Ritual Entertainment was an American

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for 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 ...

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 the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

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

History

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

American McGee's Alice ''American McGee's Alice'' is a 2000 third-person action-adventure video game developed by Rogue Entertainment under the direction of designer American McGee and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Games banner. The game was originally ...

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

id Tech 3 id Tech 3, popularly known as the ''Quake III Arena'' engine, is a game engine developed by id Software for their video game ''Quake III Arena''. It has been adopted by numerous games. During its time, it competed with the Unreal Engine; bot ...

, 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 ...

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

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

3D Realms 3D Realms Entertainment ApS is a video game publisher based in Aalborg, Denmark. Scott Miller (entrepreneur), Scott Miller founded the company in his parents' home in Garland, Texas, in 1987 as Apogee Software Productions to release his game ' ...

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 Hypnotix, Inc. was an American video game developer that was founded in 1993 and located in Little Falls, New Jersey. The company's highest-profile games were its "Outlaw" series of sports titles, which included Outlaw Golf, Outlaw Volleyball ...

. On January 24, 2007, developer MumboJumbo 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 series intended for radio, television or streaming consumption. The noun ''episode'' is derived from the Greek term ''epeisodion'' (), meaning th ...

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

id Software id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: game programmer, programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer T ...

, vice president and co-founder Tom Mustaine, who left to found

Escalation Studios Bethesda Game Studios Dallas LLC (formerly Escalation Studios, LLC) is an American video game developer based in Dallas, founded in 2007 by Tom Mustaine, Marc Tardif, and Shawn Green. The company was briefly owned by 6waves Lolapps in 2012 a ...

. Several months after the acquisition, community relations manager Steve Hessel left the company to join Splash Damage. 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 is an American 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 Pitchford, one of the founders, s ...

Nerve Software Nerve Software, LLC is 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. G ...

, and the now-defunct

Paradigm Entertainment Paradigm Entertainment Inc. (previously part of Paradigm Simulation) was an American video game development company. Paradigm is perhaps best known for its vehicle simulation games. Founded as a 3D computer graphics company in 1990, Paradigm pri ...

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 limit or a point in progress, which leads to the player buying the game if they liked it. A game demo comes in forms such as shareware, demo disc, downloadable s ...

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 ''Quake 4'' is a 2005 military science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Raven Software and published by Activision. It is the fourth title in the ''Quake'' series, after the multiplayer ''Quake III Arena'', and a sequel to ' ...

References

External links

Official website
via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

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