Broken Rules Interactive Media GmbH is an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n independent

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

, and creative collective based in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. It was founded in 2009 by Peter Vorlaufer, Jan Hackl, and Felix Bohatsch, and is known for critically acclaimed and award-winning games such as ''

And Yet It Moves ''And Yet It Moves'' is a puzzle-platform game developed by independent developer Broken Rules. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux on April 2, 2009, and for Wii as a WiiWare title in August 2010. ''And Yet It Mov ...

'', '' Secrets of Raetikon'' and '' Old Man's Journey'', as well as a number of game

ports A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

Wii U The Wii U ( ) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo as the successor to the Wii. Released in late 2012, it is the first eighth-generation video game console and competed with Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4. The W ...

History

Broken Rules was initially formed by Felix Bohatsch, Jan Hackl and Peter Vorlaufer in 2009, and coincided with the release of their first title'','' puzzle-platformer ''

''. The game's prototype began as a bachelor project held by the Department for Design and Assessment at the

Vienna University of Technology TU Wien (TUW; german: Technische Universität Wien; still known in English as the Vienna University of Technology from 1975–2014) is one of the major universities in Vienna, Austria. The university finds high international and domestic recogn ...

in 2007, and gained international recognition when it won the 'Student Showcase Award' at the 12th Annual

Independent Games Festival The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of the independent video game industry. Originally founded in 1998 to promote independent video game developers, ...

. During the launch of ''And Yet It Moves'', Broken Rules merged with one half of their indie friends and office neighbors studio radiolaris, Martin Pichlmair. Visual artist Clemens Scott joined the company at the same time. After the merger, the team started working on an in-house engine and their next game. ''Chasing Aurora'' started out as a bird-flying

racing game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic rac ...

prototype in late 2010. The developers were approached by

in mid-2011 to make a launch title for the

, where it released on November 18, 2012. They then returned to its

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. A single-player game is usually a game that can only be played by one person, while "single-player mode" is usuall ...

campaign, and in 2013 announced it as its own game, ''Secrets of Raetikon''. Instead of turning to a

they secured additional funding through a

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

campaign on IndieGoGo, launched an

alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , whic ...

phase, entered an open alpha phase on

Steam Early Access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alph ...

some time later and finally released the full game for PC, Mac and Linux on April 17, 2014. After ''Secrets of Raetikon'' released, the team was on the verge of closure, which brought them to restructure the company and start to pick up work for hire. Leveraging their experience with the Wii U, they

ported In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desi ...

a range of games to Nintendo's

console Console may refer to: Computing and video games * System console, a physical device to operate a computer ** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device ** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...

, namely '' Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition'',

Apple Design Award The Apple Design Awards (ADAs) is an event hosted by Apple Inc. at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference. The purpose of the event is to recognize the best and most innovative Macintosh and iOS software and hardware produced by independent d ...

winner ''

Blek ''Blek'' is a 2013 puzzle video game for iOS and Android by Kunabi Brother, a team of brothers Denis and Davor Mikan. The player draws a snakelike black line that recurs in pattern and velocity across the screen to remove colored dots and avo ...

'' and '' Electronic Super Joy.'' Additionally, individual team members collaborated on smaller projects with

independent developers An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. ...

around the globe. During this time,

DeNA Dena (in Luri and fa, ) is the name for a sub-range within the Zagros Mountains, Iran. Mount Dena, with length and average width, is situated on the boundary of the Isfahan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Provin ...

hired Broken Rules to port ''And Yet It Moves'' to

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

, released in 2015 with the shortened name ''Yet It Moves'', tho it was later removed from the platform. Broken Rules' next game, '' Old Man's Journey,'' started development in early 2015, and was released for iOS, Android and PC on May 17, 2017. The game follows the trip of an old man, who starts to travel after receiving a letter containing some news. Throughout the game, semi-still flashbacks explain the past life of the man. ''Old Man's Journey'' went on to win numerous awards. In the following two years the game was also ported to all major console platforms. After that, together with jcstranger and Salon Alpin, they developed ''ELOH'', a chilled out puzzle game, and published it on October 11, 2018, for iOS and Android. The game received generally favorable reviews, and was praised for its visuals and audio design. It won 'Excellence in Audio' at the 15th

International Mobile Gaming Awards The International Mobile Gaming Awards ("IMGA") is an annual competition and awards ceremony that honors outstanding games made for mobile devices. It is the longest standing international competition for mobile games. Notable IMGA winners include ...

, and an Apple Design Award in June 2019. '' Gibbon: Beyond the Trees'', the studio's latest title, released on February 25, 2022 on

Apple Arcade Apple Arcade is a video game subscription service offered by Apple Inc. It is available through a dedicated tab of the App Store on devices running iOS 13, tvOS 13, iPadOS 13, and macOS Catalina or later. The service launched on September 19 ...

, followed by the

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

and

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

in May. The short ecological

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...

follows a

gibbon Gibbons () are apes in the family Hylobatidae (). The family historically contained one genus, but now is split into four extant genera and 20 species. Gibbons live in subtropical and tropical rainforest from eastern Bangladesh to Northeast India ...

on a dangerous journey and highlights the effects of real world issues such as

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

, and

poaching Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set a ...

driven by

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

. During its development in times of the

Covid-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Broken Rules was in contact with various

NGOs A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

to learn more about these things. The game went on to win various awards, such as the Apple Design Award for 'Social Impact'. It was also nominated for 'Game Beyond Entertainment' at the 2023 BAFTA Games Awards, 'Mobile Game of the Year' at the 2023 D.I.C.E. Awards, and the 'Visual Design Award' at

IndieCade IndieCade is an international juried festival of independent games. IndieCade is known as "the video game industry's Sundance."Fritz, Ben"IndieCade, the video game industry's Sundance" Los Angeles Times, October 1, 2009, accessed July 21, 2011. ...

. Aside from making games, the studio has co-organized zamSpielen in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

from 2011 onwards, a series of irregular ludic exhibition events, meant to bring video games into a public spotlight.

Games developed

References

{{Broken Rules Austrian companies established in 2009 Video game companies established in 2009 Indie game developers