Blue Fang Games

American video game developer

Blue Fang Games

Company type| Corporation
Industry| Video games
Founded| 1998
Defunct| 2011
Headquarters|

Waltham, Massachusetts

United States

Key people

* Hank Howie
* Adam Levesque
* John Wheeler

Products| Zoo Tycoon

Number of employees

| 75 (2009)

Blue Fang Games, LLC was an American video game developer. Founded in Waltham, Massachusetts in 1998, they achieved commercial success with their first title Zoo Tycoon on Windows and Macintosh. They went on to develop a sequel and numerous expansion packs for the franchise. However, as the video game market shifted away from packaged games with long development cycles, the studio struggled to adapt. After publishing several titles for mobile and social platforms with little commercial success, the studio shut down in 2011.

## History

[edit]

Blue Fang Games was founded in Waltham, Massachusetts in the summer of 1998. Its founders included Adam Levesque and John Wheeler, former employees of Papyrus Design Group who had worked on the NASCAR Racing series. The company was initially reported to be working on a fantasy role-playing game.[1][2] This project was ultimately cancelled; former Blue Fang president Hank Howie said in 2020, "Originally, Blue Fang was supposed to do a game about dragons, but that was way too big for our small team."[3]

The team was then inspired by RollerCoaster Tycoon to pivot to a management simulation game.[3] According to the company, they developed the concept for the Zoo Tycoon in summer 1998, and signed a publishing deal with Microsoft in fall of 2000.[4] The game released in late 2001 and was a commercial success, reaching 2 million sales domestically and 4 million internationally by July 2004.[5] Blue Fang released several expansion packs for the game and began development on a sequel.

Zoo Tycoon 2 was released in November 2004.[6] It was similarly successful, ranking as the 19th best-selling computer game of 2004,[7] and several expansion packs were published.

Plans for a Zoo Tycoon 3 were started but ultimately scrapped as the company shifted away from developing PC games.[3] The company reached its peak head count of 75 employees in 2009, the same year it published World of Zoo for Windows, Nintendo DS and Wii with publisher THQ.[8] This game was not a commercial success, and marked a downturn for the studio. "The collapse of the Wii market really hurt," said Howie.[9]

The company then attempted a pivot from packaged games to mobile and social network games. They released Lion Pride for iOS in 2009,[10] and worked with The Learning Company to port some of its older games to Facebook. Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? and The Oregon Trail were developed in three months and released on Facebook in 2011. According to Howie, the short development timeline and a poor working relationship with The Learning Company led to the failure of these titles. The studio reportedly laid off its development staff in July 2011, and closed down in September.[9]

## Games

[edit]

Title | Release date | Platform

|
|

Zoo Tycoon | 2001 | Microsoft Windows, Macintosh
• Dinosaur Digs | 2002 | Microsoft Windows
• Marine Mania | 2002
• Complete Collection | 2003
Zoo Tycoon 2 | 2004 | Microsoft Windows, Macintosh
• Endangered Species | 2005 | Microsoft Windows
• African Adventure | 2006
• Dino Danger Pack | 2006
• Zookeeper Collection | 2006
• Marine Mania | 2006
• Extinct Animals | 2007
• Ultimate Collection | 2008
Zoo Tycoon DS | 2005 | Nintendo DS
Zoo Tycoon 2 DS | 2008
World of Zoo | 2009 | Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, Wii
Lion Pride | 2009 | iOS
Zoo Kingdom | 2010[11] | Facebook
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? | 2011
The Oregon Trail | 2011

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Aichinger, Herbert (October 1998). "Blue Fang Games: Papyrus-Leute gründen eigene Firm" [Blue Fang Games: Papyrus employees found their own company]. PC Action (in German). p. 33. Retrieved June 19, 2025.
2. ^ Holowaty, Christoph (October 16, 1998). "Blue Fang Games nennt erste Details des geheimen PG-Rollenspielprojekts" [Blue Fang Games Reveals First Details of Secret PC Role-Playing Project]. MCV: Markt für Computer- & Videospiele (in German). p. 16. Retrieved June 19, 2025.
3. ^ a b c Baranowski, Jordan (February 21, 2020). "The Evolution of Animal Conservation in Games, from Zoo Tycoon to Planet Zoo". Electronic Gaming Monthly. Retrieved June 19, 2025.
4. ^ "Blue Fang Games". Game Developer Magazine (advertisement). October 2004. p. 42. Retrieved June 19, 2025.
5. ^ Autrijve, Rainier Van (July 12, 2004). "Zoo Tycoon Sells BIG". GameSpy. Archived from the original on August 16, 2004.
6. ^ Adams, David (October 14, 2004). "Finishing the Menagerie". IGN. Retrieved October 11, 2017.
7. ^ Essential Facts about the Computer and Video Game Industry; 2005 Sales, Demographics and Usage Data (PDF) (Report). Entertainment Software Association. May 18, 2005. p. 5\. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 4, 2005.
8. ^ GDN Staff (June 1, 2009). "E3 09: World of Zoo to Open this Fall". Gamers Daily News. Archived from the original on November 3, 2013. Retrieved June 2, 2009.
9. ^ a b Graft, Kris (November 2, 2011). "The Death Of Zoo Tycoon Dev Blue Fang". Retrieved October 11, 2017.
10. ^ "Blue Fang Games Launches Its First iPhone Game". Blue Fang. November 21, 2009. Archived from the original on November 21, 2009. Retrieved June 30, 2023.
11. ^ Goad, Libe (March 4, 2010). "Zoo Kingdom: A new zoo-themed Facebook game with video game roots". Yahoo Sports. Retrieved June 19, 2025.

## External links

[edit]

* Blue Fang Games at MobyGames
* Blue Fang Games at IGN

* v
* t
* e

Zoo Tycoon series

Main series|

* Zoo Tycoon (2001)
* Dinosaur Digs
* Marine Mania
* Zoo Tycoon 2
* Zoo Tycoon (2013)

Other games|

* Zoo Tycoon DS
* Zoo Tycoon 2 DS

Related|

* Blue Fang Games
* Frontier Developments
* Xbox Game Studios
* Planet Zoo

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