Jump to content

Moon Studios

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Gennadiy Korol)

Moon Studios GmbH
Company typePrivate
IndustryVideo games
Founded2010; 15 years ago (2010)
Founder
Headquarters
Vienna
,
Austria
Key people
Thomas Mahler (CEO)
ProductsOri and the Blind Forest
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
No Rest for the Wicked
Number of employees
80+ (2020)
Websitemoongamestudios.com

Moon Studios GmbH is an Austrian video game developer founded in 2010.[1] They are best known for their 2015 title Ori and the Blind Forest, for which the studio was awarded the Best Debut award at the 2016 Game Developers Choice Awards.[2] In 2020, the studio released a sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps.

History

[edit]

The studio was founded in 2010 by Thomas Mahler and Gennadiy Korol. During Mahler's tenure at Blizzard Entertainment, the successes of independent games like Castle Crashers, Limbo, and Braid encouraged him to leave the company to found an independent studio. The two chose the name "Moon Studios" as the company name as they were inspired by John F. Kennedy's quote, "We choose to go to the Moon". Mahler described Moon Studios as a "virtual studio," as the team did not rent an office and instead recruited talents from all over the world. Team members came from places such as Austria, Australia, Israel and the United States, and they collaborated with each other using the Internet.[3] The company's headquarters are located in Mahler's native Vienna.[4]

After assembling the team, Moon Studios started creating prototypes. One early prototype was named Warsoup, a first-person shooter mixed with real-time strategy elements. Another prototype was named Sein, a platformer with Metroidvania gameplay. Moon Studios started pitching Warsoup to publishers. Microsoft dismissed Warsoup but agreed to fund Sein, with Microsoft retaining the rights to the intellectual property. With a core team of 10 people alongside several remote working contractors, the game, which would later be renamed Ori and the Blind Forest, took the team 4 years to develop.[5]

The team met with each other for the first time at E3 2014, when the announcement trailer was released.[6] Ori and the Blind Forest received critical acclaim when it was released in March 2015. It was also a commercial success, as it recouped its development in 7 days.[7]

Following the success of Ori and the Blind Forest, the team expanded significantly. As of March 2020, the studio employed more than 80 people and recruited talents from 43 countries. To facilitate communication, Moon built its communication tool named "Apollo".[8] The team also organized yearly retreats to ensure the team bond together. At E3 2017, they announced a sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, which was released for the Xbox One and Windows 10 on March 10, 2020.[9]

In March 2022, VentureBeat published an article that detailed allegations of workplace abuse at Moon Studios with a particular focus on Mahler and Korol. These included claims of regular arguments during development, claims of an oppressive crunch culture at the studio and claims of racist, sexist, and anti-semitic language being used by Mahler and Korol during work hours.[10][11] In a response to the report, Mahler and Korol said the details of the report were not representative of the working environment of the studio, nor its employees, touted the studio's multiculturalism, but also acknowledge that they have teased their cultural backgrounds. In addition, they expressed regret if anyone on staff felt uncomfortable or let down by their actions.[11]

The company released action role-playing game No Rest for the Wicked in April 2024, which was published by Private Division, a label of Take-Two Interactive.[12][13] A few months after this release, Take-Two Interactive began the process of shuttering Private Division. Moon Studios bought back the rights to No Rest for the Wicked, which were completed by March 2025, and allowed the studio to become fully independent.[14]

Games developed

[edit]
Year Title Platform(s)
2015 Ori and the Blind Forest Nintendo Switch, Windows, Xbox One
2020 Ori and the Will of the Wisps Nintendo Switch, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
2024 No Rest for the Wicked PlayStation 5, Windows

Ori series

[edit]

In 2015, Mahler and Gennadiy Korol co-created the critically acclaimed and award-winning indie game title, Ori and the Blind Forest.[15][16][17][18] Mahler won the NAVGTR Award in the Game, Original Adventure category in 2016 with Ori and the Blind Forest.[19] The game is considered an example of video games becoming closer to art, and it won, among others, the BAFTA Games Award for Artistic Achievement and the Game Award for Best Art Direction.[20] For example, Chris Melissinos commented that the video game audience was not used to seeing Ori and the Blind Forest's dreamlike sensitivity style of art usually reserved for high profile animated films.[21]

Key people

[edit]

Thomas Mahler

[edit]
Thomas Mahler
NationalityAustrian
EmployerMoon Studios
Notable workOri and the Blind Forest, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, No Rest for the Wicked

Thomas Mahler is an Austrian video game developer best known for being co-creator of the 2015 indie game title, Ori and the Blind Forest. Under Mahler's direction, Moon Studios developed its sequel Ori and the Will of the Wisps (2020) as well as the action role-playing game No Rest for the Wicked (2024).

