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Big Robot is a UK company that specialises in developing
computer games A personal computer game, also known as a PC game or computer game, is a type of video game played on a personal computer (PC) rather than a video game console or arcade machine. Its defining characteristics include: more diverse and user-deter ...
, registered in
Halstead Halstead is a town and civil parish in the Braintree District of Essex, England. Its population of 11,906 in 2011England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. The company was started by
Jim Rossignol James Michael Rossignol (born July 1978) is a British video game journalist and critic, as well as an author. He has also branched out into games, founding the company Big Robot in 2010. Biography Rossignol started his career as a reporter o ...
in 2010. ''AVSEQ'' was released in 2011, ''Fallen City'' is in the final bug-testing phase prior to release, while currently under development is ''Lodestone'' (on hold). '' Sir, You Are Being Hunted'' was released in 2014.


Games


''AVSEQ''

The name comes from combining
audio Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum *Digital audio, representation of sound ...
and
visual The visual system comprises the sensory organ (the eye) and parts of the central nervous system (the retina containing photoreceptor cells, the optic nerve, the optic tract and the visual cortex) which gives organisms the sense of sight (the ...
(
audio-visual Audiovisual (AV) is electronic media possessing both a sound and a visual component, such as slide-tape presentations, films, television programs, corporate conferencing, church services, and live theater productions. Audiovisual service prov ...
) with "
sequencer Sequencer may refer to: Technology * Drum sequencer (controller), an electromechanical system for controlling a sequence of events automatically * DNA sequencer, a machine used to automatically produce a sequence readout from a biological DNA sam ...
". Game play is abstract in nature, and revolves around linking "atom" structures together to gain points. This also unlocks musical notes and activates that level's audio sequencer. The developers claim that "Each AVSEQ level has 2.2300745198530623×10^43 possible audio permutations".


''Fallen City''

This game is about rebuilding a city which has fallen into decay, which came from an idea by Rossignol that was put to Channel 4 in 2010, and was commissioned by Channel 4 Education. The game aims to educate children, by showing them how persuading people to clean up and repair can raise morale and improve the behaviour of citizens. The game is played in the first person, the player being able to walk through the city and persuade the citizens, who are known as "Angries", to repair it, clean it up, and rebuild. The Angries change colour according to their mood, purple being the ultimate state of anger and despair. Completing certain tasks gives the Angries extra powers, such as the ability to create street art, and certain infrastructure repairs improve the areas communications and give the community new systems for their benefit. Keith Stuart of ''The Guardian'' described some of these—"Reactivating a communications tower will get the word out about clean-up efforts, ..the trade plaza represents commerce and a system that pumps curry into every home is a great allegory for everyday utilities." Rossignol says that ''Fallen City'' is based around the "
broken windows theory In criminology, the broken windows theory states that visible signs of crime, anti-social behavior and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes. The theory suggests that pol ...
" of
James Q. Wilson James Quinn Wilson (May 27, 1931 – March 2, 2012) was an American political scientist and an authority on public administration. Most of his career was spent as a professor at UCLA and Harvard University. He was the chairman of the Council of A ...
and
George L. Kelling George Lee Kelling (August 21, 1935 – May 15, 2019) was an American criminologist, a professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University–Newark, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, and a fellow at ...
, which says that keeping an area in good-repair changes a populations outlook and so prevents further vandalism and prevents a descent into more serious crimes. In an interview in ''The Guardian'', Rossignol states that "The reason the Angries have trashed their city is because they have been promised too much by the people in charge; the promises haven't been fulfilled and they've ended up feeling frustrated and alienated. So they've deliberately trashed the city – to get what they were promised."


''Lodestone''

''Lodestone'' is an exploration game, the purpose of which is to survive a journey through magnetic islands and the game environment, populated with artificial lifeforms. The game has been put on hold while the company develops its fourth game – ''Sir, You Are Being Hunted''.


''Sir, You Are Being Hunted''

Created using the
Unity game engine Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies, first announced and released in June 2005 at Apple Worldwide Developers Conference as a Mac OS X game engine. The engine has since been gradually extended to support a var ...
. A
Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
pledge drive to fund completion of the game was launched on 2 November 2012.


''The Signal From Tölva''

A science fiction first-person shooter made with the Unity game engine released in 2017.


''Sir, You Are Being Hunted: Reinvented Edition''

A savagely funny world of procedurally-generated stealth and survival. Roam wild in spooky British landscapes, all the while being hunted by a menagerie of bloodthirsty robots.


References

{{reflist


External links


Big Robot website
Video game companies established in 2010 Video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game development companies