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Soma Games, LLC
Company typePrivate
IndustryVideo games
Founded2005; 19 years ago (2005)
FounderChris Skaggs
Headquarters
Newberg, Oregon
,
US
Key people
Chris Skaggs
ProductsThe Lost Legends of Redwall
Websitesomagames.com

Soma Games is an American video game developer based in Newberg, Oregon. Founded in 2005 by Chris Skaggs, Rande Bruhn, and John Bergquist, Soma originally produced mobile games such as G and Windup Robots, and beginning in 2018, licensed games based on the Redwall book series. Soma Games emphasizes its Christian company culture and often describes itself as a Christian video game company that does not make video games specifically about Christianity.[1]

History

Chris Skaggs, a web developer from Newberg, Oregon, stated that he was inspired to found Soma Games after registering to attend the Christian Game Developers Conference in 2005 despite no knowledge of the Christian video game industry sector. Shortly after his registration, the conference coordinator asked prospective attendees if anyone wanted to appear in a televised interview in Boston, which Skaggs accepted.[2]

The two other founding members of Soma Games, Rande Bruhn, and John Bergquist began mentoring and helping Skaggs in 2005 after meeting him at a Christian retreat event called Bootcamp NW. It was during this time that Soma developed the ideas for its first games, GRoG, Dark Glass, and The Race.[3] These ideas were put on hiatus for a time due to external circumstances in Skaggs' life, but in 2008 Skaggs and his colleagues began brainstorming ideas again.[4] In October 2008, John Bergquist began volunteering more actively, helping Skaggs write down ideas and establish Soma as an actual company (though due to financial constraints he was not hired as an official employee until 2011),[citation needed] and Rande Bruhn followed as an official business partner two months later.[5][6][7] In December 2008, Soma Games received funding for the first time and began coding its first projects.[7][8]

Arc series

Entering 2009, Soma consisted of four employees (with three additional remote "contractors").[9] Throughout its earliest years, Soma Games focused on fleshing out their three-game concepts as well as gaining publicity and funding.[10][11] They soon developed a fourth game concept, this being for an episodic game, Arc. would consist of three small iPhone games or "episodes" that would act as a prologue for a larger console game also titled Arc.[12] As a way to obtain early funding from fans, Soma released a computer wallpaper featuring concept art from their Dark Glass game that players could buy with the promise that they could later "redeem" this wallpaper for a free copy of Arc when it was released.[12] In March 2009, the company began selling merchandise through CafePress.com.[13]

The first game in the Arc series, G, was announced on February 11, 2009.[14] It entered beta in March and was submitted to the Apple App Store in April, eventually releasing on April 25, 2009.[15][16] The app received very positive reviews upon launch, with reviewers praising its visuals, storyline, art, and voice-acting but also criticizing some technical bugs present in the initial build and the game's tendency to become boring quickly.[17][18][19][20][21][22]

On June 17, 2009, Soma revealed plans for the sequel to G, titled F, in an interview with the German app review site press HOME. In the same way that the name "G" stood for its main gameplay mechanic of "Gravity," "F" was said to refer to the sequel's main gameplay mechanic of "Force."[23] Screenshots were released to news outlets a couple of months later and the title was revealed to be a 3D game rather than following the 2D approach of its predecessor.[24] Eventually it was also revealed that the third mobile game preceding the series' finale of Arc would be titled "E."[22][25]

In 2009, the staff of Soma Games were asked to speak at the Christian Game Developers Conference in Portland, Oregon and have been asked to be recurring speakers nearly every year since.[26] In 2009, G won the "Best iPhone Game" award at the conference.[27] In October 2009 Soma partnered with the band Skillet to give away free iPod Touches with copies of G on them.[28]

Relationship with Intel

In December 2009, Soma partnered with Intel Corporation as one of the initial developers for their upcoming AppUp app store.[29] A Flash port of G was one of the 22 initial games on the AppUp platform.[30][31][32][citation needed] In a series of blog posts, Chris Skaggs conveyed his excitement to be one of the original app developers on an app store that would be pre-installed on certain computers.[33][34] With the release of their 2.0 update for G in March 2010, Soma ran a contest for players to win a then-unreleased iPad by reaching the highest score in G.[35][36] G was ported to the BlackBerry PlayBook in April 2011 to be among the device's launch catalog,[37] A Steam port for the game was also considered but ultimately cancelled.[38]

