Blendo Games is an American

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

development company based in

Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. It is mostly surrounded by Los Angeles, but also shares a border with the unincorporated area of Ladera Heights, Californi ...

. It was founded by Brendon Chung in 2010 and is primarily a one-person effort. Blendo Games gained more widespread exposure with '' Gravity Bone'' and ''

Flotilla A flotilla (from Spanish, meaning a small ''flota'' ( fleet) of ships), or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet. Composition A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same cla ...

''. The following ''

Atom Zombie Smasher ''Atom Zombie Smasher'' is a real-time strategy game developed by independent developer Blendo Games. In it, the player attempts to rescue as many citizens as possible from an oncoming zombie horde using helicopter rescue units and an array of ...

'' was met with critical praise. The studio has also released several other games in several genres.

Background

Chung had done hobbyist programming, such as

modding Modding (from "modifying") is the act of modifying hardware, software, or anything else to perform a function not originally intended by the designer, or to achieve bespoke specification or appearance. The term is often used in reference to vid ...

for games like ''

Quake 2 ''Quake II'' is a 1997 first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by Activision. It is the second installment of the ''Quake'' series, following '' Quake''. Developed over the course of a year, ''Quake II'' was released ...

'' and ''

Half-Life Half-life is a mathematical and scientific description of exponential or gradual decay. Half-life, half life or halflife may also refer to: Film * Half-Life (film), ''Half-Life'' (film), a 2008 independent film by Jennifer Phang * ''Half Life: ...

'', for about a decade before being hired as a designer at

Pandemic Studios Pandemic Studios, LLC was an American video game developer based in Westwood, Los Angeles. Andrew Goldman and Josh Resnick founded the studio in 1998 after leaving Activision. Pandemic Studios, alongside BioWare, was acquired in 2005 by Elevation ...

. While there, he worked on '' The Lord of the Rings: Conquest'' and '' Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers'', although he continued to work on personal projects including an episodic ''Citizen Abel'' series that toyed with traditional mechanics of

first-person shooters A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...

. Chung considered his first officially released game to be the espionage game '' Gravity Bone'' in 2008. In November 2009,

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

shut down Pandemic Studios and Chung began development on ''

'', a space combat game that takes cues from an abandoned personal project Chung had worked on previously. ''Flotilla'' was released in 2010. Later that same year, Blendo Games released ''Air Forte'', an

edutainment Educational entertainment, also referred to by the portmanteau edutainment, is media designed to education, educate through entertainment. The term has been used as early as 1933. Most often it includes content intended to teach but has inciden ...

game in which the player indicates their knowledge about math, geography, and vocabulary by flying a plane in response to prompts. In 2011, Chung released

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, tur ...

game ''

'', which received critical praise from several outlets and was featured at the 2011

Penny Arcade Expo PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of gaming culture festivals involving tabletop, arcade, and video gaming. PAX is held annually in Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, and Melbourne. Previously, it was also held in San Anton ...

, as well as being part of the 3rd

Humble Indie Bundle Humble Bundle, Inc. is a digital storefront for video games, which grew out of its original offering of Humble Bundles, collections of games sold at a price determined by the purchaser and with a portion of the price going towards charity and ...

charity drive. A sequel to ''Gravity Bone'', ''Thirty Flights of Loving'', was developed to support a

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

project for the

Idle Thumbs Idle Thumbs is a video game culture website and podcast network founded in 2004. Until May 2018, it published a weekly video game podcast of the same name hosted by various former and current video game journalists and developers including Chri ...

podcast, and released in 2012.Meer, Alec (February 28, 2012)
"Gravity Bone’s Sequel: Thirty Flights Of Loving"
Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved March 7, 2012. Following ''Thirty Flights of Loving'', Chung began what would become over four years of development on '' Quadrilateral Cowboy'', which released in 2016. ''Flotilla 2'', a

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

sequel to ''Flotilla,'' was released in August 2018. In October 2018, a new project titled '' Skin Deep'' was revealed to be in development at Blendo Games, with a later announcement in 2021 revealing that

Annapurna Interactive Annapurna Games, LLC (trade name: Annapurna Interactive) is an American video game publisher and developer. The company is a division of Annapurna Pictures, and was founded in 2016, and has focused on publishing innovative and emotive indie games ...

would publish the game. ''Skin Deep'' would be released in April 2025.

Culture

Blendo Games remains a one-man studio, though according to a 2016 feature in

Gamasutra ''Game Developer'' (known as ''Gamasutra'' until 2021) is a website created in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa TechTarget and acted as the online sister publication to the print maga ...

, Chung spends some time working in a shared office space called Glitch City. He has also directly collaborated with several individuals on several projects. The musical score of ''

Thirty Flights of Loving ''Thirty Flights of Loving'' is a first-person adventure video game developed by Brendon Chung under the name Blendo Games. It was published in August 2012 for Microsoft Windows, in November 2012 for OS X, and in December 2021 for Linux. The ga ...

'' was composed by

Chris Remo Chris Remo is an American video game designer, composer, writer, podcaster, and former journalist. As a journalist, he cofounded the original Idle Thumbs website as well as its flagship podcast, and served as Editor-in-Chief of Shacknews and ...

, and the design of ''Quadrilateral Cowboy'' was a joint effort between Chung and Tynan Wales. The

Mac Mac or MAC may refer to: Common meanings * Mac (computer), a line of personal computers made by Apple Inc. * Mackintosh, a raincoat made of rubberized cloth * Mac, a prefix to surnames derived from Gaelic languages * McIntosh (apple), a Canadi ...

and

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

ports of ''Quadrilateral Cowboy'' were done by Aaron Melcher, and the game's art book was ported to those same platforms by Ethan Lee. Chung has also indicated he gets play testing help from his friends and family.

''Barista''

''Barista'' is a series of four first-person games for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

by Brendon Chung. All of the games involve the player character waking up. The first game is a

mod Mod, MOD or mods may refer to: Places * Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band * M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US * ...

ification for '' Doom II: Hell on Earth.'' In an interview, Chung stated that his inspirations for the first game included the '' Doom Bible'' and Bungie's ''

Marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...

''. Chung has indicated the second game was an independent study project developed while he was in college. It centers on a nameless spaceship pilot, and features a disjointed story line. There are several characters featured, including a talking skull and an unidentified woman. The skull mentions a person named Hannah, though when an interviewer suggested the unidentified woman was Hannah, Chung said "she's not Hanna. You never meet Hanna." The third game is a modification for ''

Doom 3 ''Doom 3'' is a 2004 first-person shooter, first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by Activision. ''Doom 3'' was originally released for Microsoft Windows on August 3, 2004, adapted for Linux later that year, and Vide ...

''. Chung has indicated he developed the game so he could learn the constraints of the

Id Tech 4 id Tech 4, popularly known as the ''Doom 3'' engine, is a game engine developed by id Software and first used in the video game ''Doom 3''. The engine was designed by John D. Carmack, John Carmack, who also created previous game engines, such a ...

engine before using it on a larger project. The fourth game is a modification for ''

Half-Life 2 ''Half-Life 2'' is a 2004 first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It was published for Windows on Valve's digital distribution service, Steam. Like the original ''Half-Life'' (1998), ''Half-Life 2'' is played ent ...

''.

Games

References

External links

*
Interview with Brendon Chung
{{Blendo Games American companies established in 2010 Video game companies established in 2010 Companies based in Culver City, California Privately held companies based in California Video game companies based in Greater Los Angeles Video game development companies 2010 establishments in California Indie game developers