This is the success story of HandyGames™, one of the leading international developers and publishers of high-quality games with employees from all over the world. Ever since the company was founded in 2000, we have loved creating entertaining games – from gamers for gamers. Yes, that’s right: We have maintained and reinforced our position in the gaming industry successfully since the new millennium!
All of this is only possible due to a constant development process that involves creating new amazing games while using the benefits of new generation technologies. And in cooperation with premium partners like Apple, Google, Samsung, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, we will continue to bring awesome game ideas to life!
2023
Something New on the Horizon
With the official announcement of Oddsparks – An Automation Adventure by our Cologne-based studio Massive Miniteam, the game will enter Early Access in 2024 and enjoys great support from its fanbase. With its unique look and feel, as well as its multiplayer mode, this game, funded by Deutsche Games-Förderung, could become an international flagship in the field of automation.
Endling’s Endless Success Story
The iOS version of our highly successful title Endling – Extinction is Forever won this year’s prestigious Apple Design Award in the categories Visuals and Graphics and Social Impact, as well as the coveted British BAFTA Games Award 2023 in the Game Beyond Entertainment category.
Townsmen on the PlayStation VR2
One of our strategic cornerstones: Exploring new technologies as they emerge. Our experienced VR team is bringing Townsmen VR optimized for the Sony PlayStation VR2 as a top title. Since its launch, this game has served as a launch title for the new hardware – including the official boxed version.
Premium Mobile Gaming
From SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake to Titan Quest – Ultimate Edition and Little Big Workshop, we are continuing to focus on premium mobile games Made in Germany. We are excited to see what future surprises lie ahead of us when it comes to increasingly powerful smartphones and tablets.
Samsung x Wreckfest
Fans already know that the mobile version of the racing simulation Wreckfest is full of shreds. But hardware giants such as Samsung also like to show off the performance of their new generation of smartphones: Wreckfest is chosen as THE reference game for the market launch of their new S23 smartphone, and it honorably slips into the leading role of their elaborate TV commercial!
local.loots goes online
After extensive planning and construction, we are excited to open our in-house team restaurant and social area under the name local.loots. As an important part of our company’s health management, the focus is not only on healthy food but also on relaxation, mental health, events and providing a place to socialize. A place to feel comfortable and recharge your creative batteries!
2022
Growing together
Due to our ongoing growth, we invest enormously in renovating our business premises and creating a new exquisite team restaurant. We want to provide high-quality, healthy, and tasty catering for the overall well-being of our teams!
Endling sets the tone
The multiplatform release of Endling – Extinction is Forever is receiving overwhelmingly positive responses on Metacritic, Opencritic, and from our fans. Saving the last fox family in a world destroyed by humans is winning over critics worldwide. The latest milestone: the nomination in the category “Games for Impact” at The Game Awards 2022.
More streaming platforms
Streaming platforms for games are gaining in popularity and are reaching new audiences. Many of our titles, like Chicken Police – Paint it RED!, One Hand Clapping, Through the Darkest of Times, Little Big Workshop, and El Hijo – A Wild West Tale, are already available to be streamed!
Premium Mobile Gaming
Mobile gaming remains a rapidly growing segment of the games industry. One of HandyGames’ strategies in expanding its portfolio of premium games is to present its fans with high-quality titles. At the forefront are Wreckfest, SpongeBob – Battle for Bikini Bottom, Titan Quest, Chicken Police – Paint it RED!, and many more premium mobile experiences.
HandyGames on Netflix
We were the first German publisher to release a game on Netflix. Namely, our beloved classic: Townsmen – A Kingdom Rebuilt. The streaming platform enjoys a large user base, which allows us to continue growing our community of players.
Awards
2022 brought us many awards: Chicken Police – Paint it RED! became the Best App for Tablets (Google), One Hand Clapping became the “Most Creative Game” (PLAY21), and won the “Innovation Award” (BIG, Brazil). Endling – Extinction is Forever made it all the way to The Game Awards as a nominee in the category “Games for Impact,” and Wreckfest (Mobile) is taking off just as successfully since its release and has already been named “App of the Week” (toucharcade). And that was by no means all.
2021
HandyGames is expanding
To further expand our success, we have filled more key vacancies in our company and thus strengthened our teams! A new Game Producer, PR-Manager, and Director Sales & Business Development were hired. So much manpower needs space, which is why we are doubling our premises this year!
More quality mobile games
We enriched our range of premium mobile games for iOS and Android! In collaboration with Nickelodeon, the popular and top-selling title SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle For Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated has been released, likewise our own classic Titan Quest – Legendary Edition, in its most comprehensive version ever!
