Squanch Games (formerly known as Squanchtendo) is an American

video game development Video game development (sometimes shortened to gamedev) is the process of creating a video game. It is a multidisciplinary practice, involving programming, design, art, audio, user interface, and writing. Each of those may be made up of more speci ...

studio based in

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank had a Census-estimated population of 102,755 as of 2023. The city was ...

. The company was founded by

Justin Roiland Mark Justin Roiland (born February 21, 1980) is an American voice actor, animator, writer, and producer. He co-created the Adult Swim animated sitcom ''Rick and Morty'', for which he voiced the protagonists Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith from 2013 ...

in August 2016. The studio is most known for developing ''

Accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entity, economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activit ...

'' (2016), '' Trover Saves the Universe'' (2019) and '' High on Life'' (2022). The company has offices in

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...

, and Burbank, California.

Company

, the co-creator and former voice actor behind the ''

Rick and Morty ''Rick and Morty'' is an American Adult animation, adult animated science fiction Animated sitcom, sitcom created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon for Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult Swim. The series follows the misadvent ...

'' series, founded Squanchtendo on August 25, 2016, in partnership with Tanya Watson, who previously worked as an executive producer at

Epic Games Epic Games, Inc. is an American Video game developer, video game and software development, software developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney (game developer), Tim Sween ...

. Roiland previously worked on ''

Pocket Mortys ''Pocket Mortys'', also known as ''Rick and Morty: Pocket Mortys'', is a free-to-play role-playing video game developed by Big Pixel Studios, Tag Games and Pocket Sized Hands and published by Adult Swim Games. The game was released worldwide on Ja ...

'', a mobile game in the ''Rick and Morty'' franchise, in conjunction with

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representativ ...

and s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...

. He formed the studio with the intention of developing

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 ...

games, a passion he had since 2015, being one of the earliest backers 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 ...

virtual reality headset. Roiland first met Watson through Ophir Lupu,

United Talent Agency United Talent Agency (UTA) is a global talent agency based in Beverly Hills, California. Established in 1991, it represents artists and other professionals across the entertainment industry. , the company has more than 1,400 global employees. ...

's head of games. Watson, using her contacts at Epic Games, helped the studio to expand and recruit talents. "Squanch" is a planet in the ''Rick and Morty'' franchise, while "tendo" is a

wordplay Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, phone ...

of video game publisher

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

, though the company changed its name in 2017 to just "Squanch Games" after being advised by a lawyer. The studio's first game was ''

'', a VR exploration game released in 2016. The game was developed in collaboration with

Crows Crows Crows William Pugh (born 1994/1995) is a British game designer best known for his work on ''The Stanley Parable'', and for founding the game development studio Crows Crows Crows. Early life and career William Pugh's parents are art teachers. H ...

and William Pugh, the designer of ''

The Stanley Parable ''The Stanley Parable'' is a 2013 story-based video game designed and written by developers Davey Wreden and William Pugh (game designer), William Pugh. The game carries themes such as choice in video games, the relationship between a game cre ...

''. An expanded version of the game, ''Accounting+'', which doubles the length of the original game, was released in December 2017. In August 2018, the company acquired the trademark for ''Radical Heights'', a defunct

battle royale Battle Royale may refer to: * Battle royale, or battle royal, a fight among many combatants ** Battle royal (professional wrestling) Fiction and literature * Battle royale genre, a narrative genre of films, manga, anime and visual novels inspire ...

game, from

Boss Key Productions Boss Key Productions, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in April 2014 by Cliff Bleszinski and Arjan Brussee, formerly of Epic Games, the company developed ''LawBreakers'' (2017) and ''Radical He ...

. The studio then went on to work on ''Dr. Splorchy Presents: Space Heroes'', a project for

Google Daydream Daydream is a discontinued virtual reality (VR) platform which was developed by Google, primarily for use with a headset into which a smartphone is inserted. It is available for select phones running the Android mobile operating system (versi ...

, and '' Trover Saves the Universe''. Unlike the studio's previous games, which was considered to be a more experiential project, ''Trover Saves the Universe'' is "significant in length experience". While ''Trover'' features VR component, it is not a requirement as the team wanted the game to reach a larger audience. The game was released in 2019 to generally positive reviews. In January 2021, Watson left the studio, and Roiland assumed the position of the company's

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

. The company's latest video game is '' High on Life'', a comedic

first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...

released in December 2022.

Legal issues

In January 2023, it was revealed a former employee sued Squanch Games back in 2018 over alleged sexual harassment, discrimination, and wrongful termination. According to court documents, the studio denied the claims but later settled. Later that month, Squanch Games announced that Justin Roiland had resigned from his position at the studio.

Games developed

References

External links

* {{Justin Roiland Companies based in Burbank, California Video game development companies 2016 establishments in California Video game companies based in California Video game companies established in 2016 Indie game developers