Black Widow Games
Encyclopedia
Video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...
specializing in promotional mod
Mod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
s for Quake and Half-Life 3D
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
engine
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
s. Best known for their They Hunger
They Hunger
They Hunger is a single player horror-based mod of Valve's first-person shooter Half-Life. It was released by Neil Manke's Black Widow Games in three episodes, the first in 1999, the second in 2000, and the final installment in 2001...
series, Black Widow Games has become quite reputable within the gaming world and has become a household name for fans of Valve
Valve Corporation
Valve Corporation is an American video game development and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington, United States...
's Half-Life series. Prominent members included Neil Manke (Game & Level Design), Einar Saukas (Game Design & Coding), and Magnus Jansén (Game Consultant & Sound Engineer). The company business model is based on developing contract-work mod
Mod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
s for the marketing campaigns of customer companies and products (such as the S.O.F.
Soldier of Fortune, Inc.
Soldier of Fortune, Inc. was a television show created by Dan Gordon which ran for two seasons, from 1997-1999...
TV series from Rysher Entertainment
Rysher Entertainment
Rysher Entertainment is the owner of TV and film programming content, primarily distributed around the world by CBS Television Distribution and CBS/ Paramount Pictures...
and the movie Underworld
Underworld (2003 film)
Underworld is a 2003 action-horror film about the secret history of Vampires and Lycans . It is the first installment in the Underworld series. The main plot revolves around Selene , a vampire who is a Death Dealer hunting Lycans...
from Sony Pictures), freely distributed for promotion.
History
Founded in 1997 to produce contractual modsMod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
for state of the art 3D game engines, Black Widow Games would release 14 games between their first mod, Soldier Of Fortune (created for Rysher Entertainment
Rysher Entertainment
Rysher Entertainment is the owner of TV and film programming content, primarily distributed around the world by CBS Television Distribution and CBS/ Paramount Pictures...
), and 2003. Notable releases included the Half Life spin-off, USS Darkstar
USS Darkstar
USS Darkstar is a Half-Life mod created by Neil Manke and his team, largely based in Canada. The mod follows Gordon Freeman and several other scientists on board USS Darkstar in the year 2066, a large exploratory starship that resembles the Nostromo from the movie Alien...
(produced for PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
), and the They Hunger
They Hunger
They Hunger is a single player horror-based mod of Valve's first-person shooter Half-Life. It was released by Neil Manke's Black Widow Games in three episodes, the first in 1999, the second in 2000, and the final installment in 2001...
series (produced for PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
). They Hunger in particular generated extensive player discussion and was considered an example of good game play within the realm of Half-Life mods.
In October 2005, the company declared it was not possible anymore to produce full fledged single player
Single player
A Single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. "Single-player game" usually implies a game that can only be played by one person, while "single-player mode" usually refers to a game mode for a single player, where...
mod
Mod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
s working on low budget promotional projects within reduced development cycles, because of the higher level of detail required for modern 3D
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
engine
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
s. At this time, the company revealed it had been secretly developing for almost a year its first commercial game They Hunger: Lost Souls, based on the Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2 , the sequel to Half-Life, is a first-person shooter video game and a signature title in the Half-Life series. It is singleplayer, story-driven, science fiction, and linear...
Source engine
Source engine
Source is a 3D game engine developed by Valve Corporation. It debuted in June 2004 with Counter-Strike: Source and shortly thereafter Half-Life 2, and has been in active development ever since...
