Blitz Games Studios was a British Video Game developing company.
It was founded in 1990 under the name Dizzy Enterprises by twin brothers Andrew and Philip Oliver, known collectively as The Oliver Twins, who previously worked for Codemasters during the 1980s as programmers and designers on various computer games, most famously creating the Dizzy series which became very popular across Europe and a symbol of the UK gaming scene. As the console market started to grow during the 1990s the twins wanted to start making games for systems like the NES and Sega Genesis, so they formed their own company so they could hire more people and work with Codemasters and other companies to make more Dizzy games for a variety of platforms, resulting in various previous games in the series getting ported to consoles and new exclusive games being made concurrently for both computers and consoles.
Around 1992, Codemasters started having legal and financial troubles over the creation of the Game Genie, in addition to various plans for the Dizzy series being either scrapped or altered leading to heavy disagreements between them and the Olivers, all of this leading to the twins ending their partnership with Codemasters. In 1994 they renamed their company to Interactive Studios and started doing work-for-hire for various publishers in a variety of games, while occasionally making their own original games like Firo & Klawd and, most notably, Glover.
In 2000 they finally changed the company's name to Blitz Games, and decided to almost exclusively focus their business on making licensed games based on notable IPs like TV shows and movies, in addition to B-Team Sequels to well-established game franchises. During this period the studio started hiring more and more staff to keep up with the workload, leading to various internal teams with their own staff being formed that had their own codenames and made their own games concurrently with each other; usually they can be identified during the ending credits where their name appears as "A Team [codename] Production". They also made their own Game Engine called BlitzTech that was used in many of their titles.
The company once again rebranded as Blitz Games Studios in 2006 and was reorganised into multiple sub-divisions:
- Blitz Games: the main and biggest division, focused on making family-friendly games (with one exception) based on licensed and well-known IPs.
- Volatile Games: basically their equivalent to Touchstone Pictures, focused on making mature games that wouldn't fit with the main Blitz label. They only made two games with a third one becoming Vaporware.
- Blitz Arcade: with the advent of the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and smartphones, this division focused on making small but original downloadable games for digital services (though their first four games were based on licensed properties and the first three were released on disc at the last minute).
- BlitzTech: responsible for licensing out and providing technical support for the BlitzTech engine to other companies interested in using it in their own games.
- Blitz1UP: a publishing label that helps other small independent developers make their own games.
- TrueSim: made simulation games with academic and training focus.
- Blitz Academy: maintained and provided an online school for people interested in learning game development.
- Well Forged Films / The Picture Anvil: a very short-lived division meant to provide art and IP creation services for movies and TV shows.
By the time of their peak in the mid to late 2000s the company had made dozens of games and had a staff of over 230 employees, making it one of the biggest and most successful independent game developers in the UK. However some problems started to arise during the early 2010s: game development in general became very expensive, the market for licensed games, their main speciality, started to dry up due to the aforementioned development costs, the association of these types of games with Shovelware by the growing gaming and tech-savvy crowd leading to many people not buying them, and they failed to adapt to either the mobile or core gaming markets which led to the them being unable to get work from other publishers, with even ones they had a close relationship with like THQ getting closed due to financial troubles. And thus with no money for future projects it was announced that the studio was officially shutting down on 12 September 2013, leading to the loss of their at the time over 170 employees, though some of them did since find new jobs at other UK studios like Rebellion Developments.
Almost a week later, the Oliver twins opened a new studio called Radiant Worlds along with 50 former Blitz staff who were already working on a then unannounced game called "Project V". The game was officially revealed a year later as SkySaga: Infinite Isles and stayed in Development Hell until being cancelled in August 2017. The studio was then bought by Rebellion in January 2018 and turned into a subsidiary called Rebellion Warwick.
Notable projects developed by Blitz Games Studios along with their respective teams/divisions when available.