Mahler was interested with video games and artwork at an early age and studied traditional sculpture in the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.[22][23] He worked at Blizzard Entertainment on visual effects as a Cinematic Artist before founding Moon Studios GmbH in Vienna together with Gennadiy Korol in 2010.[24][25][26]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Mahler, Thomas (5 May 2015). "Postmortem: Moon Studios' heartfelt Ori and the Blind Forest". Gamasutra. UBM TechWeb. Archived from the original on 9 May 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  2. ^ Staff (16 March 2016). "Witcher 3 wins Game of the Year at 16th annual Game Developers Choice Awards". Game Developers Conference. UBM TechWeb. Archived from the original on 19 March 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  3. ^ Mike Minotti (June 18, 2014). "Ori and the Blind Forest's producer wants his beautiful Xbox One exclusive to play as good as it looks (interview)". Yahoo! Games. Yahoo!, Inc. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
  4. ^ Mathé, Alexander U. (8 March 2019). ""Die Arroganz in Österreich regt mich auf"". Wiener Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 20 December 2021. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
  5. ^ Sinclair, Brendan (15 April 2015). "AAA should invest in indies - Ori dev". Gameindustry.biz. Archived from the original on 9 March 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  6. ^ Maher, Thomas (5 May 2015). "Postmortem: Moon Studios' heartfelt Ori and the Blind Forest Exclusive". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 7 May 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  7. ^ Eddie Makuch (9 April 2015). "Celebrated Xbox One Game Ori and the Blind Forest Profitable in One Week". gamespot.com. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 11 April 2015. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  8. ^ Dring, Christopher (10 March 2020). "Building Ori and the Will of the Wisps with 80 people working from home". Gameindustry.biz. Archived from the original on 14 March 2020. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
  9. ^ Skrebels, Joe (11 June 2017). "ORI AND THE WILL OF THE WISPS REVEALED". IGN. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
  10. ^ "Οι δημιουργοί του "Ori" φαίνεται να εργάζονται υπό καταπιεστικές συνθήκες". gr.ign.com. 21 March 2022. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  11. ^ a b "Despite its beautiful Ori games, Moon Studios is called an 'oppressive' place to work". VentureBeat. 18 March 2022. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  12. ^ Blake, Vikki (22 December 2019). "Ori and the Blind Forest devs are making an action RPG". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 25 December 2019. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
  13. ^ "Take-Two has delayed the new action RPG from Ori developer Moon Studios". VGC. 9 February 2024. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
  14. ^ McCrae, Scott (11 March 2025). "Ori and the Blind Forest developer is now "fully independent" after "months of negotiation" with what remained of its gutted publisher". gamesradar. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  15. ^ Zorn, Josef (21 April 2015). "Thomas Mahler gegen die Welt—und die österreichische Gaming-Community". VICE. Retrieved 17 June 2017.
  16. ^ "Ori and the Blind Forest Dev Wants to Continue the Story, Possibly With a Movie". Yahoo! Movies. 10 April 2015. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  17. ^ Mahler, Thomas (15 May 2017). "Postmortem: Moon Studios' heartfelt Ori and the Blind Forest". Gamasutra. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  18. ^ Webber, Jordan Erica (1 April 2015). "Ori and the Blind Forest review: "a challenging and beautiful journey"". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  19. ^ "Thomas Mahler". IMDb. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  20. ^ "Profile: Gennadiy Korol". Forbes. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  21. ^ Melissinos, Chris (21 October 2016). "Can video games be art?". CNN. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  22. ^ Matulef, Jeffrey (7 July 2014). "Ori and the Blind Forest looks great, but plays even better". Eurogamer. Retrieved 17 June 2017.
  23. ^ "Mahler: "Wir Österreicher brauchen mehr Mut"". Red Bull (in German). 10 March 2015. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  24. ^ "Moon Studios | Ori". Ori. Retrieved 17 June 2017.
  25. ^ ""Ori"-Entwickler: Für Top-Games aus Österreich fehlen Geld und Talente". derStandard.at. 14 February 2015. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  26. ^ "A Multinational Team Bands Together To Create Ori And The Blind Forest". Game Informer. 22 December 2014. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moon_Studios&oldid=1301945411"