BulkyPix was a French company specializing in the development and publishing of video games, founded in December 2008 and dissolved in August 2016. The company published over 200 games, primarily for the mobile market and also for

web browsers A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on ...

and PC. It went into liquidation in August 2016. Notable successes include the games ''

My Brute ''My Brute'' is a fighting simulation video game with roleplaying elements first released in March 2009. Though an English-language game, it was developed by Motion Twin, a French online game provider. My Brute originated as a free browser-bas ...

'', ''

Saving Private Sheep Saving is income not spent, or deferred Consumption (economics), consumption. Methods of saving include putting money aside in, for example, a deposit account, a pension, pension account, an investment fund, or as cash. Saving also involves redu ...

'', ''

Autumn Dynasty ''Autumn Dynasty'' is a real-time strategy game developed by Singaporean studio Touch Dimensions, that used to be published by Bulkypix. Critical reception The game has a Metacritic score of 85% based on 12 critic reviews. References External li ...

'', '' The Sandbox'', '' Type:Rider'', ''

Joe Dever's Lone Wolf ''Joe Dever's Lone Wolf'' is a role-playing game video game developed by Italian studio Forge Reply and first published by Bulkypix for iOS on October 29, 2013. The game has since been ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. It is ...

'', and '' Please, Don't Touch Anything''.

History

BulkyPix was founded in December 2008 by former employees of

Vivendi Games Mobile Vivendi Games was an American video game publisher and holding company based in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1996 as CUC Software, the publishing subsidiary of CUC International, after the latter acquired video game companies Davidson & Associ ...

. BulkyPix was managed by a management committee. The company began by developing and publishing games on the iPhone before diversifying. Starting in 2010, the company had an office in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. The American market accounted for over 40% of the company's business. In early January 2011, the company acquired the studio Uacari. 18 months after the company was founded, Bulkypix raised its first round of funding with Oterma, an investment holding company in

SMEs Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) systems store energy in the magnetic field created by the flow of direct current in a superconducting coil which has been cryogenically cooled to a temperature below its superconducting critical t ...

. The goal was to expand the game catalog and accelerate

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

. In 2012, for the same purpose,

Axa Private Equity Ardian (formerly Axa Private Equity) is a France-based, independent private equity investment company, founded and managed by Dominique Senequier. It is one of the largest European-headquartered private equity funds. The company was originally ...

(renamed Ardian in 2013) became a shareholder in the company. That same year, the company announced a budget of several million dollars for

independent developers An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. ...

. The company began judicial restructuring proceedings on March 29, 2016, and without finding a buyer, it went into liquidation in August 2016.

Activities

Developer and publisher

BulkyPix's main activity was the development and publishing of video games. Among its original licenses created and developed in-house, its most famous games include ''

Hysteria Project ''Hysteria Project'' is a 2009 FMV adventure game developed and published by French studio BulkyPix for iOS and first released on the App Store on April 7, 2009. It was released as a PlayStation mini available for play on the PlayStation 3 ...

'', ''My Brute'', and ''Saving Private Sheep''. The list of the most famous published games of the company also includes '' Babel Rising'' in 2009, ''

Pix'n Love Rush ''Pix'n Love Rush'' is a platform game released for iOS, PlayStation Portable, and Ouya in 2010-2013. An updated version called ''Pix'n Love Rush DX'' was released only for iOS on December 16, 2010. Reception The iOS and PSP versions receive ...

'' in 2010, '' Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition'' and '' PyramidValley Adventure'' in 2011, ''Autumn Dynasty'' and ''The Sandbox'' in 2012, '' CandyMeleon'' and ''Type:Rider'' in 2013.

Service and consulting activities

One of BulkyPix's main activities was creating games and applications for clients: * Licensed games: ''

Tout le monde veut prendre sa place ''Tout le monde veut prendre sa place'' (sometimes abbreviated TLMVPSP) (English translation: ''Everyone Wants to Take His/Her Place'') is a French television game show, broadcast since 3 July 2006, produced by Air Productions and Effervescence. ...