- Firo & Klawd
- Wargames Defcon 1
- Glover (A-Team)
- Glover 2 (A-Team) (Cancelled)
- Dragon Sword 64 (Team Storm) (Canceled)
- Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge (PS1, Dreamcast and PC versions; N64 version was cancelled) (Team Spirit)
- Chicken Run (Team Manta)*
- Titan A.E. (Cancelled, though there exists a demo disc of it)
- The Little Mermaid II
- The Mummy Returns
- Fuzion Frenzy
- Lilo & Stitch: Trouble in Paradise (Team Enigma)
- Zapper: One Wicked Cricket! (Team Antics)
- Taz: Wanted (Team Phoenix)
- LEGO Super Soccer Adventure (Cancelled)
- Cubix: Robots for Everyone - Showdown
- Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue (Team Banshee)
- The Fairly OddParents: Breakin' da Rules (PS2, GC and Xbox versions) (Team Phoenix)
- Bad Boys: Miami Takedown* (The only mature rated game released under the family-friendly Blitz banner)
- The Fairly OddParents: Shadow Showdown (PS2 and GC versions; Xbox version was cancelled) (Team Cosmo)
- Bratz series (Team Banshee)
- Bratz: Rock Angelz (PS2 and GC versions)
- Bratz: Forever Diamondz (PS2 and GC versions; co-developed with Coyote Developments)
- Bratz: The Movie (PS2 and Wii versions)
- Bratz: Girlz Really Rock (PS2 and Wii versions)
- The Fairly OddParents: Clash with the Anti-World (PS2, GC and Xbox versions) (Team Cosmo) (Cancelled)
- Pac-Man World 3 (Team Paku)
- Possession (Vaporware, would have been the first game made by the Volatile Games division)
- Reservoir Dogs (Team Fury) (Volatile Games)
- SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab (PS2, Wii and GC versions) (Team RocFISH)
- The Burger King games (First games made by the Blitz Arcade division, though they still use the normal Blitz logo)
- Big Bumpin'
- PocketBike Racer
- Sneak King
- Karaoke Revolution series (Team Voodoo) (From American Idol in 2007 until the 2009 reboot; previous games were developed by Harmonix)
- Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol
- Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore
- Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore 2
- Karaoke Revolution (2009 reboot)
- SpongeBob's Atlantis SquarePantis (PS2 and Wii versions) (Team RocFISH)
- SpongeBob SquarePants: Underpants Slam! (Team Bubble) (Blitz Arcade)
- Hogs of War 2 (Cancelled)
- Tak and the Guardians of Gross (Team RocFISH)
- PowerUp Forever (Blitz Arcade)
- The House of the Dead: OVERKILL (Licensed their BlitzTech engine for use in the game)
- Droplitz (Blitz Arcade)
- Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao (Blitz Arcade)
- iCarly
- Encleverment Experiment (Blitz Arcade)
- CodaChain (Cancelled) (Blitz Arcade)
- All Star Karate (Team Waxon)
- Dead to Rights: Retribution (Team Fury) (Volatile Games)
- The Biggest Loser: Challenge
- The Biggest Loser: Ultimate Workout
- Droplitz Delight (Blitz Arcade)
- The House of the Dead: OVERKILL – Extended Cut (Licensed their BlitzTech engine for use in the game)
- Yoostar 2: In the Movies
- Michael Phelps: Push the Limit
- Puss in Boots (PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii versions) (Team Nacho)
- SpongeBob's Surf & Skate Roadtrip (Xbox 360 Kinect version; last SpongeBob game published by THQ) (Team Quantum)
- Kumo Lumo (Team Lumo)
- Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two (Ported the PS3, Xbox 360, PC and Vita versions; additional programming, art and level design on all versions; co-developed with Junction Point)
- Ace Of Spades (co-developed with Jagex)
- Paper Titans (Team Lumo)
- Wake Up With Disney
- Epic Donald (Spin-off of the Epic Mickey series focusing on the Disney Ducks Comic Universe; concept art and a prototype running on the BlitzTech engine were done but was cancelled by Disney; co-developed with Junction Point)
- Shrek Alarm (Last game released by Blitz before shutting down)
- Girl & Robot (Well Forged Films) (an animated film produced alongside another unspecified company; in development but canceled due to Blitz shutting down)
- H.O.X (Well Forged Films) (a Retool of Possession as a TV series with interest from Syfy and a tabletop game co-produced by Wayland Games; in development but canceled due to Blitz shutting down)
- Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2 (in development at both Blitz and Rebellion and nearly finished before the former closed down and stopped the project; later released by Rebellion alone)
- Raceline CC (in development and almost canceled due to Blitz shutting down; later transfered and released by Rebellion)
- The Typing of the Dead: OVERKILL (PC port of The House of the Dead: OVERKILL – Extended Cut; in development at Blitz for about four months before they closed down and stopped the project; later finished by a few of their former programmers who formed their own development studio called Modern Dream)
- SkySaga: Infinite Isles (in development at Blitz for about six months before they closed down and stopped the project; later transferred to Radiant Worlds before being cancelled)
Tropes associated with Blitz Games Studios:
- B-Team Sequel: A very recurrent job for them from publishers was to make sequels to established game franchises without the previous developers' involvement, like Frogger, Pac-Man World, Karaoke Revolution and Tak (the last two coincidentally being caused by their original devs getting bought by another company and thus legally unable to continue the series on their own).
- Creator Cameo: The SpongeBob games by Team RocFISH have various cameos and hidden images of the team's own mascot, who's a yellow non-anthropomorphic fish. The fish also appears during the credits of Tak and the Guardians of Gross as part of the team's logo and this
◊ early piece of concept art. - Creator Thumbprint:
- The music in their games usually have some instance of Variable Mix.
- At least one segment where the gameplay suddenly changes, if not constantly.
- The end credits having the name of whoever internal team made it.
