blue tongue entertainment
three former blue tongue entertainment developers have banded together to form a new game development studio in melbourne, australia .
rip blue tongue, i will always remember you as somewhere i once worked .
blue tongue was eventually closed by thq in august 2011. its last title was
blue tongue entertainment was a game development studio based in melbourne (australia). it was originally established in october 1995 as blue tongue software, transitioning from web development to games. its debut was the australian football game
[ after blue tongue ] i looked around to see what else was going in melbourne, and there wasn' t much going on so i decided to start my own studio with chris ,
says baker, who worked at blue tongue for nine years .
the game was being developed for xbox 360 and ps3, with thq' s melbourne studio, blue tongue, said to have been working on the pc version. our source tells us that approximately 200 people in total were working on the game, including blue tongue and outsourcing .
another great title developed by bluetongue entertainment, melbourne. this is definitely a big favourite .
jurassic park: operation genesis for playstation by blue tongue entertainment pty, ltd. , sega corporation, vivendi games. jurassic park: operation genesis puts you in the shoes of a dr. hammond - type scientist, and challenges ...
the major different for me is when i was at blue tongue, i was the lead programmer so i was looking after 20 other programmers ,
baker says .
it' s still early days for the studio. with a small team they' re hoping to do things they weren' t able to do when they worked for blue tongue .
( 1998), was blue tongue' s first international release, and eventually spawned many ports and conversions for different franchises. for its next titles the studio worked with publisher such as
founded in 1995. they are located in melbourne, australia. thq bought them in 2004. their early work was mostly licensed games. those included nicktoons battle games, barnyard and jurassic park among others. in 2008 they released de blob for the wii, their first original game in ten years. it gained good reviews from critics. 80 people worked at blue tongue entertainment before, in 2011, blue tongue was announced to be closed down under a restructuring and realignment plan by parent company, thq .
three phase interactive was formed by game developers paul baker, chris burns, and drew morrow, who worked at blue tongue on games like de blob before thq closed the studio in august 2011 .
at blue tongue we' d be working on projects for a year or two and if we were lucky there might be some playtesters towards the end, but generally it was people in the studio playing it .
i am seeking interviews with studiooz and blue tongue staff. if anyone reading this wishes to speak to a journalist, on or off the record, email me: andrew dot mcmillen at gmail dot com. thank you .
the games development association of australia (gdaa) is currently working on options and support mechanisms for the ex - thq oz and blue tongue developers, so please follow @ gdaa _ oz on twitter for further updates ...
it wasn' t using the space marine engine, it was using a custom in - house engine. also blue tongue were working on more than just the pc port - they were doing an entire chapter of the game and x360 / ps3 features .
we have a very iterative process where we get something going in a prototype and then we refine it and continue iterating and we get people to playtest it, which is a bit different to the way it used to work at blue tongue ,
baker says .
farrell added, “we will continue to evaluate our capital and resources to concentrate on fast growing digital business initiatives such as social games, mobile and tablet - based digital entertainment. ”
the two studios owned by thq in australia, thq studio australia (formed in 2003 and based in brisbane) and blue tongue entertainment (the melbourne based studio founded in 1995 and acquired by thq in 2004, most well known for their de blob series of console games), will be closing down this week. both studios had 90 staff each for a combined workforce of 180 employees. an internal development team in pheonix has also been let go, making the total amount of employees redundant at 200 .
thq’s five internal development studios are focused on key initiatives and franchises: thq montreal, creating an unannounced new ip with a team led by industry veteran, patrice désilets; volition, inc. , developing the highly anticipated upcoming game saints row®: the third, ™ and insane™ in collaboration with renowned film director guillermo del toro; relic entertainment, creators of company of heroes and the upcoming warhammer 40, 000®: space marine™ for playstation 3 computer entertainment system and the xbox 360 video game and entertainment system; vigil games, developing darksiders® ii and next year’s mmo warhammer 40, 000: dark millennium online™; and thq san diego, developers of wwe all stars and creating best - in - class fighting games .
