Casual Collective

Kixeye (stylized as KIXEYE, formerly known as Casual Collective) is a video game company founded in July 2007 and headquartered in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
The company creates, develops and publishes massively multiplayer online real-time strategy games (MMORTS) for PC and mobile devices. Kixeye gained popularity as a pioneer in midcore action games featuring real-time combat on the social networking website Facebook.Cutler, Kim-Mai
Kixeye Is The Lucrative Dark Horse of Facebook Gaming
''TechCrunch''. April 18, 2012. Following their initial launch, Kixeye's games generated twenty times more revenue per daily active user than other social games, retaining active users five times longer on average.Gaudiosi, John
Kixeye Kicking to the Curb Notion of Boring Facebook Games
''Forbes''. April 5, 2012.

Titles include ''Rogue Assault'', ''Battle Pirates'', '' War Commander'', '' Vega Conflict'', and ''Rise of Firstborn''.

History

Beginnings

Developers David Scott and Paul Preece founded Kixeye as Casual Collective in Berkshire, England to "make games that we grew up playing and that we love playing."Ayzenberg A-List Summit John Getze Kixeye Interview
''GamerLiveTV''. March 1, 2012. They initially started by developing thirteen Flash games.Social Games Don't Have to Suck
''YouTube''. August 18, 2011

In mid-2009 when searching for new venues for their strategy games, Scott and Preece decided to move their Flash knowledge to Facebook.Takahashi, Dean
Kixeye's War Commander brings real time strategy to Facebook gaming
''Venture Beat''. September 13, 2011. After developing ''Minions on Ice'' and ''TSG: Missions'' as Casual Collective, they hired Will Harbin (co-founder of Affinity Labs) as CEO and moved the company's headquarters to San Francisco from Berkshire, England. They developed ''Desktop Tower Defense'', a tower defense game for Facebook.Takahashi, Dean
Kixeye re-brands and pivots into hardcore social games with Battle Pirates
''VentureBeat''. April 28, 2011. After its release in December 2009, the game reached 675,000 monthly active users and produced more revenue in one day than their previous games made in one month.

In 2010, Casual Collective released ''Backyard Monsters''. After three months, it had 500,000 monthly active users, and by July 2010, it had 4.5 million monthly active users. The game reached 2.5 million active users per month, 580,000 active users per day, with a 23 percent retention rate.Hyman, Paul
Gaming the New Era of Facebook
''Gamasutra''. February 9, 2011. An average play session lasted greater than 30 minutes, players averaged between three and four sessions a day, and retention was over seven months.Takahashi, Dean
Kixeye quietly makes big bucks on hardcore Facebook games
''Venture Beat''. March 16, 2012. The game earned a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars, with over 500,000 votes. Gamezebo gave ''Backyard Monsters'' 4.5 out of 5 stars, and said, "To release a game of this calibre for free on Facebook is a real achievement." ''Backyard Monsters'' won the Mochi Award for Best Social Game of 2010.

2011-2014

After a company name rebrand in late April 2011, Kixeye launched ''War Commander'' and ''Battle Pirates'' on the Facebook Games platform. These games stood as the only midcore action games with real-time combat at the time. Both games grew immensely, with a majority of users joining organically in a six-month window between 2012 and 2013.

In 2011, VentureBeat stated that Kixeye's game ''War Commander'' "Represents a big step forward in the evolution of Facebook games." Facebook banner ads continue to draw in new players.

In 2012, the company sparked a small controversy after they released a video advertising for programmers that an article interpreted as sexist, and which the article argued represented a common problem of sexism in tech industries. A response from their female vice president of engineering stated that the video was misinterpreted by the journalist, and was not intended as sexist.

Later that year, Kixeye took action against racism by laying off employees reported for misconduct, following a former contractor post on Tumblr.

In 2013, Vega Conflict, a spiritual successor to ''Battle Pirates'' set in space, launched on Flash but was quickly rebuilt in Unity. The game became Kixeye's first cross-platform title, with players able to play on mobile, Steam, and browser.

2015-present

In 2016, Kixeye launched mobile game '' War Commander: Rogue Assault'', the prequel to '' War Commander''.

