Ritual Entertainment was an American

video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...

established in 1996 by Robert Atkins, Mark Dochtermann, Jim Dosé, Richard 'Levelord' Gray, Michael Hadwin, Harry Miller, and Tom Mustaine. Based in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, Ritual Entertainment was formerly known as Hipnotic Interactive, during which period they began development of their signature video game ''

SiN In religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law or a law of the deities. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered ...

''.

History

Members of the Ritual Entertainment development team have contributed assets to other games such as ''

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'', '' Medal of Honor: Airborne'', '' Tomb Raider: Legend'', and '' 25 to Life'', and are also the creators of "Übertools" for

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, which has been licensed for a number of other games. Shortly after signing Hipnotic, publisher

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

claimed that Hipnotic had been at the core of the ''

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'' development team. ''Duke Nukem 3D'' developer

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vigorously denied this, stating that only five members of Hipnotic Interactive were former staff of 3D Realms, and of these five only three had a significant role in making ''Duke Nukem 3D''. In late 1997, Hipnotic changed their name to Ritual Entertainment in order to avoid a trademark conflict with another video-game developer, Hypnotix. On January 24, 2007, developer

MumboJumbo MumboJumbo, LLC was an independent developer of games for personal computers, game consoles and mobile devices. MumboJumbo Mobile, LLC publishes entertainment software for Android and iOS devices. History The company was founded in January 200 ...

announced the acquisition of Ritual Entertainment. With this acquisition, Ritual's focus on traditional action-oriented games was changed to

casual game A casual game is a video game targeted at a mass market audience, as opposed to a hardcore game, which is targeted at hobbyist gamers. Casual games may exhibit any type of gameplay and genre. They generally involve simpler rules, shorter sessio ...

s, essentially "stalling" Ritual's latest game series, '' SiN Episodes'', after releasing only one

episode An episode is a narrative unit within a larger dramatic work or documentary production, such as a serial (radio and television), series intended for radio, television or Streaming media, streaming consumption. Etymology The noun ''episode'' is ...

out of a planned nine. The purchase followed months of departures of several key employees, including chief executive officer Steve Nix, who became director of business development at

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, vice president and co-founder Tom Mustaine, who left to found Escalation Studios. Several months after the acquisition, community relations manager Steve Hessel left the company to join

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. Prior to the announcement, on December 6, 2006, Ritual announced the appointment of Ken Harward as the company's new studio director.Ritual Apparently Not Exploded, Announces New Studio Director
Ritualistic Forums. Following the company's closure, many of the deveopers have left to other companies such as

Gearbox Software Gearbox Software, L.L.C is an American video game developer, video game development company based in Frisco, Texas. It was established as a limited liability company in February 1999 by five developers formerly of Rebel Boat Rocker. Randy Pitch ...

Nerve Software Nerve Software, LLC was an American video game developer that was co-founded by ex-id Software employee Brandon James. Many of the original employees at Nerve were previously employed by Rogue Entertainment, another U.S.-based software company ...

, Escalation Studios, and the now-defunct Paradigm Entertainment.

Games developed

Unreleased

* '' The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'' (PC) – canceled * ''SiN II'' publisher demo (2003, PC) – Ritual Entertainment made a

game demo A game demo is a trial version of a video game that is limited to a certain time period or a point in progress. A game demo comes in forms such as shareware, demo discs, downloadable software, and tech demos. Distribution In the early 1990s, ...

to show potential publishers. * '' Legacy of Kain: The Dark Prophecy'' (2004) – canceled * ''SiN Episode 2'' – canceled * ''Quake 4: Awakening'' – unreleased expansion pack for Quake 4

References

External links

Official website
via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

Ritualistic - Ritual's Online Community Hub
{{Authority control Companies based in Dallas Video game companies established in 1996 Video game companies disestablished in 2007 Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game development companies Defunct companies based in Texas 1996 establishments in Texas 2007 disestablishments in Texas