. Based on the popular survival horror series, They Hunger
They Hunger
They Hunger is a single player horror-based mod of Valve's first-person shooter Half-Life. It was released by Neil Manke's Black Widow Games in three episodes, the first in 1999, the second in 2000, and the final installment in 2001...
which Black Widow Software had created in 2000 and released as a bonus with copies of PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
magazine, They Hunger: Lost Souls is being developed using the Source engine and will feature a plotline revolving around a zombie outbreak in North-Eastern Europe in the 1960s. Apart from a detailed plotline and a few developers' screenshots however, little information has been released about the game since 2005. Sparse updates have been published over the years at the company's official website and in a few specialized game magazines, and the final product is expected to be released via Steam. Drawing some comparisons to vaporware
Vaporware
Vaporware is a term in the computer industry that describes a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is never actually released nor officially canceled. Vaporware is also a term sometimes used to describe events that are announced or predicted,...
titles, Planet Half-Life
Planet Half-Life
Planet Half-Life is a gaming website owned by IGN and its subsidiary GameSpy. Maintained by a voluntary team of contributors, the site is dedicated to providing news and informes Half-Life and Half-Life 2, as well as related modifications and other Valve Software titles...
announced (as a joke) on April 1, 2007 that They Hunger: Lost Souls had again been redesigned and was set for release as a Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
game.
In November 2008, the developers of the Sven Co-op
Sven Co-op
Sven Co-op is a cooperative game multiplayer modification for the first-person shooter computer game Half-Life, where players must work together against AI controlled enemies , solve puzzles and complete other objectives as a team.The game was originally created and released by Daniel 'Sven Viking'...
mod
Mod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
announced that they had been working with Black Widow Games to develop a co-op version of They Hunger
They Hunger
They Hunger is a single player horror-based mod of Valve's first-person shooter Half-Life. It was released by Neil Manke's Black Widow Games in three episodes, the first in 1999, the second in 2000, and the final installment in 2001...
, which was later released as an addon to be played in the mod in December 2008.
Non-Contract mods
- Jan. 1997: Dark Night (Quake I multiplayer modMod (computer gaming)Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
) - Feb. 1997: Outpost (Quake multiplayer mod)
- Mar. 1997: Monastery (Quake multiplayer mod)
- Apr. 1997: SlaughterHouse (Quake multiplayer mod)
- Jul. 1997: Alba 1 (Quake multiplayer mod)
- Jul. 1997: Alba 2 (Quake multiplayer mod)
- Aug. 1997: Starship (Quake multiplayer mod)
- Nov. 1997: Starship II (Quake multiplayer mod)
- 1997: Silhouette Of Darkness (Quake multiplayer mod)
- Special Ops Force: Deathmatch (Quake IIQuake IIQuake II, released on December 9, 1997, is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Id Software and distributed by Activision. It is not a sequel to Quake; it merely uses the name of the former game due to Id's difficulties in coming up with alternative names.The soundtrack for Quake II...
multiplayer mod) - SlaughterShip (Quake II single playerSingle playerA Single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. "Single-player game" usually implies a game that can only be played by one person, while "single-player mode" usually refers to a game mode for a single player, where...
mod) - They Hunger Deathmatch 1-5 (Half-Life multiplayer mods)
- 2003: Abandoned Factory (Half-Life multiplayer mod)
Contract-work mods
- Oct. 1997: Soldier Of Fortune (Quake single player mod for Rysher EntertainmentRysher EntertainmentRysher Entertainment is the owner of TV and film programming content, primarily distributed around the world by CBS Television Distribution and CBS/ Paramount Pictures...
) - Dec. 1997: Soldier Of Fortune: Deathmatch (Quake multiplayer mod for Rysher Entertainment)
- Apr. 1998: Soldier Of Fortune: Mission 2 (Quake II single player mod for Rysher Entertainment)
- Jul. 1998: Coconut Monkey: Paradise Lost (Quake II single player mod for PC GamerPC GamerPC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
) - Sep. 1998: Special Ops Force: Mission 3 -- Desert Bloom (Quake II single player mod for Rysher Entertainment serving as a continuation of the Soldier Of Fortune Series upon the renaming of the original series by Rysher [see Soldier of Fortune, Inc.Soldier of Fortune, Inc.Soldier of Fortune, Inc. was a television show created by Dan Gordon which ran for two seasons, from 1997-1999...
