Outerlight Limited was a British

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

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. The company was incorporated by Christopher "Chris" Peck, Ailsa Jeannette Bates and Edward "Ed" Wilson, at the United Kingdom's Companies House, on 10 March 2003. Their first game was ''The Ship'', a

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for ''

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'', released

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in 2004. The game was reworked as a standalone title, under the name '' The Ship: Murder Party'', and released commercially, independently via

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 July 2006. Peck described the time of ''The Ship'' development as "a costly and soul destroying two years chasing publishing deals and failing". Retail versions of the game were distributed by Merscom and Mindscape in North America and Europe, respectively. A sequel to the game, ''The Ship 2'', was announced to be in development in September 2007. The game was briefly known as ''Hollywood Murder Party'', and was announced as ''

Bloody Good Time ''Bloody Good Time'' is a first-person shooter developed by Outerlight and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360. It was released in October 2010. The game is a spiritual sequel to '' The Ship'', Outerlight's debut title, with ...

'', published by

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', '' ...

, in September 2010. Shortly prior to the game's October 2010 release, Peck announced that all of Outerlight's staff, except for him, had been laid off, and the offices vacated. Peck remained with the company as

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

and kept it trading using ongoing sales from ''The Ship: Murder Party'', hoping that the upcoming income from ''Bloody Good Time'' would help re-establish the company. Although no further news came from Outerlight, with the website having shut down, the studio is believed to have closed completely sometime in 2010. ''The Ship''

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

was acquired by

Blazing Griffin ''The Ship'' (later retitled ''The Ship: Murder Party'') is a first-person shooter video game developed by Outerlight using Valve's Source engine. The game was released on 11 July 2006, on Steam with retail distribution in Europe and Australi ...

in November 2011. Using the license, Blazing Griffin attempted to finance a sequel to the game, ''The Ship: Full Steam Ahead'', through 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, ...

campaign starting in October 2012, and seeking . However, project funding was cancelled in January 2013, after Blazing Griffin saw major communication problems with the Kickstarter community. In place of the sequel, Blazing Griffin instead announced in June 2015 that they were developing a remastered version of the original ''The Ship: Murder Party'' game, titled ''The Ship: HD'', although this was later changed to '' The Ship: Remasted''. The game was released into Steam Early Access in February 2016, which it exited in October 2016.

Games developed

References

{{Authority control 2003 establishments in Scotland 2010 disestablishments in Scotland Companies based in Edinburgh Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game companies established in 2003