Free Lives (Pty) Ltd is a South African

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 developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...

based in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

. Founded in April 2012 and led by

creative director A creative director is a person who makes high-level creative decisions; oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos; and directs and translates the creative people who produce the end results. Creat ...

Evan Greenwood, Free Lives is best known for creating the video game ''

Broforce ''Broforce'' is a Side-scrolling video game, side-scrolling run and gun video game developed by Free Lives and published by Devolver Digital. The game has the player as one of several "bros", based on popular culture action movie icons (for examp ...

'' and has also developed the comedy game '' Genital Jousting'' and the

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 ...

game ''

Gorn The Gorn are a fictional extraterrestrial humanoid reptilian species in the American science-fiction franchise ''Star Trek''. They first appeared in a 1967 episode of the original series, "Arena", in which Captain Kirk fights an unnamed Gorn on ...

''. Free Lives' games have mostly been published by

Devolver Digital Devolver Digital, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Austin, Texas, specializing in the publishing of indie games. The company was founded in June 2009 by Nigel Lowrie, Harry Miller, Graeme Struthers, Rick Stults, and Mike Wil ...

, making them one of the most prolific developers under the Devolver brand.

History

Background

Free Lives was founded in April 2012 by video game programmer and creative director Evan Greenwood and is based on a property that is part studio, part house in

, South Africa. The titles developed by Free Lives do not sell well on the African continent and the studio's audience lies predominantly in the United States, as well as Europe, South America, and China. Free Lives staff have showcased their products at various North American and European

game convention A gaming convention is a gathering centered on role-playing games, collectible card games, Miniature wargaming, miniatures wargames, board games, video games, or other types of games. These conventions are typically two or three business days long, ...

s, and was part of the

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

press conference at

E3 2017 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017 (E3 2017) was the 23rd E3, during which hardware manufacturers and software developers and publishers from the video game industry presented new and upcoming products to the attendees, primarily retailers a ...

. As of 2017, some of the Free Lives staff lives on-site, making use of a communal kitchen.

Video games

Free Lives first got involved with the video game industry when the team entered ''Rambros'', a pixel art 2D

shooter game Shooter video games, or shooters, are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is on the defeat of the character's enemies using ranged weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range weapons, a ...

inspired by 1980s and 1990s action movies, in the April 2012

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 ...

game jam A game jam is an event where participants try to make a video game from scratch. Depending on the format, participants might work independently, or in teams. The event duration usually ranges from 24 to 72 hours. Participants are generally program ...

. ''Rambros'' was awarded for its graphics and humor at Ludum Dare, and Free Lives continued to expand and tweak the game in the following years. ''Rambros'' was soon renamed to ''

'' and was made freely available on the Free Lives website the next year. ''Broforce'' was first officially released through Steam Greenlight in 2013, and received a

spin-off Spin-off, Spin Off, Spin-Off, or Spinoff may refer to: Entertainment and media *Spinoff (media), a media work derived from an existing work *''The Spinoff'', a New Zealand current affairs magazine * ''Spin Off'' (Canadian game show), a 2013 Canad ...

titled ''The Expendabros'' in 2014. After one of the Free Lives team members met publisher

at the A Maze indie festival in Berlin, Devolver Digital signed the studio on and ''Broforce'' was published in 2015. Late 2016, Free Lives made the comedy game '' Genital Jousting'' available through the

Steam Early Access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alph ...

program. In this multiplayer party game, players attempt to move flaccid, disembodied penises into disembodied anuses. Though ''Genital Jousting'' has been described as "extraordinarily juvenile", it was designed in part to deliver a sex-positive message to an audience that might not come to hear it otherwise. The studio stated in its developer

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

that heterosexual men are socialized not to discuss how they feel about

anal sex Anal sex or anal intercourse principally means the insertion and pelvic thrusting, thrusting of the Erection, erect human penis, penis into a person's Human anus, anus, or anus and rectum, for sexual pleasure.Sepages 270–271for anal sex inform ...

or penises touching each other, and wrote: "we were highly motivated by the fact that Genital Jousting gave us a vehicle to have those discussions amongst ourselves." Greenwood told ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' that "at heart, the game is a play on masculinity, an attempt to disrupt entrenched notions of male power and authority." The game would not be allowed on major console platforms such as Xbox or PlayStation. When ''Genital Jousting'' was banned from

livestreaming Livestreaming, live-streaming, or live streaming is the streaming of video or audio in real time or near real time. While often referred to simply as ''streaming'', the real-time nature of livestreaming differentiates it from other non- liv ...

service

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...

, Nigel Lowrie of Devolver Digital contacted

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 ...

to see if the game could be livestreamed through the platform's internal broadcasting system. ''Genital Jousting'' became the first game to be broadcast through Steam's live streaming feature. On 10 July 2017, Free Lives released the

game ''Gorn'' for the

Oculus Rift Oculus Rift is a discontinued line of virtual reality headsets, virtual reality headsets developed and manufactured by Oculus VR, a virtual reality company founded by Palmer Luckey that is widely credited with reviving the virtual reality indust ...

and

HTC Vive HTC Vive is a line of Virtual reality, virtual and mixed reality Virtual reality headset, headsets produced by HTC, HTC Corporation. The brand currently encompasses headsets designed for use with Personal computer, personal computers as well a ...

on Steam Early Access. Described as a "ludicrously violent VR

gladiator A gladiator ( , ) was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their ...

simulator," ''Gorn'' features a physics-driven combat engine and a large amount of violent gore. Free Lives stated that they used the Early Access service in order to be able to expand the game with features players want to see. In October 2020, Free Lives partnered up with another independent video game development team to expand upon the video game '' Terra Nil''. Under Free Lives, the "reverse- city builder" puzzle game received a new art style and gameplay features. This version of ''Terra Nil'' released in 2023.

Success

In an interview with ''MyGaming'', Greenwood stated that the studio had made approximately off of ''Broforce'' sales by 2016. The entire Free Lives team moved to

Tamarin The tamarins are squirrel-sized New World monkeys from the family Callitrichidae in the genus ''Saguinus''. They are the first offshoot in the Callitrichidae tree, and therefore are the sister group of a clade formed by the lion tamarins, Go ...

on the

island nation An island country, island state, or island nation is a country whose primary territory consists of one or more islands or parts of islands. Approximately 25% of all independent countries are island countries. Island countries are historically ...

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

for three months in late 2016, using the profit from their success with ''Broforce''. Free Lives produced a video series here titled ''Game Jam Island'', in which they documented their experience developing a video game on the popular vacation island.

Games

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://freelives.net/ 2012 establishments in South Africa Companies based in Cape Town Indie game developers Video game companies established in 2012 Video game companies of South Africa Video game development companies