Dinosaur Polo Club is an independent video game studio operated in New Zealand. It has developed two successful video games: '' Mini Metro'' and '' Mini Motorways''. The current CEO is Amie Wolken.

History

Dinosaur Polo Club was founded by two brothers, Peter and Robert Curry, in 2013. They had previously worked at game developer

PikPok Prodigy Design Limited, operating as PikPok, is a video game developer and publisher based in Wellington, New Zealand. Established in 1997, the company originally operated under the name Sidhe. In 2012, it introduced the PikPok brand to focus ...

in 2001 and attempted to create an indie studio in 2006 that eventually failed. The brothers first conceptualized their popular game ''Mini Metro'' during

Ludum Dare Ludum Dare (LD; , meaning 'to give a game', also referenced as LDJAM) is a game jam competition. It was founded by Geoff Howland and was first held in April 2002. It is currently run by Mike Kasprzak, who has been part of the team since the begi ...

where the brothers were challenged to make a game revolving around a minimalistic design. They decided to design a game about commuting. They continued to workshop the idea. The studio's first release was in 2014 when ''Mini Metro'' debuted in Steam Early Access. Then, it made its official Steam launch in 2015 before making its way to the App Store in 2016. During this time, Jamie Churchman joined the team to work on art and Rich Vreeland handled audio. The brothers continued with programming and design. In 2019,

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...

approached Dinosaur Polo Club and the two organizations formed a partnership. Apple gave the studio monetary support in exchange for ''Mini Motorways'' to launch on

Apple Arcade Apple Arcade is a video game subscription service offered by Apple Inc. It is available through a dedicated tab of the App Store on devices running iOS 13, visionOS, tvOS 13, iPadOS 13, and macOS Catalina or later. The service launched o ...

. Once the game saw success and eventually became available 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 ...

, Dinosaur Polo Club expanded from around eight employees to its current 26. In 2022, they also expanded their office size from 130 square meters to 550 square meters. The old building had two meeting rooms; the new one has seven. The studio hopes to use this new space to grow and create more games. Dinosaur Polo Club is currently working on a simulation PC-based game that is not part of the Mini series. The studio is also prototyping another game that would join the Mini franchise. It continues to update ''Mini Motorways'' by adding new locations where users can take control of a city's transportation. Overall, the studio's main aesthetic within its games is keeping a minimalist design. In July 2024, Dinosaur Polo Club simultaneously announced and cancelled a new project called ''Magic School''. Billed as a "maximalist simulation game," the concept grew in scope until it became clear the company would need a much bigger team to deliver.

Games

* '' Mini Metro'' (2015) * '' Mini Motorways'' (2019)

References

External links

* {{official website, https://dinopoloclub.com/ Video game studies New Zealand companies established in 2013 Video game companies of New Zealand