Remote control productions

remote control productions GmbH (rcp) is a Munich-based, independent and internationally operating production house for entertainment software. Under the wings of the remote control family, rcp accommodates Europe’s biggest merger of indie-games developers, a network consisting of 150 employees, spread on 14 games-companies that are located in Germany, Austria.^[1] and Finland.^[2] Along with its developer studios, rcp already produced more than 35 games for (most) diverse platforms, such as the successful and multi award-winning Kickstarter-project Son of Nor, which was developed by stillalive Studios, as well as the 2014 German Computer Games Award (GCGA) nominees Bernd das Brot und die Unmöglichen, John Woo’s Bloodstroke, Warstory - Europe in Flames, and the 2012 GCGA winner Word Wonders.^[3]

So far, the mobile RPG Angry Birds Epic, which was jointly developed by remote control family studio Chimera Entertainment and published in association with Rovio Entertainment, that was released in June 2014 on iOS, Windows Phone and Android, was the biggest success on an international level. Since the release, Angry Birds Epic has been downloaded more than 60 Million times.

remote control productions is founding member of the Games Bavaria Munich e. V.,^[4] as well as member of the Videospielkultur e. V., which was co-founded by rcp’s managing director, IGDA-member, G.A.M.E. board member and EGDF-president^[5] Hendrik Lesser.^[6]

rcp already worked with partners such as ProSiebenSat.1 Digital, Rovio Entertainment, Disney, Bigpoint, Ubisoft, Ravensburger Digital, dtp Entertainment, Koch Media/Deep Silver, chillingo, DeNA, Spil Games and other companies.

History

In 2005, the production house was founded as ML Enterprises GmbH under the leadership of Hendrik Lesser and Marc Möhring. remote control productions’ focus lies on the support of developers, publishers, corporations and institutions for mediation, realisation and production of game projects, as well as financing, consulting, development and coaching of start ups and studios from the games industry.

In 2006, Hendrik Lesser founded the developer studio Chimera Entertainment along with Alexander Kehr and Christian Kluckner, which meanwhile became the biggest studio of the remote control productions developer network with more than 40 employees. In September 2008, ML Enterprises was renamed to remote control productions.^[7] In the same year, remote control productions and Chimera Entertainment produced their first own game project: the real-time strategy game Windchaser (Windows).

In the meantime, remote control productions co-founded under the aggregation of the rcp developer family further studios such as Brightside Games (2010),^[8] Wolpertinger Games (2010),^[9] it Matters Games (2012)^[10] and expanded the developer merger for the studios TG Nord (2012),^[11] stillalive studios (2012)^[12] and Zeitland (2012).^[13]

remote control productions established with GamesInFlames also an own publishing company in the year 2010.^[14] In late 2014, the subsidiary GAMIFY now! was founded,^[15] which is specialized in gamification and serious games.

The Austrian developers DoubleSmith, REDOX Game Labs,^[16] and the Nuremberg-based developer studio NeoBird^[17] are part of the remote control productions developer family since 2014 and 2015, respectively.

In the beginning of 2016, remote control productions successfully expanded to Kotka, Finland. The experienced industry veteran and International Game Developer Association (IGDA) chairman Jyri Partanen was acquired as managing director.^[18]

Produces Games

From 2005 till 2007, remote control productions supported Collision Studios’ developer team during the development of Red Ocean, as well as the production of Legend: Hand of God with publisher dtp entertainment, and Crashday along with publisher Atari Europe. In 2008, remote control productions produced their first big game-project with Chimera Entertainment: the real time strategy game Windchaser (Windows). Many more Chimera Entertainment productions followed. In association with Bigpoint, remote control productions and Chimera Entertainment developed the strategy game Warstory - Europe in Flames, a Microsoft Silverlight browser MMO, which takes place in the time of World War II.

Among other things, releases such as Coreplay’s Ion Assault and Brightside Games’ Zeit², one of the first Xbox Live Arcade games from Germany, as well as Chimera Entertainment’s Happy Hills (iOS) and the GCGA-winner Demolition Dash followed in 2011.^[19] Moreover, remote control productions participated in the production of the first interactive audiobook, Audigent’s Raumzeit Folge 1: Der verbotene Sektor. In 2012, several Chimera Entertainment productions followed - Mission: Genesis, Skylancer and Word Wonders, which has won the GCGA in the category “Best Mobile Game Of The Year”^[20] in 2013.

Along with stillalive studios, remote control productions was able to successfully complete a Kickstarter campaign for the game Son of Nor in May 2013.^[21] As a result, more than 150,000 Dollars have been funded. In April 2015, the game was released for PC, Mac and Linux on Steam. In June 2014, remote control productions released the Angry Birds game Angry Birds Epic in co-production with developer Chimera Entertainment and partner Rovio Entertainment.^[22] The mobile RPG, which is based on the popular “Angry Birds” brand, emerged into a global mega hit and has been downloaded more than 50 Million times.^[23]

The Hidden object game Mystery of Neuschwanstein, developed by Chimera Entertainment and funded by the FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, followed in February 2015^[24]

References