Invoke Studios, formerly Tuque Games, is a Canadian video game developer based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The company was founded by Jeff Hattem,[2][3] formerly of Ubisoft and Behaviour Interactive, in 2012. The company released its first game Livelock in partnership with publisher Perfect World Entertainment in 2016.[4] Tuque Games released a Dungeons & Dragons game called Dark Alliance in 2021.[5]

Invoke Studios
FormerlyTuque Games (2012–2022)
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
Founded2012; 12 years ago (2012)
FoundersJeff Hattem
Headquarters,
Canada
Key people
Jeff Hattem (head of studio)
Number of employees
60[1]
ParentWizards of the Coast (2019–present)
Websitehttps://invokestudios.com/

History

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Tuque Games was founded in 2012.[6] began work on a sci-fi RPG titled World War Machine in 2014. They employed researchers from nanotechnology and aerospace defense fields to help develop the game.[7] Concept art for the game was created by Aaron Beck, known for work on District 9, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Elysium, while the story was done by Daniel H. Wilson, author of Robopocalypse.[8] World War Machine became the first submission accepted through the Square Enix Collective in April 2014.[9] World War Machine was renamed to Livelock in 2016.[10] It was the first buy-to-play game published by Perfect World Entertainment.[11]

Tuque Games started developing a Dungeons & Dragons game in partnership with Wizards of the Coast with a team of 12 in early 2017.[1] In March 2019, the company announced that the Dungeons & Dragons game was in development.[12] Wizards of the Coast then acquired Tuque Games in October 2019.[13] Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance was officially announced with a teaser trailer shown during The Game Awards 2019 on December 12, 2019.[5]

Tuque Games rebranded to Invoke Studios in late 2022.[14]

Games

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Title Year System
Livelock[5] 2016 PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance 2021[15] PC, consoles

References

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  1. ^ a b Culver, Jordan (December 12, 2019). "'Dark Alliance' video game features iconic Dungeons & Dragons characters, location; set for release in 2020". USA TODAY. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  2. ^ Hall, Charlie (2020-06-18). "D&D's new action RPG, Dark Alliance, is about what happens after players roll for initiative". Polygon. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  3. ^ "Tuque Games Announces "Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance"". bleedingcool.com. 12 December 2019. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  4. ^ Thomas, Lucas M. (1 August 2016). "In This Week: Batman's Telltale Series & Killing Joke, Mobius Final Fantasy". IGN India.
  5. ^ a b c Favis, Elise (December 19, 2019). "Dungeons & Dragons has a long history in video games. Dark Alliance wants to take that further". Washington Post. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  6. ^ Morris, Cody (October 29, 2019). "Wizards of the Coast Acquires Tuque Games For Dungeons & Dragons". ScreenRant. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  7. ^ Alvarado, Sebastian (12 June 2014). "How to Make a Mech - The Science Behind World War Machine". Kotaku.
  8. ^ Webster, Andrew (27 June 2014). "The robot apocalypse will look a lot like this game". The Verge.
  9. ^ Maiberg, Emanuel (5 April 2014). "Square Enix Collective opens for submissions, approves "post-human RPG" World War Machine".
  10. ^ "Livelock is a Top-Down Co-op Shooter Coming to Xbox One". XboxAchievements. 30 August 2016.
  11. ^ "Perfect World Announce First Non-Free-to-Play Game 'Livelock'". Hardcore Gamer. 26 January 2016.
  12. ^ Sinclair, Brendan (29 October 2019). "Wizards of the Coast acquires Tuque Games". GamesIndustry.biz.
  13. ^ "Wizards of the Coast acquires Tuque, which is making a D&D triple-A game". VentureBeat. 2019-10-29. Retrieved 2021-10-10.
  14. ^ Wilde, Thomas (2022-10-12). "Wizards of the Coast launches new studio Invoke Games, built from 'Dark Alliance' dev team". GeekWire. Retrieved 2022-12-22.
  15. ^ Mateș, Bogdan Robert. "Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance Release Date Set For 2021, Koch Media Handles Physical Publishing". Retrieved November 10, 2020.