presentation at No More Sweden 1/3''. ''YouTube''. Retrieved December 4, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idEyxi9vbWU.]</ref> ''Project B'' was later renamed ''Cobalt'',<ref>[http://www.oxeyegames.com/announcing-cobalt/ Hammarberg, P. (2010, October 8). ''Announcing Cobalt!'' Oxeye Game Studio. http://www.oxeyegames.com/announcing-cobalt/]</ref> and the first public Alpha build was released on 16 December 2011.<ref>http://www.oxeyegames.com/now-we-develop-with-you/</ref> After 7 years of development, ''Cobalt'' was fully released on 2 February 2016.<ref name=":4" /> A simplified spinoff, ''Cobalt WASD'', was released the following year.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" />

|+

|''Whispers in Akarra''

|''Strategist''

|''Dawn of Daria''

|''[[Harvest Massive Encounter|Harvest: Massive Encounter]]''

|''DaisyMoon''

* Oxeye Game Studio's logo appears to use the Ariosto and Trivia Gothic X2 Expanded Light typefaces, respectively.