Troika Games was an American

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 ...

co-founded by Jason Anderson,

Tim Cain Timothy Cain is an American video game developer best known as the creator, producer, lead programmer and one of the main designers of the 1997 computer game ''Fallout''. In 2009, he was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of a ...

, and Leonard Boyarsky. The company was focused on

role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

s between 1998 and 2005, best known for '' Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura'' and '' Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines''.

History

In 1997,

, Leonard Boyarsky, and Jason Anderson worked on the ''

Fallout Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioac ...

'' sequel at Interplay. Finishing the initial design for ''

Fallout 2 ''Fallout 2: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game'' is a 1998 role-playing video game developed by Black Isle Studios and published by Interplay Productions. It is a sequel to ''Fallout (video game), Fallout'' (1997), featuring similar graphics and ...

'', they were unable to come to an agreement with Interplay about the future team structure. They decided to leave Interplay to form a company that felt more like the old Interplay, producing

s for PC in 1997. They formed their company on April 1, 1998, calling their new company Troika Games (a Russian word "Тройка" meaning "three of a kind") since they were the three key developers behind the critically acclaimed ''Fallout''. They initially planned to do games exclusively for one publisher (

Sierra Entertainment Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genre, ...

), but a different company published each game. After being unable to secure funding for future projects, they were forced to lay off their staff in late 2004 and later closed their doors on February 24, 2005.

Games

In 1998, Troika started designing a

steampunk Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era or ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

crossover

named '' Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura'' and convinced

to publish it. The game was launched on August 21, 2001. While criticized for being unpolished and having a bad combat engine, it received generally favorable reviews, averaging 81% on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. With 234,000 units sold, it is Troika's best-selling game. In 2016 it was released on Steam, where as of March 2017, it has over 95,000 owners. After ''Arcanum'' was released in 2001, two teams started to work on two different games. One team created ''

The Temple of Elemental Evil ''The Temple of Elemental Evil'' is an adventure module for the fantasy role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'', set in the game's ''World of Greyhawk'' campaign setting. The module was published by TSR, Inc. in 1985 for the first edition ' ...

'' for publisher

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...

which was released on September 26,

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

. It was lauded for the good implementation of the D&D 3.5 system, but overall it got mixed reviews due to gameplay bugs and a lack of a plot. With a 71% on

, it was the lowest-rated Troika game. It sold about 128,000 units. The other team worked for

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

on '' Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines''. Using an early version of the

Source engine Source is a 3D game engine developed by Valve. It debuted as the successor to GoldSrc in 2004 with the release of '' Counter-Strike: Source'' and '' Half-Life 2''. Updates to Source were released in incremental versions, with the engine being su ...

, development was finished in October 2004. Due to contractual obligations with

Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fittings ...

was not allowed to release the game before Valve released ''

Half-Life 2 ''Half-Life 2'' is a 2004 first-person shooter game developed by Valve. It was published by Valve through its distribution service Steam. Like the original ''Half-Life'' (1998), ''Half-Life 2'' combines shooting, puzzles, and storytelling, and ...

'', scheduled for release in November 2004. Troika Games used the interim period to code a patch into the main program. ''Bloodlines'' was released on November 16, 2004 (the same day as ''

''). Critics praised ''Bloodlines'' visuals, audio, and story but warned of bugs. It got a rating of 80% on

and sold merely 72,000 units on its original release. With the addition of the game to the digital distributors

Direct2Drive Direct2Drive (commonly D2D) is an online game store offering PC games via direct download. On May 25, 2011, GameFly acquired Direct2Drive from IGN Entertainment, Inc. and renamed the service to GameFly Digital.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 2016, many units were sold digitally. As of March 2017, approximately 550,000 people own the game on Steam. In 2004, Troika tried to find a publisher for an unnamed

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astro ...

but was unsuccessful, leading to rumors in January 2005 that the company had already shut down. Screenshots of the unnamed game were posted in 2004 to the ''Fallout'' fan sites "No Mutants Allowed" and "Duck and Cover". A tech demo video was released in early 2005, weeks before closing. Tim Cain later confirmed that this was supposed to be a sequel to ''Fallout'': "Leonard pursued ''Fallout 3'', which ultimately went to Bethesda, who outbid us."

List of games

References

External links

Official website
via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

Troika Games
profile on

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The Escapist
- The Rise and Fall of Troika {{Obsidian Entertainment Video game development companies Video game companies established in 1998 Video game companies disestablished in 2005 Defunct video game companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles 1998 establishments in California 2005 disestablishments in California Privately held companies based in California