Steady growth
We are happy to report our acquisition of the German game studio Massive Miniteam! Over the years, we have been able to work closely together on many successful releases, including Spitlings and the console versions of Little Big Workshop and Chicken Police. Another milestone on our way to a successful future!
2020
Only The Best
Not only did Through the Darkest of Times win the hearts of the gaming community, it also won the award for Best Serious Game at the German Computer Game Awards and the Educational Media Award for Best Game Offer for Teens!
Mobile Variety
We proudly added more full featured console games as premium mobile titles for Android and iOS to our portfolio, such as Aces of the Luftwaffe – Squadron, Rebel Cops, and Through the Darkest of Times.
GAMESCOM / IAB 2020
Gamescom and IAB took place only on the Internet this year. We mastered this challenge with pleasure and were able to successfully present nine of our games to a huge international audience there with virtual booths, including Pile Up!, One Hand Clapping and Endling!
We Support The Industry
And that’s what we want and will do! As a strong partner, also for our domestic game studios, we are in the fortunate position to be able to promote and produce many more high-quality titles in the coming years thanks to the budget resolution our government has passed!
Influence The World
Our titles are attracting increasing attention! That’s why we intensified our own streaming activities and also our cooperations with popular streamers – to be able to respond even more directly to the reactions and concerns of our fans.
Increased Presence
Our Games El Hijo, One Hand Clapping and Little Big Workshop have been added to Google Stadia, so we can reach out for more people using this streaming platform. We have also been able to expand our presence in other online stores, such as Amazon and Magenta Gaming.
2019
Pax East Boston
Presented our published games El Hijo, Through the Darkest of Times and Rad Rodgers – Radical Edition for the first time at the PAX East in Boston.
PC and console publishing
Added several upcoming PC and console titles, among others Spitlings, One Hand Clapping, A Rat’s Quest, Little Big Workshop and Endling, to our publishing portfolio.
Premium mobile publishing
Published, ported and launched several high-quality premium mobile titles, among them SpellForce: Heroes & Magic, Battle Chasers: Nightwar, Lock’s Quest and This Is the Police 2.
gamescom 2019 in Cologne
HandyGames™ enjoyed a highly successful gamescom 2019, at the THQ Nordic booth as well as the Indie Arena Booth, garnering attention from players, press, and business alike.
Recognized greatness
Received the gamescom 2019 Awards for „Best Mobile Game“ (Battle Chasers: Nightwar / Airship Syndicate) and „Best Indie Game“ (El Hijo / Honig Studios) for our published games.
Google Play Pass launch partner
Launch partners of Google’s new subscription service, Google Play Pass, with a strong lineup of 10 successful premium games, including among others Titan Quest and This Is the Police.
2018
European Funding
Townsmen Expeditions (working title), which will mark the most recent entry in the Townsmen IP, received 150.000€ development funding from Creative Europe.
THQ Nordic Family
In July 2018 HandyGames became part of the THQ Nordic Family and will operate as an international publisher for small and mid-sized projects.
First step as publisher
The newest entries of two retro clssics, Jagged Alliance: Rage! and Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams – Owltimate Edition mark our first step into publishing.
Designing virtual worlds
Our virtual reality god-game simulation, Townsmen VR, was awarded the German Computer Games Award 2018 for Best Game Design.
Early Access VR
Players can now experience and take part in the development of our two latest virtual reality Games Townsmen VR and Devil and the Fairy on Steam Early Access.
Game Funding
The great concept and game design behind Townsmen VR have secured funding from the FilmFersehFonds Bayern over 300.000€ and 150.000€.
2017
Landing on the Nintendo Switch
Our crazy action-packed shoot ‘em up Aces of the Luftwaffe – Squadron arrived as our first title at the Nintendo Switch shop.
Microsoft Mixed Reality
Stunt Kite Masters was part of the small and very exclusive launch portfolio for the Microsoft Windows Mixed Reality platform.
Talk in der Alm
Developed a YouTube show to give an authentic insight into the German game developer scene with interviews of guests from the industry and relevant topics.
Facebook Instant Games
Released Super Party Sports: Football as a special version for Instant games for Messenger.
First Games for the Oculus Rift
Released Panzer Panic VR and Stunt Kite Masters VR as our first games on the Oculus Rift.
First Release on Facebook Gameroom
Clouds & Sheep 2 was our first game released on Gameroom, Facebooks new Windows desktop gaming platform.
2016
Industry 4.0 Apps
Presented our first Industry 4.0 App Pick-by-Watch, a smart intralogistics solution, tailored towards the needs of a networked storage system.
First Game for Gear VR powered by Oculus
Released Hidden Temple – VR Adventure as our first game on the Samsung Gear VR powered by Oculus.
