Panic Inc. is an American

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

and

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

company based in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

. The company specializes in

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

and

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

applications and began publishing video games in 2016. Panic was founded by Steven Frank and Cabel Sasser.

Products

Software

Panic is known for their flagship app

Transmit Transmit is a file transfer client program for macOS. Developed by Panic, Transmit is shareware. After a seven-day trial period, the product can only be used for seven-minute sessions until it has been purchased. Originally built as an FTP client ...

Audion The Audion was an electronic detecting or amplifying vacuum tube invented by American electrical engineer Lee de Forest in 1906.De Forest patented a number of variations of his detector tubes starting in 1906. The patent that most clearly covers ...

Unison In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm. Definition Unison or per ...

, and Nova (a successor to their web development app Coda). The company has won multiple

Apple Design Awards The Apple Design Awards (ADAs) is an event hosted by Apple Inc. at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference. The purpose of the event is to recognize the best and most innovative Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a fa ...

for their products. In 1999, Audion was introduced as a skinnable

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

media player. One of its competitors,

SoundJam MP SoundJam MP is a discontinued MP3 player for classic Mac OS-compatible computers and Rio-compatible hardware synchronization manager that was released in July 1999 and was available until June 2001. Jeff Robbin and Bill Kincaid developed SoundJa ...

, was acquired by Apple in 2000 and was further developed into iTunes 1.0, which became available in 2001. Panic retired Audion in 2004 and began distributing it free of charge. After Audion, Panic focused development on two other software applications. In 2004, they released Unison, a

Usenet Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it wa ...

reader. In 2007, the web development application Coda was introduced. In 2019, Panic announced a successor to Coda named Nova.

Video games

The company published their first video game, ''

Firewatch ''Firewatch'' is an adventure game developed by Campo Santo (company), Campo Santo and published by the developer in partnership with Panic Inc., Panic. The game was released in February 2016 for Microsoft Windows, macOS, OS X, Linux, and Play ...

'', on February 9, 2016. Panic published their second game, ''

Untitled Goose Game ''Untitled Goose Game'' is a 2019 puzzle stealth game developed by House House and published by Panic Inc. Players control a goose who bothers the inhabitants of an English village. The player must use the goose's abilities to manipulate object ...

'', on September 20, 2019. On May 22, 2019, Panic unveiled Playdate, a

handheld video game console A handheld game console, or simply handheld console, is a small, portable self-contained video game console with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are smaller than home video game consoles and contain the cons ...

Playdate

Playdate is a handheld gaming device, designed by Panic in collaboration with the Swedish firm

Teenage Engineering Teenage Engineering is a Swedish consumer electronics company and manufacturer founded in 2005 by Jesper Kouthoofd, David Eriksson, Jens Rudberg and David Möllerstedt and based in Stockholm. Its products include electronics and synthesizers, with ...

. The device features a 400x240 pixel 1-bit screen, a directional pad on the left, two buttons on the right, and a mechanical crank on the right edge of the device. Games will be released in "seasons", at a rate of two games per week for twelve weeks. Games will automatically download to the device when available. While some video games for Playdate are being produced at Panic, most games are created by indie game developers such as

Keita Takahashi is a Japanese game designer and artist, his most notable titles being ''Katamari Damacy'' and its sequel, ''We Love Katamari''. The original ''Katamari'' game was a surprise hit and was praised for its quirkiness, originality, and charm. Takahas ...

, Zach Gage,

Bennett Foddy Bennett Foddy is an Australian video game designer based in New York. Raised in Australia and trained as a moral philosopher on topics of drug addiction, Foddy was a bassist in the electronic music group Cut Copy and a hobbyist game designer w ...

, and Shaun Inman.

Awards

References

{{reflist American companies established in 1997 Macintosh software companies Companies based in Portland, Oregon Software companies based in Oregon Privately held companies based in Oregon Video game companies of the United States Video game companies established in 1997 Software companies established in 1997 Video game publishers 1997 establishments in Oregon Software companies of the United States Apple Design Awards recipients