Massive Development

Massive Development GmbH was a video game developer based in Mannheim, Germany. Founded as Massive Development GbR, the company was active between 1994 and 2005 and is primarily known for their post-apocalyptic science fiction video games Archimedean Dynasty and AquaNox, which have attained somewhat of a cult status.

Not to be confused with Massive Entertainment.

Massive Development

Former type	Private (October 1994-13 December 2000) Subsidiary of JoWooD (14 December 2000 – 30 May 2005)
Industry	Video games
Founded	October 1994 (1994-10)
Defunct	30 May 2005 (2005-05-30)
Headquarters	Mannheim, Germany
Key people	Alexander Jorias Ingo Frick Oliver Weirich
Number of employees	15 (2005)
Website	Massive.de (archived)

History

Massive Development was founded in 1994 by Alexander Jorias, Ingo Frick and Oliver Weirich in Mannheim as Massive Development GbR. Their first product was the porting of the Amiga game The Settlers to MS-DOS in 1994. In 1996 they released the successful science-fiction submarine role-playing video game Archimedean Dynasty, published by Blue Byte.[1][2][3]

In December 2000, Massive Development was bought by the Austrian publisher JoWooD.[4] Until 2000, Massive Development worked on its own game engine called "krass Engine", which was used for their next title AquaNox.[5] It was one of the first games to make use of the new capabilities of graphic cards with T&L hardware, which is why AquaNox was also bundled with new graphic cards. On 30 May 2005, the development studio was closed by JoWooD,[6] and by that cancelling the development of AquaNox: The Angel's Tears for the PlayStation 2.[7]

Two of the original founders, Alexander Jorias and Ingo Frick, are now working on a 3D chat with Social Networking Features, titled Club Cooee.[8]

Developed games

• The Settlers (MS-DOS port) (1994) - released in Germany under its original title Die Siedler, and in the United States as Serf City: Life is Feudal
• Archimedean Dynasty (1996) - released in Germany under its original title Schleichfahrt
• krass Engine (2001) - engine of the AquaNox series and SpellForce, and middleware of Legend of Kay
• AquaNox (2001)
• AquaNox 2: Revelation (2003)
• AquaNox: The Angel's Tears (canceled)

References

1. jamyz1102. "Power Play 12/96, Seiten 76-78". Kultboy.com (in German). Retrieved 17 November 2015.
2. "Schleichfahrt - Presseberichte - Deutschland". Massive Development (in German). 30 October 1996. Archived from the original on 16 November 2001. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
3. Massive Development (2000). "Schleichfahrt - Vom Tageslicht vergessen, von der Finsternis beherrscht!" (PDF). SilentDepth.com (in German). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 March 2012. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
4. Reis, Thomas (14 December 2000). "News und Presseerklärungen - JoWood [PE]". Massive Development (in German). JoWooD. Archived from the original on 3 February 2001. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
5. "krass(tm) Engine - Technische Details". Massive Development. 2000. Archived from the original on 15 April 2002.
6. Rottenmann (30 May 2005). "JoWooD schließt Studio". mediabiz.de (in German). Busch Entertainment Media. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
7. Impossible (24 September 2007). "Kein AquaNox: The Angel's Tears !". AquaNox World (in German). Archived from the original on 25 September 2007. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
8. "Interview mit Stefan Lemper von Club Cooee". GameBizz.de (in German). 19 April 2010. Archived from the original on 17 August 2011. Retrieved 17 November 2015.

External links

• Massive Development at MobyGames