Outerlight

Outerlight Limited was a British video game developer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company was incorporated by Christopher "Chris" Peck, Ailsa Jeannette Bates and Edward "Ed" Wilson, at the United Kingdom's Companies House, on 10 March 2003.[1] Their first game was The Ship a mod for Half-Life 2, released for free in 2004.[2] The game was reworked as a standalone title, under the name The Ship: Murder Party, and released commercially, independently via Steam, in July 2006.[3] Peck described the time of The Ship's development as "a costly and soul destroying two years chasing publishing deals and failing".[4] Retail versions of the game were distributed by Merscom and Mindscape, in North America and Europe, respectively.[5][6]

Outerlight Limited
TypePrivate
IndustryVideo games
FateDissolved
Founded10 March 2003 (2003-03-10)
Founders
  • Chris Peck
  • Ailsa Bates
  • Ed Wilson
Defunct2010 (2010)
Headquarters
Edinburgh
,
Scotland
Key people
Chris Peck (managing director)
Products
Number of employees
 1 (2010)

A sequel to the game, The Ship 2, was announced to be in development in September 2007.[7] The game was briefly known as Hollywood Murder Party,[8] and was announced as Bloody Good Time, published by Ubisoft, in September 2010.[9] Shortly prior to the game's October 2010 release, Peck announced that all of Outerlight's staff, except for him, had been laid off, and the offices vacated.[10] Peck remained with the company as managing director and kept it trading using ongoing sales from The Ship: Murder Party, hoping that the upcoming income from Bloody Good Time would help re-establish the company.[11] Although no further news came from Outerlight, with the website having shut down, the studio is believed to have closed completely sometime in 2010.[12]

The Ship's intellectual property was acquired by Blazing Griffin in November 2011.[13][14][15] Using the license, Blazing Griffin attempted to finance a sequel to the game, The Ship: Full Steam Ahead, through a Kickstarter campaign starting in October 2012, and seeking GB£128,000.[16][17][18] However, project funding was cancelled in January 2013, after Blazing Griffin saw major communication problems with the Kickstarter community.[19][20] In place of the sequel, Blazing Griffin instead announced in June 2015 that they were developing a remastered version of the original The Ship: Murder Party game, titled The Ship: HD,[21] although this was later changed to The Ship: Remasted.[22] The game was released into Steam Early Access in February 2016, which it exited in October 2016.[23][24]

Games developed
Year Title Platform(s) Publisher(s)
2006 The Ship: Murder Party Microsoft Windows Outerlight, Merscom, Mindscape
2010 Bloody Good Time Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 Ubisoft

References
  1. "OUTERLIGHT LIMITED – Overview". Companies House. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  2. Polson, John (1 June 2012). "Indie Royale Profile: The Ship (Outerlight)". IndieGames.com. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  3. GamesIndustry International (6 July 2006). "The Ship from Outerlight". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  4. Graft, Kris (14 October 2010). "The Ship Dev 'All But Dissolved' Just Prior To Release of Next Game". Gamasutra. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  5. Bramwell, Tom (25 April 2006). "Mindscape to ship, er, Ship". Eurogamer. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  6. jkdmedia (4 May 2012). "Merscom to Publish The Ship in North America". GameZone. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  7. Hatfield, Daemon (5 September 2007). "Work Begins on The Ship 2". IGN. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  8. Breckon, Nick (28 November 2008). "Rumor: The Ship 2 = Hollywood Murder Party?". Shacknews. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  9. Fletcher, JC (2 September 2010). "Have a Bloody Good Time in Ubisoft's Source Engine FPS". Engadget. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  10. Meer, Alec (14 October 2010). "UK dev Outerlight "all but dissolved"". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  11. Callaham, John (4 October 2010). "Interview: We chat with Outerlight's co-founder about Bloody Good Time and more". Big Download. Archived from the original on 31 January 2015. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  12. Plunkett, Luke (16 January 2012). "Every Game Studio That's Closed Down Since 2006". Kotaku. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  13. "The Ship: Full Steam Ahead launches Kickstarter". Shacknews. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  14. Yin-Poole, Wesley (25 October 2012). "The Ship sequel heads to Kickstarter". eurogamer.net. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  15. "The Ship Sequel Sets Sail On Kickstarter". rockpapershotgun.com. 1 November 2012. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  16. "The Ship 2 cruising to Kickstarter on Halloween". pcgamer.com. 25 October 2012. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  17. Tach, Dave (29 October 2012). "The Ship 2: Full Steam Ahead heads to Kickstarter from the wreckage of a failed sequel". Polygon. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  18. Yin-Poole, Wesley (31 October 2012). "The Ship: Full Steam Ahead Kickstarter asks for £128k". eurogamer.net. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  19. Corriea, Alexa Ray (3 January 2013). "The Ship sequel's Kickstarter failure due to conversion rates and an unclear pitch, says developer". Polygon. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  20. "Blazing Griffin on The Ship: Full Steam Ahead's Kickstarter failure, move to Steam Greenlight". pcgamer.com. 3 January 2013. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  21. "Murder Cruise: The Ship HD Remake Announced". rockpapershotgun.com. 12 June 2015. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  22. "The Ship: Remasted's Early Access plans detailed". pcgamer.com. 13 February 2016. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  23. Yin-Poole, Wesley (23 February 2016). "The Ship: Remasted launches on Steam". eurogamer.net. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  24. "Attending the Murder Party of The Ship: Remasted - Hardcore Gamer". www.hardcoregamer.com. 29 February 2016. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
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