Online'', ''Questions pour un champion Online'', ''Fort Boyard'', '' Le Village de Calimero'', '' Le Petit Nicolas: La Grande Course''; *

Advergames An advergame is a form of advertising in video games, in which the video game is developed by or in close collaboration with a corporate entity for purposes of advertising a brand-name product. While other video games may use in-game advertising (s ...

EDF EDF may refer to: Organisations * Eclaireurs de France, a French Scouting association * Education for Development Foundation, a Thai charity * Électricité de France, a French energy company ** EDF Energy, their British subsidiary ** EDF Luminus, ...

Veolia Veolia Environnement S.A., branded as Veolia, is a French transnational company with activities in three main service and utility areas traditionally managed by public authorities – water management, waste management and energy services. It p ...

, Siemens,

Hachette Hachette may refer to: * Hachette (surname) * Hachette (publisher), a French publisher, the imprint of Lagardère Publishing ** Hachette Book Group, the American subsidiary ** Hachette Distribution Services, the distribution arm See also * Hachett ...

, Française des Jeux, M6,

France Télévisions France Télévisions (; stylized since 2018 as ) is the French national public television broadcaster. It is a state-owned company formed from the integration of the public television channels France 2 (formerly Antenne 2) and France 3 (forme ...

; *

Serious games A serious game or applied game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. The "serious" adjective is generally prepended to refer to video games used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, he ...

: recruitment game for the

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in th ...

, awareness game for CODAH, learning game for the Association for Research in Cardiology from Fetus to Adult; * Others: official applications for the

Louvre Museum The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

, the

Musée Fabre The Musée Fabre is a museum in the southern French city of Montpellier, capital of the Hérault ''département''. The museum was founded by François-Xavier Fabre, a Montpellier painter, in 1825. Beginning in 2003, the museum underwent a 61.2 ...

, the

Charles de Gaulle Foundation Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...

Research and development

BulkyPix worked on several research and development projects in the field of interactivity and video games. In 2011, a research project on interactive video on smartphones was funded by an innovation grant from Oséo. BulkyPix collaborated with the

Institut de recherche en informatique de Toulouse The Institut de recherche en informatique de Toulouse (IRIT) is a joint research unit (UMR 5505) in France, whose main site is located on the campus of Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier University in the Rangueil district of Toulouse, in Occitani ...

(IRIT) on topics such as

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience that combines the real world and computer-generated content. The content can span multiple sensory Modality (human–computer interaction), modalities, including visual, Hearing, auditory, hap ...

and

geolocation Geopositioning, also known as geotracking, geolocalization, geolocating, geolocation, or geoposition fixing, is the process of determining or estimating the geographic position of an object. Geopositioning yields a set of geographic coordinates ...

. In 2012, the company led the "Polymathic" project labeled by

Cap Digital Cap Digital is a business cluster, started in 2006, a French public agency dedicated to the development of the Innovative Economy in the Île-de-France region, and in France. Governance President : Henri Verdier, directeur général MFG-R&D ...

as part of the call for projects "Digitization and valorization technologies for cultural, scientific, and educational contents" developed in partnership with CNAM,

Kylotonn Kylotonn SARL is a French video game development studio founded in 2006 in Paris. They are best known for their racing games, and are the official developer of the ''World Rally Championship'' video game series since 2015. History 4X Studi ...

, MocapLab, and XediX.{{Cite web , date=2013-07-24 , title=Appel d'offre dans le cadre du projet Polymathic , url=https://afjv.com/news/2722_appel-d-offre-dans-le-cadre-du-projet-polymathic.htm , access-date=2024-05-02 , website=AFJV , language=fr

References

Video game development companies Video game publishers Video game companies of France Companies established in 2008 Defunct video game companies of France Companies disestablished in 2016 Companies based in Paris-Saclay BulkyPix games