Longbow Games is a Canadian

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 ...

based in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. It was founded in 1998 by

Seumas McNally Seumas McNally (pronounced Shem-Ess) (February 10, 1979 – March 21, 2000) was a Canadian video game programmer and designer. He is best known for indie games, notably ''DX-Ball'' and '' Tread Marks'', which won the Grand Prize at the Independe ...

History

Longbow Games was established in 1998 as Longbow Digital Arts by

. In 2000, the company's tank combat game '' Tread Marks'' won the top award at the

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, ...

. Shortly thereafter, McNally died of

Hodgkin lymphoma Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a type of lymphoma, in which cancer originates from a specific type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, where multinucleated Reed–Sternberg cells (RS cells) are present in the patient's lymph nodes. The condition wa ...

aged 21. The Independent Games Festival renamed its grand price in his honour. Since then, Longbow is run by McNally's family, such as father Jim, brother Phillipe, and mother Wendy. In 2012, the company had seven employees and an intern, otherwise outsourcing tasks to subcontractors.

Projects

'' Hegemony: Philip of Macedon'' was a pet project of Jim McNally, who became interested in Philip while researching

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...

and discovering that it was actually his father who had developed the troop types, tactics and infrastructure that enabled Alexander's invasion of the

Persian Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, wikt:𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎶, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an History of Iran#Classical antiquity, ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Bas ...

. In hindsight, the early arcade games Longbow produced were mere stepping stones to the more in-depth

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, turn ...

games of the ''

Hegemony Hegemony (, , ) is the political, economic, and military predominance of one State (polity), state over other states. In Ancient Greece (8th BC – AD 6th ), hegemony denoted the politico-military dominance of the ''hegemon'' city-state over oth ...

'' series. In 2018, Longbow released the puzzle-adventure game ''

Golem A golem ( ; he, , gōlem) is an animated, anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore, which is entirely created from inanimate matter (usually clay or mud). The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late 16th-century ...

''.

Finances

A bottleneck has been financing, since independence from publishing firms meant being forced to rely on self-funding. However, as Longbow developed the

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software i ...

for ''Hegemony'' from scratch, it was eligible to receive research and development credit from the government. An export fund for sending Canadian companies abroad to promote their games supported Longbow to visit trade shows. With its title '' Hegemony Rome: The Rise of Caesar'', Longbow attempted

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 ...

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 ...

to gain player feedback in 2013/14. In 2014/15, Longbow launched 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 via

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, ...

for its next strategy title, '' Hegemony III: Clash of the Ancients'', but raised only a fraction of its CA$30,000 goal.''Hegemony III: Clash of the Ancients - Funding Unsuccessful''
On the website of ''KickTraq'', visited 4 February 2021 (English)

Games

* '' DX-Ball 2'' and '' Rival Ball'' – a series of

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

s first released in 1996 * '' Tread Marks'' – a tank wargame, released in 2000. * ''

'' - a strategy game series, which was started in 2010. * ''

'' - a fantasy platform game, which was released in 2018.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://longbowgames.com/ Canadian companies established in 1998 Companies based in Toronto Video game companies established in 1998 Video game companies of Canada Video game development companies