In order to develop the PC port for G, the development of F was put on hold, but was picked up again the next year. Gameplay footage of F was released in October 2010 featuring a 3D space environment running on the Unity engine, and the game was given the subtitle "The Storm Riders."[39] Actress and video game journalist Lisa Foiles was also announced to be working on the game's story as a writer, and Lisa was cited as responsible for adding cutscenes to the game's script.[40][41] However, despite releasing many pieces of concept art, teasers, and gameplay footage, the release date for F: The Storm Riders was continually pushed back, and the release for the game (as well as its two sequels) was eventually put on an indefinite hiatus.

Wind Up Robots and continuing Arc

At the same time as development on F was taking place, Soma Games was also reportedly working on another of their initial game ideas, GRoG, which stood for "that Giant Robot Game you have." During development, work on the game evolved into working on a prequel, and on May 31, 2011 this prequel was announced to be released later in the year under the title "Wind Up Robots."[42] Wind Up Robots missed its July launched date and eventually was released on December 14, 2011 for the Intel AppUp, iOS and Amazon Kindle Fire app stores.[43][44][45] The game received generally positive reviews, with some sources commenting favorably upon its originality and robot customization features but critiquing its tutorial and imprecise touch control movement.[46][47][48][49][50] In 2012 Soma participated in the Intel Ultimate Coder: Ultrabook Challenge to use the same assets from Wind Up Robots to make a spinoff game called Wind Up Football in six weeks.[51] Wind Up Football was added as a game mode in an update to the original Wind Up Robots game at first, but was later released to app stores as a standalone game.

Going into 2012, during one of their weekly update YouTube videos, Soma announced that they planned to continue the Arc and GRoG storylines that they had developed.[52] In order to remind players of the Arc storyline, Soma announced that they were remaking the original G: Into the Rain for X and X as G Prime.[53]

Redwall series

In 2011, an associate had called Soma's founder Chris Skaggs to inform him that he had acquired the master license to the Redwall series from the author of the books, Brian Jacques (who had previously been very guarded about sharing the license with anyone). Chris and his associate entered into talks of developing a small mobile game for the Redwall brand, as mobile gaming was where the Soma team had the most experience.[5] In 2013, a Kickstarter was set up to fund the Redwall game, and in 2018 the game was released on Steam for Mac and PC.

Company culture

The management and staff of Soma Games are vocal Christians, and are very open about their religious affiliation.[citation needed] However, while the company is based on Christian values, they have often clearly expressed that they do not create "Christian video games", which are explicitly based on Christian stories and content. Soma Games have described themselves as being the "C. S. Lewis of video games", taking inspiration from the author by making video games with Christian values and themes, but that are not specifically using Christian stories and tropes.[5][4][22][54][55] In its early days, Soma had trouble funding the development and distribution of its games. According to the company, they prefer to try to deliver polished content rather than manufacturing its earliest products on a minimal budget, a problem they cited as a point of failure for many startup Christian video game developers.[4][56][57]

The company founder, Chris Skaggs, insists that he values artistic beauty and a good story in games over impressive new gameplay.[5][3][22][58][59] and has stated his opposition to "crunch time".[5][60]

Code-Monkeys

Soma Games also ran a sister brand called "Code-Monkeys" in which their same employees would do "work-for-hire" developing games and software that was not their own intellectual property. This was done to provide income in-between the release of their larger projects published under Soma Games.[61]

In June 2011, the Soma Games developers released the game Bok Choy Boy for the Intel AppUp platform and iOS under the name of their sister brand, Code-Monkeys. This game was based around the Chinese Bok Choy Boy toy line.[62]

