Don't Nod (known as Dontnod Entertainment until 2022) is a French game development studio based in Paris, founded in June of 2008 with a lot of former EA, Criterion, and Ubisoft staff.
Their first work as a studio was the Capcom-published Remember Me, a game set in future Paris and that starred a memory hunter named Nilin. The game had a mixed reception which, combined with a lack of expected sales, nearly torpedoed the young studio.
Fortunately, Square Enix stepped up to help publish and finance their next game, which was a bit of a different title: the award-winning, universally-acclaimed sleeper hit Life Is Strange, an episodic adventure game about a teenage girl named Max Caulfield who finds she has gained the ability to rewind time.
Their next game was the Action RPG Vampyr, focusing on Jonathan E. Reid, a military surgeon turned vampire whose thirst for blood compels him to kill and feed on people. Both Vampyr and Life Is Strange established the studio, and they've since partnered up with numerous other companies for different projects. The studio has developed something of a reputation for narrative-driven adventure games, a reputation they seem quite happy to keep.
In 2016, Dontnod started a partnership with fellow French developer HeSaw (makers of Blue Estate), which involved the latter being renamed to Dontnod Eleven and becoming a "small laboratory for smaller projects" while still being a separate company. Dontnod Eleven's first and only game since the rebranding was the side-scrolling shooter Battlecrew: Space Pirates, released in 2017. In 2018, Dontnod absorbed the studio.
Since 2021, in addition to actively developing games, Don't Nod has branched out into publishing projects as well.
Games developed by Don't Nod:
- Remember Me (2013)
- Life Is Strange (2015 for download; 2016 for retail)
- Vampyr (2018)
- The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit (2018)
- Life Is Strange 2 (2019)
- Tell Me Why (2020)
- Twin Mirror (2020)
- Harmony The Fall Of Reverie (2023)
- Jusant (2023)
- Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden (2024)
- Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (2024)
Games published by Don't Nod:
- Gerda: A Flame in Winter (2022)
