Exient

British video game developer

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Exient LimitedCompany type| Private

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Industry| Video games
Founded| 2000 (25 years ago) (2000)
Headquarters| Kings Langley, England, UK
Website| Official website

Exient Limited is a British video game developer and publisher based in Kings Langley, England. Developing for handheld, mobile, console, VR and PC platforms, Having studios in the United Kingdom and Malta, Exient grew a name for designing and developing popular series' games to portable systems. It is known for its ports of various games in the Madden NFL, FIFA, Need for Speed, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour series for Electronic Arts and for developing numerous titles in the Angry Birds series. The company was incorporated in 2000 and began operations in January 2001.

## History

[edit]

Exient was founded by Charles Chapman and David Hawkins in 2001. Chapman began developing computer games at age 14 and graduated with a mathematics and computation degree from Keble College, Oxford. Hawkins worked with software engineering in automotive and switched to project management in games. They met when Hawkins, working for Atari, was looking for ideas for games and Chapman, impressed by Hawkins works, decided to found a development company.[1]

Up to 2013, the bulk of their development was for gaming platforms such as PSP, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy Advance but since 2014 their games have been developed for platforms including Android, iOS, PC and Console. Exient currently develops its games on a proprietary, in-house developed, engine named XGS, the Unity and Unreal Engine platforms.

In 2020, the company rebranded its publishing labels, Sad Puppy and Donut, to Exient Publishing.[2][3] In July 2022, an anonymous source told MCV/Develop that Exient was restructuring resulting in redundancies.[4] In August 2022, Exient produced a two hour long documentary titled "Lemmings: Can you dig it" on the history of the Lemmings series, featuring the original developers, alumni of DMA Design. The documentary was premiered at the Dundee Centre of Contemporary Arts (DCA) and released free to watch on YouTube.[5]

## Games developed

[edit]

Release  | Game | Format | Publisher  | Ref

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2024  | The Grinch: Christmas Adventures | iOS, Android  | Outright Games |
Angry Birds Fury Road | Arcade Motion Platform  | DOF Robotics  |
Parlini Land | iOS, Android | Magic Games Factory  |
Nina u Ninu | iOS, Android | Magic Games Factory  |
2023  | Ultimate Sackboy | iOS, Android | Exient Publishing  |
CoComelon: Play with JJ | Netflix, Inc.  |
2019  | Lemmings | Exient Publishing  |
2017  | Top Gear: Donut Dash | BBC Worldwide  | [6]
2016  | Dancing with the Stars | Donut Publishing  |
Furby Connect World | Hasbro |
Strictly come Dancing | Donut Publishing  |
F1 2016 | Codemasters  |
2014  | Angry Birds Transformers | Rovio  |
Bake Escape | iOS | Donut Publishing  |
2013  | Angry Birds Go! | Android, iOS, Blackberry 10 | Rovio  |
Diggs Nightcrawler | PlayStation 3 |  |
Angry Birds Trilogy | PlayStation Vita | Rovio  |
Angry Birds Star Wars | PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS | Activision  |
CSR Racing | Android | NaturalMotion  |
2012  | Angry Birds Trilogy | Nintendo 3DS |  |
Fireworks | PlayStation Vita |  |
Pulzar |  |
2010  | Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit | Wii | Electronic Arts  |
The Sims 3 | Nintendo DS |
FIFA 11 |
X2 Football 2010 | iOS | X2 Games  |
X2 Snowboarding |
2009  | FIFA 10 | Nintendo DS | Electronic Arts  |
DJ Hero | Wii, PlayStation 2 |
Tiger Woods PGA Tour | iOS |
X2 Football 2009 |
2008  | FIFA 09 | Nintendo DS |
Madden NFL 09 |
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 | PS, PSP2  |
Skate It | Nintendo DS |  |
Need for Speed: Undercover | Wii, PlayStation 2 |  |
FIFA Street 3[7] | Nintendo DS | Electronic Arts  |
2007  | NASCAR 08 | PlayStation 2 |
FIFA 08 | Nintendo DS |
Madden NFL 08 |
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 |
Need for Speed: ProStreet |
2006  | FIFA Street 2 |
2006 FIFA World Cup | Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable |  |
Madden NFL 07 | Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS |  |
FIFA 07 |  |
NASCAR 07 [8] | PlayStation Portable | Electronic Arts  |
Need for Speed: Carbon | Nintendo DS |
2005  | FIFA Football 2005 | Gizmondo |
SSX 3 | Gizmondo |
Madden NFL 06 | Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS |
FIFA 06 |
2004  | Madden NFL 2005 |
FIFA Soccer 2005 | Game Boy Advance, N-Gage |
SSX Out Of Bounds | N-Gage |  |
WWE Aftershock | N-Gage | Electronic Arts  |
2003  | Total Soccer | Mobile devices |  |
FIFA Soccer 2004 | Game Boy Advance, N-Gage | Electronic Arts  |
NCAA Football 2004 | N-Gage |  |
2002  | Alex Ferguson's Player Manager 2002 | Game Boy Advance | Ubisoft  |
FIFA Soccer 2002 | PDA | Electronic Arts  |
NHL Hitz 20-03 | Game Boy Advance |  |
FIFA Football | Electronic Arts  |
2001  | Steven Gerrard's Total Soccer 2002 | Ubisoft  |

