DoubleBear Productions

DoubleBear Productions
Private
Founded 2009
Headquarters Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Key people
 Brian Mitsoda, Creative Director
Annie Mitsoda, game designer
Website http://www.doublebearproductions.com

DoubleBear Productions is an indie game studio founded in June 2009[1][2] by writer and game designer Brian Mitsoda.

Founding

In both the Making of Dead State book and various interviews, Brian Mitsoda stated that his primary motive for founding DoubleBear was to make the games that he wanted to create, and not have to worry about the heartbreak of a publisher changing their mind and killing the project:

“ The thing you really take away from it is that unless you are in charge of the project 100%, it’s completely out of your hands whether the project gets torpedoed. The team could think it’s the best game they’ve ever created, but the business side of things changes all the time and it’s one bad quarter or new CEO away from being sunk. The money is good (sometimes) in triple-A development to make up for the inherent unpredictability, but I (and others) can’t really live with years of good work never seeing the light of day.[3] ”

Regarding the studio's peculiar name, Mitsoda said:

“ Annie and I were looking at a list of silly D&D monsters when I suggested the “DoubleBear” as the ultimate monster, pointing out that since it was two bears acting as one, there was no way to sneak up on it or attack it from the back. A picture was drawn and photos were taken. When it was time to name the company, it won the second it was suggested.[4] ”

Projects

Dead State

DoubleBear's first project was Dead State, a turn-based PC RPG set in a zombie apocalypse scenario.[5][6][7] The studio worked with Iron Tower Studio on the project, and the game utilized The Age of Decadence's game engine.[8] Information regarding the theme and setting was divulged in a Rock, Paper, Shotgun article, including a quote from Mitsoda that reveals that one of the goals of the game is a "serious examination of a national crisis or natural disaster,"[9] and that the game draws inspiration from Mitsoda's own experiences living in Miami, Florida during Hurricane Andrew.[10]

Dead State launched a successful Kickstarter campaign in summer 2012,[11] released on Steam Early Access on February 2014,[12] and had a final release on Steam and GoG.com on December 4, 2014.[13] The game was supported with multiple free updates afterwards, culminating in the final Reanimated update, meant to act as a definitive edition of the game.[14]

Second Project

While DoubleBear has not formally announced their second project, the team has made various references to it on their Twitch streams,[15] and mentioned that they had "pretty exciting (and very fun) projects in the works" in their Dead State postmortem on Gamasutra.[16]

References

  1. ↑ "DoubleBear Productions". Blue's News. August 6, 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-06.
  2. ↑ "Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines Writer Founds DoubleBear Productions". Cinemablend. August 6, 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-06.
  3. ↑ "Brian Mitsoda – DoubleBear". MemoryLeak. September 10, 2012. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  4. ↑ Evans, Chris (August 10, 2009). "DoubleBear Productions on ZRPG and the Bears". The Reticule. Retrieved 2009-08-10.
  5. ↑ Kieron Gillen (August 25, 2010). "A Blood Red State: Dead State Revealed". Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
  6. ↑ "ZRPG". Iron Tower Studio. August 6, 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-05.
  7. ↑ "Brian Mitsoda Announces DoubleBear Productions". GameBanshee. August 5, 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-05.
  8. ↑ "This Is Like That Thing Annie Carlson Is Working On". RPG Codex. August 5, 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-05.
  9. ↑ Kieron Gillen (August 7, 2009). "Obsidian Veterans to Make Zombie RPG". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
  10. ↑ Ng, Keane (August 11, 2009). "Designing a "Serious" Zombie RPG". The Escapist. Retrieved 2009-08-11.
  11. ↑ DoubleBear Productions. "Dead State: The Zombie Survival RPG". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2015-12-08.
  12. ↑ "Dead State Early Access on Steam – First looks". Apocalypsezone.com. Apocalypsezone. Retrieved 2014-02-20.
  13. ↑ Corgipede (December 4, 2014). "IT'S HERE - Dead State's Official Release!". Steam. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  14. ↑ Corgipede (May 13, 2015). "Dead State: Reanimated is here!". Steam. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  15. ↑ "DoubleBear Twitch Stream". Twitch. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  16. ↑ Brian Mitsoda (March 11, 2015). "Postmortem: DoubleBear's Dead State - Controlling scope in an RPG". gamasutra.com. Gamasutra. Retrieved 2015-12-08.

External links


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