]) - Oct. 1998: Coconut Monkey: Dry Gulch (Quake II single player mod for PC Gamer)
- Dec. 1998: Special Ops Force: Mission 4 -- Cold as Ice (Quake II single player mod for Rysher Entertainment)
- Jan. 1999: Coconut Monkey: Saving Private Monkey (Quake II single player mod for PC Gamer)
- Aug. 1999: USS DarkstarUSS DarkstarUSS Darkstar is a Half-Life mod created by Neil Manke and his team, largely based in Canada. The mod follows Gordon Freeman and several other scientists on board USS Darkstar in the year 2066, a large exploratory starship that resembles the Nostromo from the movie Alien...
(Half-Life single player mod for PC Gamer) - Feb. 2000: They HungerThey HungerThey Hunger is a single player horror-based mod of Valve's first-person shooter Half-Life. It was released by Neil Manke's Black Widow Games in three episodes, the first in 1999, the second in 2000, and the final installment in 2001...
(Half-Life single player mod for PC Gamer) - Sep. 2000: They Hunger 2: Rest in PiecesThey HungerThey Hunger is a single player horror-based mod of Valve's first-person shooter Half-Life. It was released by Neil Manke's Black Widow Games in three episodes, the first in 1999, the second in 2000, and the final installment in 2001...
(Half-Life single player mod for PC Gamer) - Nov. 2000: Vidar's Niflheim (Half-Life multiplayer TFCTeam Fortress ClassicTeam Fortress Classic, also known as Team Fortress 1.5 or simply TFC, is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation. It is a remake of the Team Fortress modification for Quake. Team Fortress Classic was originally released for Windows on April 7, 1999 as...
map for CNET Gamecenter [later updated to Vidar's Niflheim 2]) - Jun. 2001: They Hunger 3: Rude AwakeningThey HungerThey Hunger is a single player horror-based mod of Valve's first-person shooter Half-Life. It was released by Neil Manke's Black Widow Games in three episodes, the first in 1999, the second in 2000, and the final installment in 2001...
(Half-Life single player mod for PC Gamer) - Sep. 2003: Underworld Bloodline (Half-Life multiplayer mod for Sony Pictures and Big Spaceship LLC)
Skin Work
- Female Player Model for Counter-Strike (Half-Life multiplayer CS model)
- HK G36 Model (Half-Life multiplayer CS model)
- HK PDW Model (Half-Life multiplayer CS model)
- M16 w M203 Model (Half-Life multiplayer CS model)
- M82A1 Barrett .50 cal Model (Half-Life multiplayer CS model)
- They Hunger Multiplayer Models Pack (Half-Life multiplayer They HungerThey HungerThey Hunger is a single player horror-based mod of Valve's first-person shooter Half-Life. It was released by Neil Manke's Black Widow Games in three episodes, the first in 1999, the second in 2000, and the final installment in 2001...
models)
External links
- Official Black Widow Games website
- Black Widow Games mods website
- Black Widow Games entry at MobyGamesMobyGames-Platforms not yet included:- Further reading :* Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson, High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media; 2 edition , ISBN 0-07-223172-6...
- "Five Days of Fear" - 2006 interview with Black Widow Games at Planet Half-LifePlanet Half-LifePlanet Half-Life is a gaming website owned by IGN and its subsidiary GameSpy. Maintained by a voluntary team of contributors, the site is dedicated to providing news and informes Half-Life and Half-Life 2, as well as related modifications and other Valve Software titles...
- "The Second Encounter Part 1" - 2007 interview with Black Widow Games at Planet Half-LifePlanet Half-LifePlanet Half-Life is a gaming website owned by IGN and its subsidiary GameSpy. Maintained by a voluntary team of contributors, the site is dedicated to providing news and informes Half-Life and Half-Life 2, as well as related modifications and other Valve Software titles...
- "The Second Encounter Part 2" - 2007 interview with Black Widow Games (junior members) at Planet Half-LifePlanet Half-LifePlanet Half-Life is a gaming website owned by IGN and its subsidiary GameSpy. Maintained by a voluntary team of contributors, the site is dedicated to providing news and informes Half-Life and Half-Life 2, as well as related modifications and other Valve Software titles...