in a
strategic realignment
to steer development away from
licensed kids titles and movie - based entertainment properties
and push
focus to high - quality owned ip with broad appeal
, publisher thq has decided to close its games development operations in australia .
agoura hills, calif. , august 9, 2011 (business wire) – thq inc. , (nasdaq: thqi) today announced a strategic realignment of its internal studio development teams to better align resources with the company’s future portfolio of interactive entertainment. thq is in the process of transitioning its portfolio away from licensed kids titles and movie - based entertainment properties for consoles and has also decided not to actively pursue further development of the mx vs. atv franchise at this time. as a result, the company announced the closure of two studios in australia, and the elimination of a development team at the company’s phoenix location. the company is maintaining its quality assurance team in phoenix .
it seems the media too often portray the high aud as good because they' re idiots and think its some sort of olympic medal count. for the vast majority of people who don' t work in export industries all it means to them is cheap computers, electronics and home entertainment systems. and the government seem to be quite happy to leave the currency where it is because having it damage exporters is keeping a lid on inflation. punish the minority harshly just so the majority don' t have to moan about a minor increase in the costs of their luxury .
an anonymous source from thq' s former brisbane studio has leaked videos showing gameplay and trailer footage from the marvel game they were working on before the studio closed, the avengers. we have three of them here. update: the videos appear to have been removed from youtube, but we took some screenshots before they were taken down .
the source tells kotaku australia that it was the only game that thq studio australia (studio oz) was working on at the time of the closure and they had already poured 18 months of hard work into crafting what was anticipated to be a high quality marvel movie game instead of just another licensed title .
when the developers at the studio got wind that studio oz was in trouble, they made these videos for marvel in hope that the comic book giant would come on board and prevent any closures. despite the superhero first - person brawler impressing marvel, the project was ultimately canned by thq .
from the footage we' ve seen, the game looked incredibly promising and studio oz seemed to be on the right track in making a movie tie - in that could stand on its own and wow players. it' s disappointing to know that the project has been canned — it would have been fantastic to have such a big project come out of an aussie studio .
we wish the developers the very best, and if any former thq developers would like to get in touch with us to share their story, they can contact us here .
another outsourced movie - game; yeah that would have done wonders for the australian game industry .
actually - it could have. not all licensed titles are' me too' fillers, and the reactions to the vids suggest people were excited, which is not normally the case for licensed games .
hey franz i don' t know why you have such a negative attitude to what looks like a really interesting game. it didn' t look like a slapped together title, a lot of time and effort went into making it. so maybe next time think before you type .
yeah. thank goodness that game got canned... along with all the staff that were working on it. that' s totally a good thing right ?
that game looked bloody fantastic! i' m so sorry to the thq bris guys, that was some amazing work they were doing .
everything about that game was great and very different to everything else you see in games. 4 player co - op with the ability to have mulitple of the same character, ultimate marvel universe, skrulls and super skrulls, first - person view is a brillant way of doing it. i love the left 4 dead style and hope everyone of the bris guys get jobs because that was an amazing movie connected game !
thq? probably on ways to make aussies pay an extra 100% premium on all of their titles .
man, i' m pretty sure i knew one of the programmers for the brisbane thq office. he was awesome, and my friends and i used to play l4d1 with him all the time .
never met him in real life, but just having that contact and knowing that he would' ve been out of a job made the thq brisbane office closure just that little bit more depressing .
that was probably me, or a friend of mine: d. does the [ ozmsis ] tag ring a bell? we played loads of l4d, only programmers who did iirc .
that' s a real shame, those clips were looking pretty good. and i' m not even one to play those types of games: (
the game looks great, too bad they didn' t get the chance to finish it .
going off what an ex - studio oz employee said the tech (especially mp and tools) was way behind so that probably didn' t help .
that is very wrong. the tech and tools were awesome and the person who posted that obviously held a grudge or had no idea what they were talking about .
agree with forlorn, to suggest' way behind' is a bit rough. might not have been a polished toolchain like the udk, but much of the tools and tech was well advanced, i mean it had been used for several projects. . perhaps the complaints were more directed at tool useability issues .
loving the way first person is being used for more then just shooters these days. someone please finish this game !
the game looks solid - reminds me of war for cybertron for some reason - only with 4 player co - op in the campaign and that it is third person. would have picked this up if it had launched for $ 60 - 70 around the same time as avengers movie if got decent reviews .
i' ll never understand why some developers keep persisting with making games that are primarily 1st person view. it was ok in the 90' s when developers were learning how to program in 3d environments .