Games

As Soma Games

Year Title Platform(s) Notes
2009 G: Into the Rain BlackBerry PlayBook, Intel AppUp, iOS The first game in the Arc series
2011 Windup Robots Android, Intel AppUp, iOS A prequel to the planned game GRoG
2012 Windup Football Android, iOS, macOS, Microsoft Windows A spin-off of Windup Robots
2018 The Lost Legends of Redwall: The Scout macOS, Microsoft Windows
The Lost Legends of Redwall: Escape the Gloomer Amazon Alexa, Android, iOS, macOS, Microsoft Windows Developed in partnership with Clopas

As Code-Monkeys

Year Title Platform(s) Notes
2010 Lunar Storm Intel AppUp
2011 Bok Choy Boy iOS, Microsoft Windows Developed for Chinese markets
Santa's Giftship iOS

References

  1. ^ Donovan, Tristan (May 3, 2011). "Gaming for God". Eurogamer. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
  2. ^ "The Soma Story - Chapter 1". Soma Games. Retrieved 2020-04-08.
  3. ^ a b "Career Interview - Chris Skaggs, Game Designer". Clash Entertainment. 1 May 2010. Archived from the original on 14 December 2010. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  4. ^ a b c Skaggs, Chris (22 October 2008). "Soma Games Interview" (Interview). Interviewed by Patrick of ICEPowered.com. Archived from the original on 14 July 2009.
  5. ^ a b c d e Sam Eldredge and Blaine Eldredge (28 May 2019). "The Video Game Dreamers - Chris Skaggs and John Bergquist". And Sons Magazine (Podcast). And Sons Magazine. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  6. ^ Sam Eldredge and Blaine Eldredge (28 May 2019). "The Video Game Dreamers - Chris Skaggs and John Bergquist". And Sons Magazine (Podcast). And Sons Magazine. Event occurs at 9:41. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  7. ^ a b Skaggs, Chris. "The Soma Story - Chapter 2". Archived from the original on 15 April 2020.
  8. ^ Cheryl Gress (19 January 2009). "Christ Centered Game Talk: Episode 7". Christ Centered Game Talk (Podcast). Christ Centered Gamer. Event occurs at 5:36. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  9. ^ Cheryl Gress (19 January 2009). "Christ Centered Game Talk: Episode 7". Christ Centered Game Talk (Podcast). Christ Centered Gamer. Event occurs at 5:13. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  10. ^ Gerke, Jeff (2008). A Marcher Lord Press Gallery. Marcher Lord Press.
  11. ^ "Christians get in the game". Christian News Northwest. August 2008. Archived from the original on 27 September 2008.
  12. ^ a b Cheryl Gress (19 January 2009). "Christ Centered Game Talk: Episode 8". Christ Centered Game Talk (Podcast). Christ Centered Gamer. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  13. ^ "Soma Games homepage". 28 March 2009. Archived from the original on 28 March 2009. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  14. ^ Park, Christopher (11 February 2009). "Soma Games' G: A Worthwhile Apple App Store Game". GotGame.com. Archived from the original on 17 February 2009. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
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  16. ^ Soma Games. (14, April 2010). OK - G is now off to Apple and in review. w00t! Check out the new video trailer.... [Facebook post]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/SomaGames/posts/71923701218
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  22. ^ a b c d Ouellette, Edwin (October 2009). "Newberg game-makers get positive reviews". Christian News Northwest.
  23. ^ "Exklusiv: Nach "G" kommt "F"". pressHOME. 17 June 2009. Archived from the original on 20 June 2009. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
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  25. ^ Soma Games. (15, July 2009). ''OK, so this cool science story is just so up our alley. Asteroids, Icetroids! Even the artists image got me excited about the story we are telling in G,F,E and ultimately ARC.'' Enjoy [Facebook post]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/SomaGames/posts/103654999748
  26. ^ Skaggs, Chris (20 July 2009). "CGDC 2010 – A Pleasure As Always". Som(a)niloquy - Soma Games. Archived from the original on 27 December 2010. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  27. ^ "CGDC: Conference". cgdc.org. 11 December 2009. Archived from the original on 11 December 2009. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  28. ^ Soma Games. (28, April 2010). ... I met a really neat guy with Air 1 radio and after jawing about Soma Games we decided to plug in with Skillet's October 30th concert in Salem, OR. Show up and you could win an 8GB iPod Touch with G pre-installed. [Facebook post]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/SomaGames/posts/161110052198