In 2019, Kixeye headquarters moved from the San Francisco office (now closed) to the Victoria, British Columbia office, and Clayton Stark was appointed CEO.

On June 3, 2019, Kixeye was acquired by the Stillfront Group for US$90 million.

List of games

As ''Kixeye'' (April 2011- onward):
;''Battle Pirates''
Released in May 2011, ''Battle Pirates'' is a real-time strategy game.

In the year 2067, a terrorist-sparked world war has wiped out 95% of life on Earth. Survivors are split into five factionsRao, Leena
Gaming Startup The Casual Collective Rebrands as Kixeye; Launches Battle Pirates on Facebook
''Tech Crunch''. April 28, 2011. that engage in bloody battle on the high seas.

;''War Commander''
'' War Commander'' is an MMORTS that entered exclusive beta access to IGN readers on September 1, 2011, and soon after in open public beta on September 13, 2011. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic landscape thirty years after civilization and governments have collapsed. In the game, people are divided into small, warring factions fighting for control of Earth's remaining natural resources.

;''Vega Conflict''
'' Vega Conflict'' is a real-time strategy game launched in August 2013. Originally built in Flash, ''Vega Conflict'' was rebuilt in Unity in 2014 and became Kixeye's first cross-platform title. Users all occupy the same server but can play on browser, on mobile, or via Steam.

The game focuses on the Vega Federation, a space empire that subjects miners to harsh working conditions in an attempt to find valuable Blood Amber. The miners begin to rebel, drawing more enemies and allies into the fray. Players seek out blueprints to unlock more powerful ships and weapons, forming the ultimate fleet of spaceships to bring to events or PvP combat.

;'' War Commander: Rogue Assault''
''War Commander: Rogue Assault'' is a mobile-based massively multiplayer online real-time strategy game. It takes place in a hypothetical post-apocalyptic World War III era. Players build and train their armies in an effort to take control of the remaining world with the help of their alliance.

''War Commander: Rogue Assault'' was released in December 2016 and developed with the help of ''Command & Conquer'' creator Louis Castle.Venture Beat
/ref> ''War Commander: Rogue Assault'' is a free-to-play game available on both iOS and Android platforms.

;''Siege: Apocalypse''
''Siege Apocalypse'' is a free-to-play real-time strategy video game. It is a prequel to ''War Commander: Rogue Assault''. Players engage in PVP battles with the objective to destroy the opponent's base. Players can earn and deploy units and tactics via collectible cards.

''Siege: Apocalypse'' was released in January 2022 and is available on iOS and Android platforms.

;''Rise of Firstborn''
Rise of Firstborn is a free-to-play 4X strategy mobile game originally developed by Netmarble and published by Kixeye in 2021. The game was previously known as ''Iron Throne''. Players collect heroes and build a kingdom where they can ally with other players in world PVP.

Discontinued games

Kixeye has developed multiple titles in its time that either made it to live and have since been shelved. This list includes the original tower defense game, ''Desktop Defender''; a browser-based MOBA called ''Tome: Immortal Arena''; and the game ''Backyard Monsters'', which inspired much of the base-building RTS genre that followed.

;''Backyard Monsters''
Development of ''Backyard Monsters'' started in 2009, but the game was not released until January 2010 as ''Desktop Creatures'' before being renamed by fan vote to ''Backyard Monsters''. ''Backyard Monsters'' was released as a real-time strategy game on Facebook with "destruction and gore and mayhem", unlike other Facebook games at the time. In ''Backyard Monsters'', players build a yard for their monsters, designed so that essential buildings are protected by defensive towers. If the player's yard is designed correctly, the defenses stop invading monsters who try to damage the buildings and loot resources.Ashby, Alicia
Backyard Monsters Review
''GameZebo''. May 7, 2010. ''Backyard Monsters: Unleashed'' was a port to iOS released in October 2013.

Executive producer David Scott said he designed the game to "be able to play a eal-time strategygame in short sessions."Gibbons, Pat
An Interview with Dave Scott, Backyard Monsters' Executive Producer
. ''Gamers Daily News''. March 18, 2012. An expansion for ''Backyard Monsters'' titled ''Inferno'' was released in January 2012 and in November 2012 a new world map was released. In addition to this, ''Backyard Monsters'' also had outposts in the new world map when the new world map update came.

