The Behemoth is an American

video game development Video game development (sometimes shortened to gamedev) is the process of creating a video game. It is a multidisciplinary practice, involving programming, design, art, audio, user interface, and writing. Each of those may be made up of more speci ...

company that was founded in 2003 by John Baez, artist

Dan Paladin Daniel Joseph Paladin (born September 14, 1979), also known as Synj, is an American video game artist, designer, and co-founder of the video game company The Behemoth. He began collaborating with Newgrounds creator Tom Fulp and in the early 200 ...

, and programmers

Tom Fulp Thomas Charles Fulp (born April 30, 1978) is an American programmer. He created the website Newgrounds and co-founded the video game company The Behemoth. Fulp has been credited with "changing the landscape of the Internet forever" by kickstart ...

, Brandon LaCava, and Nick Dryburgh. Dryburgh and LaCava later left the company. The Behemoth development studio is located in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

. The company is known for producing simple games with Paladin's signature 2D style. Its games are also known for their heavy arcade inspirations, especially among their early games, emulating genres common on the

Neo Geo The , stylized as NEO•GEO, is a video game platform released in 1990 by Japanese game company SNK Corporation. It was initially released in two ROM cartridge-based formats: an arcade system board (Multi Video System; MVS) and a home video gam ...

in particular (which Tom Fulp is a noted fan of).

History

During August 2002, Tom Fulp and Dan Paladin collaborated in creating the Flash game ''

Alien Hominid ''Alien Hominid'' is a run and gun video game developed by The Behemoth and first released as a Flash game on the multimedia website Newgrounds on August 7, 2002. It was originally developed in Adobe Flash by programmer and Newgrounds founder, ...

'' for

Newgrounds Newgrounds is an American entertainment website founded by Tom Fulp in 1995 and owned by Newgrounds.com, Inc. The site hosts user-generated content such as games, films, audio, and artwork. Fulp produces in-house content at the headquarters and ...

. The game has since become extremely popular and generated over twenty million hits. Later in the year, Paladin was working on developing a console video game when co-worker John Baez (game developer) approached him. He was a fan of Alien Hominid and asked Paladin if he was interested in developing the game for consoles. When Baez offered to produce the game, Fulp and Paladin eventually agreed, recruited LaCava and Dryburgh, and formed The Behemoth in 2003. Several details in their games reveal a connected universe between all of them. Their first

console Console may refer to: Computing and video games * System console, a physical device to operate a computer ** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device ** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...

game, ''

'', gained critical acclaim by the media and the members of The Behemoth quickly gained status as

indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media *Independent media, media free of influence by government or corporate interests *Indie art, fine arts made by artists independent of commer ...

developers focused on bringing old-school styles of video games back into mainstream gaming. Some of the minigames from ''Alien Hominid'' were ported to

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

in 2011. The Behemoth's second game, ''

Castle Crashers ''Castle Crashers'' is a beat 'em up video game developed and published by The Behemoth for the Xbox 360. It was originally released on August 27, 2008 by Microsoft Game Studios via Xbox Live Arcade as part of the Xbox Live Summer of Arcade. A Pl ...

'', was released August 27, 2008, originally for the

Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (or XBLA) was a video game Digital distribution in video games, digital distribution service that was available for the Xbox (console), Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles. It focused on smaller downloadable games from both major publisher ...

service, eventually re-releasing for the

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It is the successor to the PlayStation 2, and both are part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. The PS3 was first released on ...

on August 31, 2010, and

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 ...

OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

on September 26, 2012. Since its release on Xbox Live Arcade, ''Castle Crashers'' has become one of the most downloaded games, with over 2 million copies sold as of year-end 2010. A third title, ''

BattleBlock Theater ''BattleBlock Theater'' is a comedic platform game developed by The Behemoth and published by Xbox Game Studios, Microsoft Studios for Xbox 360, Windows, Mac, and Linux. It is the third title from The Behemoth following ''Alien Hominid'' and ''Cast ...

'', was released on April 3, 2013 on Xbox Live Arcade. The Windows, Linux, and macOS versions of ''

'' were released on Steam on May 15, 2014. ''

Pit People ''Pit People'' is a tactical role-playing game by indie game developer The Behemoth. An early access version for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One was released in January 2017 and the full version was released in March 2018. Gameplay Pit People ...

'' is a turn-based strategy game that was released for early access on

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

and was released for Xbox One on January 13, 2017. It was released on March 2, 2018. The Behemoth had long teased a "Game 5", which was announced in January 2020 as

Alien Hominid Invasion ''Alien Hominid Invasion'' is a 2023 Shoot 'em up#Types, run and gun video game developed by The Behemoth. It serves as a sequel/reimagining of The Behemoth's 2004 video game ''Alien Hominid'', originally released as a demo on Newgrounds on Augus ...

, which the developers said was not a remake or remaster of the original ''Alien Hominid'' but introduces new mechanics as an arcade shooter. It was released on November 1, 2023. In 2024, The Behemoth released an

endless runner Endless runner or infinite runner is a subgenre of platform game in which the player character runs for an infinite amount of time while avoiding obstacles. The player's objective is to reach a high score by surviving for as long as possible. Th ...

titled ''Behemoth'' on Steam. It allows players to take control of their mascot chicken. The same year, they also announced an "update roadmap" for all their previously released titles.

Games

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Behemoth, The 2003 establishments in California American companies established in 2003 Video game companies based in San Diego Video game companies established in 2003 Video game development companies Indie game developers Privately held companies based in California