  29. ^ DiColo, Jerry A. (9 March 2010). "Intel Seeks Apps for Atom Gadgets". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
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  32. ^ "Q&A with Intel's Bill Pearson". LifeHacker. 26 March 2010. Archived from the original on 12 May 2020. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  33. ^ Skaggs, Chris (9 July 2010). "Computex: The Buzz, The Bombs, and the Booth Babes". Som(a)niloquy - Soma Games Blog. Archived from the original on 16 April 2011. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
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  35. ^ "Arc Contest Homepage". Soma Games Arc website. Archived from the original on 17 September 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  36. ^ Skaggs, Chris. “G 2.0 is live! :: iPad Giveaway Contest Mar 3-16.” TouchArcade Promo Codes and Contests forum, 23 February 2010. https://toucharcade.com/community/threads/g-2-0-is-live-ipad-giveaway-contest-mar-3-16.46052/
  37. ^ Soma Games. (14, April 2011). Just got the news that our game G was approved to be on the new BlackBerry Playbook as part of the launch catalog. W00t! That little game just keeps on selling!. [Facebook post]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/SomaGames/posts/181117451936189
  38. ^ Whats up with Soma Games (YouTube video). 28 October 2010. Event occurs at 3:27.
  39. ^ Whats up with Soma Games (YouTube video). 28 October 2010. Event occurs at 3:08.
  40. ^ Whats up with Soma Games (YouTube video). 28 October 2010. Event occurs at 4:25.
  41. ^ "Soma Games - So you may be asking yourself, "Why is F being delayed?" I'll tell you why - because somewhere late in production somebody had the bright idea to include cutscenes into the script (@lisafoiles) and we all thought that was awesome. But art takes time...still, I'm starting to feel like the delay will be well worth it. What do you think? | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2022-02-24.
  42. ^ Soma Games. (31, May 2011). We are pleased to announce the first game since G. Windup Robots will be available July 7th! The game initially will be available on the Intel Appup store and iTunes with the Blackberry Playbook and other stores to follow. [Facebook post]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/SomaGames/photos/a.10150187434668085/10150187434713085/
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  45. ^ Soma Games. (14, December 2011). The whole team was biting nails, wandering around, nervously excited and overall acting like zombies today (no brain lunch though). We are so excited to share it finally. WUR releases around the globe tonight. Thanks again for all the support and friendship. [Facebook post]. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20200615212815/https://www.facebook.com/SomaGames/posts/10150415017158085
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  52. ^ Skaggs, Chris (18 February 2012). Soma Re-Vision 2012 (Flurry Friday Ep. 15) (YouTube video).
  53. ^ Flurry Friday Ep. 19 - April 13th 2012: G Prime (YouTube video). 13 April 2012.
  54. ^ Cheryl Gress (19 January 2009). "Christ Centered Game Talk: Episode 7". Christ Centered Game Talk (Podcast). Christ Centered Gamer. Event occurs at 33:00. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  55. ^ Skaggs, Chris (5 May 2009). "Top 5 Everything Soma Games Part 2" (Interview). Interviewed by Jeff Effendi. Archived from the original on 31 December 2009.
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  58. ^ Skaggs, Chris (2 May 2009). "Top 5 Everything Soma Games" (Interview). Interviewed by Jeff Effendi. Archived from the original on 29 November 2009. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  59. ^ Skaggs, Chris (28 October 2010). Whats up with Soma Games (YouTube video).
  60. ^ Skaggs, Chris (27 January 2012). Flurry Friday Ep. 13 - Time for Rest (YouTube video).
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  62. ^ Nopp, Terri (11 July 2011). "New Bok Choy Boy Video Game Now Available for Download". Cision PRWeb. Archived from the original on 15 January 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
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