On February 18, 2013, the Kongregate version of ''Backyard Monsters'' was shut down.

''Backyard Monsters'' is no longer supported and player numbers have fallen significantly since its inception shortly after the final Hell-Raisers event held on March 26, 2013. It was closed down at the demise of Flash on December 31, 2020.

Despite its closure and abandonment, community efforts to preserve the online-only game gained traction on Reddit. In early 2023, Reddit use
u/React_X
lead and started development of a working archived copy of the game from browser caches and attempted to emulate the missing server component which was required in order for the game to work correctly. He and
small team on Discord
collated multiple caches from different users who played the game before it was taken offline. In 2024, the team released the first alpha version of the archived game titled
Backyard Monsters: Refitted
which only featured a single player mode. Later in that year, the team released the beta version of the game which brought back the Map and multiplayer functionality. The Backyard Monsters: Refitted project is a
open-source initiative hosted on GitHub
not officially supported or sanctioned by Kixeye, created by passionate fans of the original Backyard Monsters game for the purpose of game preservation and not for profit.

;''Desktop Defender''
In ''Desktop Defender'', players defended their desktop from creatures called "creeps." Players deployed defensive turrets to attack anything in range. Each defeated creep rewarded players with coins, which players could use to unlock new towers that shot frost, ink, swarms of missiles and other defenses. Players could also purchase special bonus powers that slowed down enemies, sped up tower guns and caused damage.

''Desktop'' is no longer supported by Kixeye long before the demise of Flash on December 31, 2020.

;''Minions''
''Minions'' briefly entered beta testing and was then fully released on November 18, 2008. The game was discontinued with the demise of Flash on December 21, 2020. The MOBA game was played by two teams of one to six players. In the initial phase of the game each player selected or was randomly assigned one of eight "minions" to play as, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Two of these minions require the purchase of a "Bonus Pack" to be selected. Settings were customizable, including the number of players, and manual or automatic minion selection.

After minion selection, players advanced with the goal of destroying enemy minions and towers. The field was two dimensional, and scrolled vertically, with the two teams spawning in bases at opposite sides of the map. A team was victorious when it destroyed the tower at the heart of the enemy's base.

;''Tome: Immortal Arena''
''Tome: Immortal Arena'' was a Multiplayer online battle arena. Development ended February 5, 2015. The game was shut down on May 17, 2015.

----

As ''Casual Collective'' with their defunct web portal (2008- early 2011):

Seventeen original Flash games on old Casual Collective's online web portal in 2008 to early 2011.

* ''Attack of the Buggles'' (AotB)
* ''Backyard Monsters''
* ''Battle Pirates'' (Beta version on old site before company's name change & new site)
* ''Buggle Connect'' (Formerly called ''Buggle'' in January–November 2008)
* ''Buggle Stars''
* ''Desktop Armada'' (Single player title: ''DA: Missions'' in January–November 2008)
* ''Desktop Defender'' (New version of ''Desktop Tower Defence'')
* ''Desktop TD Pro'' (Formerly called ''MPDTD'' in January–November 2008 - probably being "Multi Player Desktop Tower Defence")
* ''Farragomate''
* '' Flash Element TD'' (Old title in January 2008. Closed before December 2008.)
* ''Flash Element TD 2'' (FETD 2)
* ''Minions''
* ''Minions on Ice''
* ''Push''
* ''Splitter 2''
* ''The Space Game'' (TSG)
* ''TSG: Missions''

References

External links

*
* Last best archive version of Casual Collective's website (just one month before company changed name to Kixeye, & this site was abandoned){{Cite web , url=http://www.casualcollective.com/ , title=The Casual Collective's site redesign (1 month before name change) , website=Casual Collective's site redesign , date=2011 , access-date=May 25, 2024 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110321171035/http://www.casualcollective.com/ , archive-date=March 21, 2011 , url-status=dead

Browser-based game websites
Internet properties established in 2007
Video game development companies
Video game companies of Canada