Colossal Order (company)

Colossal Order
Limited company (Oy)[1]
Industry Computer and video game industry
Founded 2009
Headquarters Tampere, Finland
Key people
Products Cities in Motion series
Cities: Skylines
Number of employees
 15[5]
Website www.colossalorder.fi

Colossal Order is a Finnish video game development company known for its business simulation game series Cities in Motion and for its city builder Cities: Skylines.[6][7][8][9] The company was founded in Tampere, Finland in 2009. Its publisher is Paradox Interactive.[2] Paradox tests, markets, sells and distributes all games by Colossal Order.[10] The CEO of Colossal Order is Mariina Hallikainen.[1]

History

Colossal Order was founded in the summer of 2009 by a group of game developers of the mobile game company Universomo. Mariina Hallikainen was hired from outside of Universomo as the CEO of the new company.[10]

At first, Colossal Order had difficulties obtaining funding for its first game, the business simulation game Cities in Motion, that was already in development when the company was founded.[10] Investors thought that Cities in Motion would not attract a large enough clientele. Instead of big investors, the first steps of the company were funded by Finnish public instruments – Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment, Tekes, and DigiDemo finance of the Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture – as well as small private investors.[2]

In its early phase, the company was coached by the Yritystalli program of the Tampere University of Technology,[10] but advice was sought directly from experienced Finnish game development companies as well, specifically Remedy Entertainment and Frozenbyte.[2] Upon being founded, Colossal Order compared dozens of publishers and ended up signing a publishing agreement with Paradox Interactive after over a year's worth of negotiations.[10]

In October 2015, Colossal Order was awarded the Finnish Game Developer of the Year (Finnish: Vuoden suomalainen pelinkehittäjä) award at the DixiExpo convention. The judges thanked Colossal Order for focusing: "from its inception ... on – in addition to developing games – also developing its business model".[11]

Games

The relationship between Colossal Order and its publisher Paradox Interactive has been characterized as constructive. Colossal Order has the freedom to create games without limitations set by the publisher, bar those on schedules.[2]

Unlike the game developers that founded it, Colossal Order does not develop mobile games.[2] Instead, the company focuses on PC games.[11] Employees of the company have their own internal wiki platform for developing games.[5] Games by Colossal Order are known for their active modding communities.[5] One of the programmers at the company works full-time on modding tools.[12]

The best-known game of the company[13] is the city-building game Cities: Skylines published in March 2015. It competes with games of the SimCity and Cities XL series.[14][15][16] Cities: Skylines got its first expansion pack, Cities: Skylines – After Dark, in September 2015. Its second expansion pack came out in February 2016, called Cities Skylines - Snowfall.[15] A third expansion pack, Cities: Skylines - Natural Disasters, was announced in August 2016.[17]

List of games

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Vastuuhenkilöt" [Responsibilities] (in Finnish). Fonecta Finder. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Mika Sorvari (17 March 2011). "Esittelyssä Colossal Order" [Introducing Colossal Order]. Gamereactor Finland (in Finnish). Gamez Publishing A/S. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  3. ↑ Alenius, Kaisa (7 July 2015). "Peliala on murroksessa ja se näkyy Karoliina Korppoossa" [The Game Industry is Evolving and it can be seen in Karoliina Korppoo] (in Finnish). Yle Kulttuuri. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
  4. ↑ Cameron, Phill (23 April 2015). "If you build it: Colossal Order on Cities: Skylines modding". Gamasutra. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 Peel, Jeremy. "How Colossal Order touched the clouds: the making and success of Cities: Skylines". PCGamesN. p. 1. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
  6. 1 2 Quintin Smith (5 January 2011). "Some Impressions: Cities in Motion". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  7. 1 2 John Walker (15 August 2012). "On the Buses: Cities in Motion 2". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  8. 1 2 Alec Meer (10 March 2015). "Wot I Think: Cities: Skylines". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  9. 1 2 3 "Company". Colossal Order. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 Eskelinen, Päivi (19 May 2011). "Vakavasti mukana pelibisneksessä" [Seriously in with the Games Business]. Rajapinta (in Finnish). Tampere University of Technology. 2011 (3). Retrieved 21 November 2015.
  11. 1 2 "Cities: Skylines toi vuoden suomalaisen pelinkehittäjän palkinnon" [Cities: Skylines earned the Finnish Game Developer of the Year Award]. Tivi (in Finnish). Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  12. ↑ Wordsworth, Rich (21 May 2015). "Cities Skylines: Built this city on mods and coal". Redbull. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
  13. ↑ "Colossal Order liittyi Rovion ja Supercellin joukkoon" [Colossal Order Joined Rovio and Supercell] (in Finnish). Markkinoint&Mainonta. 30 October 2015. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
  14. ↑ "Cities In Motion". Metacritic. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  15. 1 2 "Colossal Order". IGN. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  16. ↑ "Cities In Motion". Dome. 16 February 2011. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  17. ↑ Purchase, Robert (18 August 2016). "Natural Disasters are coming to Cities Skylines in a new expansion". Eurogamer. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  18. ↑ Jon Michael (22 March 2011). "Cities in Motion Review". IGN. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  19. ↑ Leif Johnson (11 April 2013). "Cities in Motion 2 Review". IGN. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  20. ↑ Robert Purchese (11 February 2015). "Cities Skylines release date revealed". Eurogamer. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
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