Games for Tizen
Samsung launched their new Tizen Store and we brought four excellent games to the party! Among them, our top title Clouds & Sheep 2.
HandyGames Humble Mobile Bundle
A fantastic Humble Mobile Bundle featuring exclusively HandyGames games! A great end of the year bargain and the chance to support non-profit organizations.
Crazy about Consoles
Catch fish with dynamite or lean back and tend to your cute flock of sheep. Anyone can be mainstream. In 2016 we brought a breath of fresh air to the Sony PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Full Steam ahead
Make yourself comfortable, grab a hot drink, boot up your PC and build your very own kingdom. In cooperation with Headup Games we’ve released our hit game Townsmen for PC on Steam.
2015
German Developer Awards Triple
Won 3 awards at the German Developer Awards in the categories Best German Game Studio, Social Commitment and Best Mobile Game for Clouds & Sheep 2.
First Virtual Reality Games
Released our first two Virtual Reality Games I Slay Zombies – VR Shooter and Hidden Temple – VR Adventure for Android.
First Game on Xbox One
Super Party Sports: Football was released, to much acclaim, as our first game on Xbox One.
Wearable Game Pioneer
Release of various high-quality wearable games like Max – My Fitness Dog and My Fitness Maze as one of the very first game developers in this market segment.
First Game for Sony PlayStation 4
Aces of the Luftwaffe was successfully released as the first HandyGames title on the Sony PlayStation 4.
First PC Game on Steam
Aces of the Luftwaffe became our first release on Steam, emphasising our continued push to go “beyond mobile”.
2014
German Games Developer Awards
Aces of the Luftwaffe received the award for the best game in the category ‘innovation’ at the German Games Developer Awards.
Amazon Fire TV Launch
Release of the four games Aces of the Luftwaffe, Save the Puppies, Ninja Hero Cats and Farm Invasion USA for the new Amazon Fire TV on its launch date.
Amazon Fire Phone Launch partner
Partner of Amazon Fire Phone’s launch. Release of our game Stage Dive Legends for this special platform just in time.
4th Place at the German Developer Studio of the Year Awards
4th place at the German developer studio of the year awards by “Making Games”.
2012 – 2013
“1941 Frozen Front” (Game)
One of the first turn-based multiplayer games presented by Google at the Google I/O 2013. Later officially and successfully released on Google Play.
Google Play Game Services
Launch partner of Google Play Game Services with several titles which were presented at the Google I/O 2013.
First Game for Windows Phone 8
Aces of the Luftwaffe was the first game ported to the Windows Phone 8.
Samsung Smart App Challenge
2nd prize for Clouds & Sheep – Chord Edition! HandyGames™ was the first developer that successfully used Chord SDK to beam sheep between Samsung devices.
2nd Place at the Opera Top Apps Awards 2013
Aces of the Luftwaffe won 2nd place at the Opera Top Apps Awards 2013 in the category “Games: Action”.
2011 – 2012
“Unconsoles”
Support for the first mobile phones which went beyond mobile like the OUYA or now the Samsung S Console.
2010 – 2011
Games for Sony Xperia Play
First games for the Sony Xperia Play, the first mobile handset with real gaming controls.
Immersion Haptics
First company to use Immersion Haptics in almost every Android game.
2004 – 2010
Mission “Free”
First releases of free-to-play games thanks to in-game advertising.
Zeemote support
First game support for the Zeemote, a small external joystick for mobile games.
GestureTek Technology
First two games (Snowboard Rush and Hamster Hustle) in which the players control the game characters by using body movements in front of the mobile phone’s camera pre-installed on the Sony Ericsson Yari device.
Some of our 200+ cooperation partners between 2000 and 2010
2003 – 2004
Games for Nokia N-Gage
First games for the Nokia N-Gage.
GPS/UMTS Game
R&D showcase for location-based games (LBS games) with a unique Siemens Mobile Phone. We combined the real with the virtual world map in a science fiction game.
2002 – 2003
“Fussball Fun” (Game)
First color J2ME soccer game for the World Cup of T-Mobile/T-Online. It was developed for the first color J2ME device, SGH-T 100, which was sold exclusively on T-Mobile. The game was heavily advertised during the World Cup 2002.
“Battle Mail” (Game)
First online/mobile/SMS game for Siemens Mobile Phones on the C45.
“007 Ice Racer” (Game)
First James Bond game on behalf of Vodafone Global for the movie “Die another Day”.
2000 – 2002
Foundation
HandyGames™ was founded in 2000 by the two brothers Markus and Christopher Kassulke and their business partner Udo Bausewein.
First mobile pre-installed games
Published the first mobile pre-installed games together with Siemens Mobile Phones.
WAP Games
First monochromatic WAP Games.
