Firefly Studios
 |
|
| Private | |
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | London, England (1999) |
| Headquarters | (Firefly UK) London, England (Firefly US) Canton, Connecticut, United States (Firefly Scotland) Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom |
| Products | Video games |
|
Number of employees
|
26 |
| Website | http://www.fireflyworlds.com/ |
Firefly Studios is a British computer game developer that has offices in London, England and Canton, Connecticut, with a QA department in Aberdeen, Scotland. The Company was formed in August 1999 by Simon Bradbury, Eric Ouellette and David Lester who had worked together on numerous titles such as the highly successful Caesar[1] and Lords of the Realm[2] series. Upon forming, Firefly released a mission statement that set out their vision for their company:
"FireFly Studios goal is to create compelling new worlds for people to play in. We aim to provide a richer environment for the player by continually increasing the level of visual and coded detail in our game worlds. Our expertise is in creating strategy based sim games and we will continue to evolve the genre by combining detailed visuals, in depth game play, compelling characters and an easy learning curve. If we have done our job well, players will be able to see the world they have built come to life and take on a personality of its own".[3]
The company has focused on historic real-time strategy titles for the PC and Macintosh systems, and is best known for its Stronghold series of games.
Contents
History
Firefly's first title, Stronghold was wildly successful both critically and commercially,[4] and the sequel Stronghold: Crusader replicated the high standards of the original.[5]
The company has however struggled to recreate the popularity of its original Stronghold and Stronghold: Crusader titles; Stronghold 2 and Stronghold Legends both reviewed poorly with metascores of 63%[6] and 57% respectively,[7] and the last of the series, Stronghold: Crusader Extreme, has received the worst reviews to date, receiving average 40% scores.[8] Their latest title Stronghold 3 has again had negative reviews by multiple gaming sites and fans for errors in the game (i.e. Hard to build walls, no kingmaker, etc.). Although there are many problems with this game, Firefly Studios is saying they will try to patch this game every week.
A brief collaboration with Firaxis Games produced CivCity: Rome, which again reviewed poorly,[9] and was in fact the last Firefly title published by Take-Two Interactive.
The latest title, Stronghold Kingdoms, is Firefly's first foray into the MMO genre and was launched as an open beta in November 2010.
Firefly has also previously stated in 2008 that they would be working on Stronghold 3 then Crusader II due to the high demand by fans but only after the completion of Dungeon Hero. In 2009 when asked if they had any other unannounced game in development other than Dungeon Hero and Stronghold Kingdoms, the answer was that they still had one more game in development.[10][11] In Firefly's second newsletter, they stated that they had "something very big in the pipeline" which will be revealed in 2010.[12]
Stronghold 3 was officially announced on May 14, 2010 by SouthPeak Interactive. It was released in October 2011.[13]
Future
The highly publicised title, Dungeon Hero, being developed for the PC and Xbox 360 systems, has been in development for several years. Originally being published by Gamecock Media Group until they were bought out by SouthPeak Interactive in October 2008,[14] this spurred a legal squabble on the subject of ownership of the game. Dungeon Hero is currently without a publisher[15] despite SouthPeak publishing every other Gamecock title due for release. Firefly Studios have announced that the title is 'on hold',[16] and with the last of several planned release dates having passed, it has further fuelled speculation that this title is now a vaporware title.
Stronghold Crusader II is the latest title in the Stronghold series and was scheduled for release in Q4 2013,[17] but got later delayed to Q1 2014.[18] It is the sequel to their 2002 title Stronghold: Crusader which is, according to Lead Designer at Firefly Studios, Simon Bradbury, "our favorite game, it’s our fans’ favorite game and it’s the game we have been waiting to put into production for several long years now."[19]
Games
| Name | Time |
|---|---|
| Stronghold | (2001) |
| Stronghold: Crusader | (2002) |
| Space Colony | (2003) |
| Stronghold 2 | (2005) |
| CivCity: Rome | (2006) |
| Stronghold Legends | (2006) |
| Stronghold: Crusader Extreme | (2008) |
| Stronghold Kingdoms | (2009) |
| Stronghold 3 | (2011) |
| Stronghold HD | (2012) |
| Stronghold: Crusader HD | (2012) |
| Space Colony HD | (2012) |
| Stronghold Crusader II | (2014) |
| Space Colony: Steam Edition | (2015) |
| Dungeon Hero | (Canceled) |
References
- ↑ Caesar III - MobyGames
- ↑ Lords of the Realm II - MobyGames
- ↑ Game Chronicles - Company Profile
- ↑ stronghold meta score
- ↑ stronghold crusader meta score
- ↑ stronghold 2 meta score
- ↑ stronghold legends meta score
- ↑ crusader extreme meta score
- ↑ civcity:rome meta score
- ↑ stronghold kingdoms interview
- ↑ Stronghold 3 and Crusader 2 coming at some point
- ↑ Firefly Newsletter - Issue #2
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ gamecock media group Wikipedia page
- ↑ firefly studios forum
- ↑ firefly studios forum
- ↑ http://www.strategyinformer.com/news/19658/firefly-studios-announces-stronghold-crusader-ii-for-pc-in-late-2013
- ↑ http://www.fireflyworlds.com/press/sheet.php?p=Stronghold%20Crusader%202
- ↑ http://www.fireflyworlds.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=524&Itemid=1
