Exient
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2023) |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 2000 |
| Headquarters | England |
| Website | Official website  |
Exient Limited is a British video game developer and publisher. Developing for handheld, mobile, console, VR and PC platforms, Having studios in the United Kingdom and Malta, Exient grew a name for designing and developing popular series' games to portable systems. It is known for its ports of various games in the Madden NFL, FIFA, Need for Speed, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour series for Electronic Arts and for developing numerous titles in the Angry Birds series. The company was incorporated in 2000 and began operations in January 2001.
History
[edit]Exient was founded by Charles Chapman and David Hawkins in 2001. Chapman began developing computer games at age 14 and graduated with a mathematics and computation degree from Keble College, Oxford. Hawkins worked with software engineering in automotive and switched to project management in games. They met when Hawkins, working for Atari, was looking for ideas for games and Chapman, impressed by Hawkins works, decided to found a development company.[1]
Up to 2013, the bulk of their development was for gaming platforms such as PSP, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy Advance but since 2014 their games have been developed for platforms including Android, iOS, PC and Console. Exient currently develops its games on a proprietary, in-house developed, engine named XGS, the Unity and Unreal Engine platforms.
In 2020, the company rebranded its publishing labels, Sad Puppy and Donut, to Exient Publishing.[2][3] In July 2022, an anonymous source told MCV/Develop that Exient was restructuring resulting in redundancies.[4] In August 2022, Exient produced a two hour long documentary titled "Lemmings: Can you dig it" on the history of the Lemmings series, featuring the original developers, alumni of DMA Design. The documentary was premiered at the Dundee Centre of Contemporary Arts (DCA) and released free to watch on YouTube.[5]
Games developed
[edit]Awards
[edit]| Game | Year | Ceremony / Publication | Award | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ultimate Sackboy (mobile) | 2023 | TIGA | Best Arcade Game | Nominated | |
| 2023 | Best Casual Game | Nominated | |||
| 2023 | Best Small Studio | Nominated | |||
| Diggs Nightcrawler | 2013 | Best Casual Game | Nominated | ||
| The Sims 3 | 2010 | BAFTA | Best Handheld Game | Nominated | |
| The Sims 3 (NDS) | 2010 | Gamescom | Best Mobile Title | Nominated | [9] |
| 2009 | Develop 100 | The World’s Most Successful Game Studios - 2009 Edition[10] | 67th | ||
| 2007 | The World’s Most Successful Game Studios - 2007 Edition [11][12] | 50th | |||
| 2005 | TIGA | Best Handheld Games Development Studio[13] |
Further reading
[edit]- GameSpot, August 15, 2005 – Review of WWE Aftershock Archived August 24, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
References
[edit]- ^ Hartford, Maggie (20 November 2008). "Game, set and match". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 5 January 2025.
- ^ Wallace, Chris (26 August 2020). "Exient rebrands its publishing labels as Exient Publishing". MCV/Develop. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
- ^ Partleton, Kayleigh (25 August 2020). "Exient rebrands Sad Puppy and Donut under Exient Publishing". PocketGamer.biz. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
- ^ Pavey, Vince (7 July 2022). "Exient restructuring to result in "unavoidable" redundancies — worse to come, says anonymous source". MCV. ISSN 1469-4832. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
- ^ Paprocki, Matt (25 August 2021). "Documentary about Amiga classic Lemmings due for game's 30th anniversary". Ars Technica.
- ^ "Ian Bickley at Exient Talks Bake Escape and Playtesting Mobile Games". Gamasutra. 17 May 2017. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
- ^ IGN, February 28, 2008 - FIFA Street 3 Review. A vast improvement over last year's mess, but still not a portable hit. by Craig Harris
- ^ Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, 01-NOV-2006. Review of NASCAR 07.
- ^ "EA nominated for several gamescon awards". Gaming Nexus.
- ^ "Home". develop100.com.
- ^ Develop 100 Retrieved 8 April 2008.
- ^ "MCV, Mar 12 2008, 4:17pm – Develop 100: UK studios triumphant in 2007. Michael French". Archived from the original on 13 March 2008. Retrieved 8 April 2008.
- ^ Tiga – List of 2006 finalists