Stoic is a

video game development Video game development (or gamedev) is the process of developing a video game. The effort is undertaken by a developer, ranging from a single person to an international team dispersed across the globe. Development of traditional commercial PC a ...

company located in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

. Founded by three ex-

BioWare BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated Doctor of Medicine, medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zes ...

staff in December 2011, Stoic is most known for developing the

tactical role-playing Tactical role-playing games (abbreviated TRPGs), also known as strategy role-playing games and in Japan as (both abbreviated SRPGs), are a video game genre that combines core elements of role-playing video games with those of tactical (turn-b ...

video game ''

The Banner Saga ''The Banner Saga'' is a tactical role-playing video game developed by Stoic Studio and published by Versus Evil. It was released for personal computers and mobile phones in 2014, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2016 and for Nintendo Switch in ...

'' (2014) and its sequels, ''

The Banner Saga 2 ''The Banner Saga 2'' is a tactical role-playing video game developed by Stoic Studio and published by Versus Evil. It is the sequel to ''The Banner Saga,'' and the second part of a trilogy of games. A crowdfunding campaign for the third game i ...

'' (2016) and ''

The Banner Saga 3 ''The Banner Saga 3'' is a tactical role-playing video game developed by Stoic Studio and published by Versus Evil for macOS, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It is the final installment in a trilogy of games that ...

'' (2018).

History

Stoic was founded by Arnie Jorgensen, John Watson and Alex Thomas in early 2012. They left

in 2012 after finishing the production of '' Star Wars: The Old Republic'' and wanted to make their "dream game", which would then become ''

''. Using crowdfunding platform

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, ...

, Stoic successfully funded the game within 2 days, though the team initially wanted to fund the game using their own personal savings. The funds raised far exceeded their expectations, thus the team expanded the game's scope to include more features. The team partnered with

Versus Evil Versus Evil, LLC is an American video game publisher founded by former ZeniMax Online Studios marketing director Steve Escalante to focus on the independent video game market. Versus Evil's staff is located in California, Texas, and Maryland. Hi ...

, which served as the game's publisher, providing services such as quality assurance. The multiplayer portion of the game was

soft launch A soft launch, also known as a soft opening, is a preview release of a product or service to a limited audience prior to the general public. Soft-launching a product is sometimes used to gather data or customer feedback, prior to making it widely ...

ed by Stoic in February 2013 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 ...

as a standalone game as '' The Banner Saga: Factions'', while the full game was released in January 2014. The game was a critical and commercial success, thus the team was able to fund the development of ''

'' by themselves. With development lasting for two years, ''

'', like its predecessor, also received generally positive reviews when it was released in April 2016. When Watson reflected on the game's development, he noted that the team starting crunching as the team slowly ran out of money. The game commercial performance disappointed Stoic, with the title selling just a third of its predecessors. Watson attributed the game's failure to the team neglecting the franchise's community, while Versus Evil's General Manager Steve Escalante believed that the game's underwhelming performance was mainly due to increased competition from other titles. The team returned to Kickstarter again for ''

''. While Stoic funded most of the game's development, the funds raised via Kickstarter was spent hiring an animation studio, a sound studio and a recording studio in Iceland to assist the title's development. The $200,000 funding goal was reached within a week. The game, the third and last entry in the trilogy, was released on July 26, 2018. 505 Games released a retail bundle containing all three games on the same day.

Games

References

External links

* {{Stoic Studio Companies based in Austin, Texas Video game development companies Video game companies based in Texas Video game companies established in 2011 2011 establishments in Texas Privately held companies based in Texas Indie video game developers