## Awards

[edit]

Game  | Year  | Ceremony / Publication  | Award  | Result  | Ref

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Ultimate Sackboy (mobile) | 2023 | TIGA | Best Arcade Game | Nominated  |
2023 | Best Casual Game | Nominated  |
2023 | Best Small Studio | Nominated  |
Diggs Nightcrawler | 2013 | Best Casual Game | Nominated  |
The Sims 3 | 2010 | BAFTA | Best Handheld Game | Nominated  |
The Sims 3 (NDS) | 2010 | Gamescom | Best Mobile Title | Nominated  | [9]
| 2009 | Develop 100 | The World’s Most Successful Game Studios - 2009 Edition[10] | 67th  |
| 2007 | The World’s Most Successful Game Studios - 2007 Edition [11][12] | 50th  |
| 2005 | TIGA | Best Handheld Games Development Studio[13] |  |

## Further reading

[edit]

* GameSpot, August 15, 2005 – Review of WWE Aftershock Archived August 24, 2007, at the Wayback Machine

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Hartford, Maggie (20 November 2008). "Game, set and match". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 5 January 2025.
2. ^ Wallace, Chris (26 August 2020). "Exient rebrands its publishing labels as Exient Publishing". MCV/Develop. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
3. ^ Partleton, Kayleigh (25 August 2020). "Exient rebrands Sad Puppy and Donut under Exient Publishing". PocketGamer.biz. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
4. ^ Pavey, Vince (7 July 2022). "Exient restructuring to result in "unavoidable" redundancies — worse to come, says anonymous source". MCV. ISSN 1469-4832. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
5. ^ Paprocki, Matt (25 August 2021). "Documentary about Amiga classic Lemmings due for game's 30th anniversary". Ars Technica.
6. ^ "Ian Bickley at Exient Talks Bake Escape and Playtesting Mobile Games". Gamasutra. 17 May 2017. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
7. ^ IGN, February 28, 2008 - FIFA Street 3 Review. A vast improvement over last year's mess, but still not a portable hit. by Craig Harris
8. ^ Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, 01-NOV-2006. Review of NASCAR 07.
9. ^ "EA nominated for several gamescon awards". Gaming Nexus.
10. ^ "Home". develop100.com.
11. ^ Develop 100 Retrieved 8 April 2008.
12. ^ "MCV, Mar 12 2008, 4:17pm – Develop 100: UK studios triumphant in 2007. Michael French". Archived from the original on 13 March 2008. Retrieved 8 April 2008.
13. ^ Tiga – List of 2006 finalists

## External links

[edit]

* Official website
* Exient at MobyGames