- Darker and Edgier:
- Pac-Man World 3 and SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab are notable for being this within their respective franchises.
- Bad Boys: Miami Takedown, the only M-rated title ever released using the main Blitz logo.
- The Volatile Games division was this within the company itself as they wanted to have freedom to make mature titles without people getting mood whiplash from associating their name with Barbie and Bratz.
- Even Dead to Rights: Retribution manages to be this within its franchise, which really is an achievement.
- Denser and Wackier: Frogger 2 and Tak and the Guardians of Gross are this within their respective franchises, and for context the first game in the latter franchise involves the main villain turning people into sheep...
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Most of their early titles as Interactive Studios were just ports of pre-existing games, like Marko's Magic Football for Sega CD and Judge Dredd for Game Boy and Game Gear.
- Generic Name: The reason their name was changed from Interactive Studios to Blitz Games was because they realized the former name was this.
-
Girl-Show Ghetto: Briefly discussed by the Oliver twins during an interview where at one point they talk about the negative reviews they got for Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue, and they counter them by saying that most of them were written by 20-year old men who were not accepting of something that was largely aimed at little girls. - Kicked Upstairs: Whether intentionally or not, the leader of Team RocFISH was promoted to "Studio Development Director" after Tak and the Guardians of Gross, making it the last game directly made by him and the team.
- Licensed Game: The bread and butter of their business alongside B-Team Sequels.
- Production Posse:
- Whatever a specific team gets to work on multiples games, expect most of the exact same people to get involved.
- Team RocFISH was formed as a mix of the staff from Team Cosmo and Team Paku.
- Prop Recycling:
- The Fairly OddParents: Shadow Showdown is one of their few direct sequels to a game that they also previously made, Breakin' Da Rules, and as such a lot of assets were reused likely so they could just focus on improving the game instead of wasting time making new graphics from scratch.
- Their first three SpongeBob games are notable for reusing the character models and a few environments and art designs from Battle for Bikini Bottom and The SpongeBob Movie Game, which were made by a completely different developer, a rarity for licensed games made by multiple studios.
- Running Gag: The credits for Bratz: The Movie and Girlz Really Rock takes their usual team naming scheme and applies it to the various other sections of the company, like human resources being called "Team Aqua", PR and media being called "Team Mercury", and finance being called "Team Moneypennies".
- Signed Up for the Dental: To quote a former employee: "Blitz development costs were actually quite high because the company was so big - lots of support departments, human resources, admin, pr, etc. Think it was quoted as £6000 per dev per month, even though the pay was really low ("we pay less, but we have stability!", lol)."
- Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: Within their catalog and not counting the mature games, Frogger 2 and Tak and the Guardians of Gross fit the former while Pac-Man World 3 and SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab fit the latter when compared to the general tone of their respective franchises. The Fairly OddParents games may also arguably count, with Breakin' Da Rules being very silly with only a loosely connected plot while Shadow Showdown has a (slightly) more serious and focused plot that really comes together in its latter half.
- Spiritual Successor: Zapper: One Wicked Cricket! was intentionally made as a successor to Frogger 2 after Konami took back the rights for the series which killed their chances of making a direct sequel to it.
- Stock Sound Effects: They had their own library of sound effects that were reused in every game, most notably for trampolines and breakable boxes.
- Super Title 64 Advance: The cancelled game Dragon Sword 64.
- Troubled Production:
- Most of their sequels suffered from this but Pac-Man World 3 takes the cake due to it running out of budget and being rushed due to Namco's financial troubles at the time that led to them being bought by Bandai shortly after.
- When they were making Bad Boys II to tie in with the movie's DVD release, they received notes from the publisher saying that while they had acquired the rights for the movie and the characters' names, they somehow didn't have the rights for the plot, the likeness of the actors, the vehicles, or even the personal approval of the director. As a result they were just told to make a generic action game about cops in Miami. Then near the end they also got the rights to the movie's theatrical poster to use as the game's box art, leading the staff to joke about the game being more based on the poster then the movie itself. This was also likely the reason the game was renamed Bad Boys: Miami Takedown when it was released in North America.
- In November 2012 they were hired by Jagex to help develop a new version of Ace of Spades using the code from its original freeware version while doing various changes to make the game appealing to a wider audience, and were given many restrictions and a deadline of just eight weeks.
- Variable Mix: Most levels in their platforming games have variations of its music: a normal theme for when exploring the level, a fast-paced and intense battle theme for when you come in contact with an enemy, and sometimes even a slow relaxing idle theme for when you stand around doing nothing.
- What Could Have Been: So many things... like a sequel to Glover that was 80% complete before getting cancelled, Dragon Sword 64 and Possession being abandoned due to them not finding a publisher, a failed pitch for a Sin City game, early concepts for Tak 4, a James Bond game, and much more. There were also talks of the company being bought out by Jagex but it didn't happen at the very last minute.
