Velan Studios is an American video game developer based in

Troy, New York Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany ...

. Founded in 2016 by Guha Bala and Karthik Bala, the studio is most known for developing '' Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit'' (2020) and '' Knockout City'' (2021).

History

Velan Studios was founded in November 2016 by Guha Bala and Karthik Bala. The Bala brothers previously founded

Vicarious Visions Blizzard Albany (formerly Vicarious Visions, Inc.) is an American video game developer based in Albany, New York. The studio was acquired by Activision in January 2005. After releasing its last game as part of that company, ''Tony Hawk's Pro Sk ...

in 1991 and left the company in April 2016. According to the founders, the studio aimed to develop "breakthrough experimental games", and the term "velan" stands for "spear bearer" in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

. In July 2017, the team successful raised $7 million in venture capital for their first project. The studio's first game was '' Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit''. The team completed the game's first prototype in 2017 and Nintendo greenlit the project after meeting the team in their headquarters in Kyoto. ''Home Circuit'' utilizes physical

radio-controlled car 'Radio-controlled cars'' (or RC cars for short) are miniature model cars, vans, buses, trucks or buggies that can be controlled from a distance using a specialized transmitter or remote. The term "RC" has been used to mean both "remote controll ...

s responding to how the player plays in-game, and Velan Studios was responsible for developing the software, while Nintendo focused on creating the hardware. The game received generally positive reviews when it was released in October 2020. In March 2019,

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...

announced that it had partnered with Velan Studios to release a "team-based action" game. The game was published under the EA Originals program, EA's initiative to support independent games. The program allowed the studio to retain full creative control while receiving most of the game's profit after development cost was recouped. The game, titled '' Knockout City'', was released in May 2021. The game attracted 2 million players within its first week of release.

Games

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.velanstudios.com/ 2016 establishments in New York (state) Video game companies established in 2016 Video game companies of the United States Video game development companies Indie video game developers