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Moon Studios
Austrian video game developer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Moon Studios GmbH is an Austrian video game developer founded in 2010.[1] They are best known for their 2015 title Ori and the Blind Forest, for which the studio was awarded the Best Debut award at the 2016 Game Developers Choice Awards.[2] In 2020, the studio released a sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps.
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History
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The studio was founded in 2010 by Thomas Mahler and Gennadiy Korol. During Mahler's tenure at Blizzard Entertainment, the successes of independent games like Castle Crashers, Limbo, and Braid encouraged him to leave the company to found an independent studio. The two chose the name "Moon Studios" as the company name as they were inspired by John F. Kennedy's quote, "We choose to go to the Moon". Mahler described Moon Studios as a "virtual studio," as the team did not rent an office and instead recruited talents from all over the world. Team members came from places such as Austria, Australia, Israel and the United States, and they collaborated with each other using the Internet.[3] The company's headquarters are located in Mahler's native Vienna.[4]
After assembling the team, Moon Studios started creating prototypes. One early prototype was named Warsoup, a first-person shooter mixed with real-time strategy elements. Another prototype was named Sein, a platformer with Metroidvania gameplay. Moon Studios started pitching Warsoup to publishers. Microsoft dismissed Warsoup but agreed to fund Sein, with Microsoft retaining the rights to the intellectual property. With a core team of 10 people alongside several remote working contractors, the game, which would later be renamed Ori and the Blind Forest, took the team 4 years to develop.[5]
The team met with each other for the first time at E3 2014, when the announcement trailer was released.[6] Ori and the Blind Forest received critical acclaim when it was released in March 2015. It was also a commercial success, as it recouped its development in 7 days.[7]
Following the success of Ori and the Blind Forest, the team expanded significantly. As of March 2020, the studio employed more than 80 people and recruited talents from 43 countries. To facilitate communication, Moon built its communication tool named "Apollo".[8] The team also organized yearly retreats to ensure the team bond together. At E3 2017, they announced a sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, which was released for the Xbox One and Windows 10 on March 10, 2020.[9]
In March 2022, VentureBeat published an article that detailed allegations of workplace abuse at Moon Studios with a particular focus on Mahler and Korol. These included claims of regular arguments during development, claims of an oppressive crunch culture at the studio and claims of racist, sexist, and anti-semitic language being used by Mahler and Korol during work hours.[10][11] In a response to the report, Mahler and Korol said the details of the report were not representative of the working environment of the studio, nor its employees, touted the studio's multiculturalism, but also acknowledge that they have teased their cultural backgrounds. In addition, they expressed regret if anyone on staff felt uncomfortable or let down by their actions.[11]
The company released action role-playing game No Rest for the Wicked in April 2024, which was published by Private Division, a label of Take-Two Interactive.[12][13] A few months after this release, Take-Two Interactive began the process of shuttering Private Division. Moon Studios bought back the rights to No Rest for the Wicked, which were completed by March 2025, and allowed the studio to become fully independent.[14]
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Games developed
Ori series
In 2015, Mahler and Gennadiy Korol co-created the critically acclaimed and award-winning indie game title, Ori and the Blind Forest.[15][16][17][18] Mahler won the NAVGTR Award in the Game, Original Adventure category in 2016 with Ori and the Blind Forest.[19] The game is considered an example of video games becoming closer to art, and it won, among others, the BAFTA Games Award for Artistic Achievement and the Game Award for Best Art Direction.[20] For example, Chris Melissinos commented that the video game audience was not used to seeing Ori and the Blind Forest's dreamlike sensitivity style of art usually reserved for high profile animated films.[21]
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Key people
Thomas Mahler
Thomas Mahler is an Austrian video game developer best known for being co-creator of the 2015 indie game title, Ori and the Blind Forest. Under Mahler's direction, Moon Studios developed its sequel Ori and the Will of the Wisps (2020) as well as the action role-playing game No Rest for the Wicked (2024).
Mahler was interested with video games and artwork at an early age and studied traditional sculpture in the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.[22][23] He worked at Blizzard Entertainment on visual effects as a Cinematic Artist before founding Moon Studios GmbH in Vienna together with Gennadiy Korol in 2010.[24][25][26]
References
External links
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