Wadjet Eye Games is an American independent

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developer, voice casting/directing contractor/subcontractor and publisher which specialises in point-and-click

adventure games An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

. It was founded in 2006 by Dave Gilbert as a means to publish his own games, but has since expanded to publishing games by other designers as well.

History

Gilbert produced '' The Shivah'' in 2006 for MAGS, the monthly one-month

Adventure Game Studio Adventure Game Studio (AGS) is an open source development tool primarily used to create graphic adventure games. It is aimed at intermediate-level game designers, and combines an integrated development environment (IDE) with a scripting language ...

game contest. After winning the contest, Gilbert continued to improve ''The Shivah'', adding voice acting and extra puzzles, then released it as a commercial title. It was originally sold via Manifesto Games, until Gilbert formed Wadjet Eye Games in order to sell it himself and move into game design full-time. In 2006, Wadjet Eye released '' The Blackwell Legacy'', the first in the '' Blackwell series''. This was followed in 2007 by the continuation of the series, ''Blackwell Unbound''. In February 2008, a publishing deal was announced between Wadjet Eye Games and

PlayFirst PlayFirst, Inc. is a Delaware based American publisher of casual games founded in 2004 by industry veterans. PlayFirst produced the ''Diner Dash'' series, which won the 2008 Annual Casual Game Awards. and has seen over 550 million downloads. ...

. Under the agreement, Wadjet Eye Games would develop a casual adventure game for PlayFirst. The resulting game, '' Emerald City Confidential'', a noir story set in L. Frank Baum's

Land of Oz The Land of Oz is a fantasy world introduced in the 1900 children's novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by William Wallace Denslow, W. W. Denslow. Oz consists of four vast quadrants, the Gillikin Countr ...

, was released on 19 February 2009. That year also saw the release of the third ''Blackwell'' game, ''The Blackwell Convergence''. In 2010, Wadjet Eye Games published the first game developed by somebody other than Gilbert; this was '' Puzzle Bots'', a casual puzzle game developed by Ivy Games. Further third-party games published by Wadjet Eye Games through 2011 and 2012 were '' Gemini Rue'', ''Da New Guys'', ''

Resonance Resonance is a phenomenon that occurs when an object or system is subjected to an external force or vibration whose frequency matches a resonant frequency (or resonance frequency) of the system, defined as a frequency that generates a maximu ...

'' and ''

Primordia A primordium (; : primordia; synonym: anlage), in embryology, is an organ or tissue in its earliest recognizable stage of development. Cells of the primordium are called primordial cells. A primordium is the simplest set of cells capable of tr ...

''. In February 2013 it was announced that Wadjet Eye Games would be publishing their first portable release, with ''Gemini Rue'' being ported to both

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

and

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

. At one point Wadjet Eye was planning a game based on comic books by

Vertigo Vertigo is a condition in which a person has the sensation that they are moving, or that objects around them are moving, when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. It may be associated with nausea, vomiting, perspira ...

Awards

Wadjet Eye Games was nominated for the ''Best New Studio'' award at the

Game Developers Choice Awards The Game Developers Choice Awards are awards annually presented at the Game Developers Conference for outstanding video game developer, game developers and video game, games. Introduced in 2001, the Game Developers Choice Awards were preceded by ...

in 2007, the same year that Gilbert received the AGS Lifetime Achievement Award In 2008,

Gamasutra ''Game Developer'' (known as ''Gamasutra'' until 2021) is a website created in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa TechTarget and acted as the online sister publication to the print maga ...

listed Wadjet Eye among their top 20 breakthrough developers.Gamasutra Top 20 Breakthrough Developers
(cited 20 October 2008)

Games

References

External links

* {{Wadjet Eye Games American companies established in 2006 Video game companies established in 2006 Privately held companies based in New York City Video game companies based in New York (state) Video game development companies Video game publishers 2006 establishments in New York City