The Chinese Room

For the artificial intelligence thought experiment, see Chinese room.
The Chinese Room
Private
Industry Video game industry
Founded 2007
Headquarters Brighton, England, United Kingdom
Key people
 Dan Pinchbeck
Jessica Curry
Products Dear Esther
Korsakovia
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
Website thechineseroom.co.uk

The Chinese Room (formerly thechineseroom)[1] is a British independent video game development studio best known for working on experimental first-person games, such as the Half-Life 2 mod Dear Esther, and co-developing its full-fledged remake. The company originated as a mod team for Half-Life 2, based at the University of Portsmouth in 2007, and is named after John Searle's Chinese room thought experiment.

Development history

Mods

The Chinese Room's first three projects were two mods for Half-Life 2, named Antlion Soccer and Dear Esther, and a Doom 3 mod titled Conscientious Objector. The modding project was backed by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Of these, Dear Esther became a cult hit. In 2009, The Chinese Room developed Korsakovia, which was a survival horror mod.[2][3]

Games

After Korsakovia, The Chinese Room worked with Robert Briscoe to develop a remake of Dear Esther, this time as a full-fledged video game title, distributed through Valve Corporation's Steam distribution service. This stand-alone version of the mod received several IGF nominations, such as the Seamus McNally Grand Prize, Excellence in Visual Arts and Audio, and the Nuovo Award.[4] It finally won for Excellence in Visual Art.[5] The remake featured improved graphics, but was based on the same engine as the previous mods, Source. The game was released in early 2012 and recouped its $55,000 investment in less than six hours of release, when 16,000 copies of the game were sold.[6] One week after launch, the game reached 50,000 copies sold.[7]

In February 2012, The Chinese Room announced that they began development on Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, a survival horror game and indirect sequel to Amnesia: The Dark Descent. This project was produced by the makers of the original game, Frictional Games.[8][9] It was later released on 10 September 2013.[10]

The Chinese Room also began work on their newest title, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture alongside the development of Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.[11] Initially developed on PC, the team was afraid it would not receive enough funding from fans. They instead partnered with Sony Computer Entertainment's Santa Monica Studio to produce the game. It was re-revealed at gamescom 2013 during Sony's conference as a PlayStation 4 exclusive. The title was finally released on 11 August 2015.[12]

Controversy

CD Projekt RED

On 29 April 2016, The Chinese Room's official twitter account posted a tweet in response to an article Gamespot published on CD Projekt RED's upcoming title, Cyberpunk 2077. The Chinese Room stated that the game looked "just as sexist" as The Witcher 3, CD Projekt's previous title. Upset, fans called for a boycott of The Chinese Room. As of now, The Chinese Room has not offered any form of apology or statement on the controversy.[13]

List of video games

Year Title
2008 Conscientious Objector (mod)
2008 Dear Esther (mod)
2008 Antlion Soccer (mod)
2009 Korsakovia (mod)
2012 Dear Esther (remake)
2013 Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs
2015 Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
TBA Total Dark

References

  1. ↑ Curry, Jessica (11 June 2013). "Welcome to the New Us". thechineseroom.co.uk. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  2. ↑ Burch, Anthony (25 September 2009). "Korsakovia is like the Silent Hill sequel that never was". Destructoid. Retrieved on 9 March 2012.
  3. ↑ RPS (21 September 2009). "An Esther Binge: Korsakovia". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved on 9 March 2012.
  4. ↑ Polson, John. Procter, Lewie. (20 February 2012). "Road to the IGF: Thechineseroom's Dear Esther". Gamasutra. Retrieved on 9 March 2012.
  5. ↑ Niedringhaus, Melissa (8 March 2012). "Independent Games Festival announces fourteenth annual awards winners". Warpzoned. Retrieved on 9 March 2012.
  6. ↑ (18 February 2012). "Half-Life 2: Dear Esther Build Recoups Development Investment in Few Hours". Game Bandits. Retrieved on 9 March 2012.
  7. ↑ Chapple, Craig (27 February 2012). "Dear Esther surpasses 50,000 sales". Develop Online. Retrieved on 9 March 2012.
  8. ↑ Chalk, Andy (23 February 2012). "Frictional Confirms Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs". The Escapist. Retrieved on 9 March 2012.
  9. ↑ Birch, Aaron (23 February 2012). "Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs announced". Den of Geek. Retrieved on 9 March 2012.
  10. ↑ "So, the secret is out- Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is set for...". twitter.com. Retrieved on 28 August 2013.
  11. ↑ Pinchbeck, Dan (11 June 2013). "Welcome to the New Us". The Chinese Room. Retrieved on 31 August 2015.
  12. ↑ Pinchbeck, Dan (11 June 2015). "Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture Comes to PS4 August 11th, 2015". PlayStation. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  13. ↑ https://twitter.com/ChineseRoom/status/725958220284465153

External links

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