1st person view is good for times when you want to zoom in. 3rd person is much better for seeing your character in action, especially a brawler like this .
the
floating hands
view looks ridiculous now, as it tries to be like virtual 3d .
i agree that the hands could have used a little more work, mainly because the hulk only seemed to have 4 attacks .
hulk isn' t too bad since he like wolverine is one of those guys that can do heap' s of close quarters area effect attack' s .
iron man and captain american in my mind both need that first person perspective. since iron man is a guy with guns close combat always seems kinda weird with him. and there' s no where near that feel of power if he' s in third person .
i think the most important thing here is that this could have been an awesome co - op avenger' s game that could have been a real blast to play together .
especially now that rage has told us to bugger off. and i' m done with dead island the only thing on the horizon is borderlands 2 (some games are just made to be played with other' s and it looks like this could have been one of them
i think these types of games need to take as much as they can from batman arkham asylum' s combat system .
it had scope for melee and range fighting, and the combat animations were epic .
the thing is though that for slot of these characters 3rd person melée has been proven to be garbage batman worked because it had the right amount stealth and street brawling. which is solid batman .
we spent a shit tonne of time making sure it played well - a lot went into the ai, the combat moves etc to make it feel right. and it felt awesome. most people that played it felt that it was the best fp melee they' d ever played. the reason was simple, we didn' t force the player to use melee all the time. there was a rythym that allowed the player to close distance, attack an enemy, re - aquire a target and move to the next kill .
some little french dude who looks like napolean is probably re - writing their c # code in fortran in montreal .
extremely disappointing that this was canned... even in an unfinished state it looked incredible. is it really too late or is there a potential for this to be picked up and continued elsewhere? surely they will want a move - game tie - in when the avengers is released ?
it looks allright... . but yeah, i' m not sold on the concept. fpss always look good for brief periods of time, it' s how they hold up over the long run that counts .
must admit, the iron - man flying looks awesome... me be sad now and go cry for a while for the loss of the propect of a proper iron - man game
i would have bought and played the shit out of this. looks amazing .
what? no hawkeye? i know he was a late addition to the team, but he would have rocked in the fps model. outside of that, it looked like a great concept - very fresh addition to the superhero game genre .
no way can this be canned. when the avengers movie is released they will have to make a game to go with it... . this one is nearly done, no point in starting from scratch .
don' t be suprised. it happened to another brisbane studio, pandemic, with a big licensed project (batman: tdk video game). they just let the game go despite the countless hours and $ sunk in to it .
wow, that was a lot better and further along than i thought it would be. the first person gameplay looked really promising... i really hope eveyone working on the game can find work again soon .
avengers t ...
this video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by thq inc. . sorry about that .
fps iron man? that would have sold me from the get - go ...
abertay university professor and artist joseph delappe is using grand theft auto 5 in his latest digital art piece about gun violence in america. elegy. gta usa gun homicides was created by the scottish professor and launched on 4 july 2018 .
email newsletters will contain a brief summary of our top stories, plus details of competitions and reader events .
yes, i wish to receive exclusive discounts, special offers and competitions from our partners .
thq have slowly been restructuring and refocussing over the years. a 17% workforce reduction in late 2008 left both the local australian studios unscathed .
working furiously to develop support mechanisms for all the talent at the local thq studios. way too much talent for oz industry to lose .
not prepared to let thq vanish without a fight. already working on options .
sega studios australia (brisbane) they will be sending tsumea new job adverts on open positions shortly. keep your eye out on the front page and the jobs page .
the binary mill (gold coast) they are hiring programmers, please find the job descriptions in our jobs page .
please visit our jobs board for the latest jobs, including game programmer openings at firemint, twiitch, and the binary mill .
today’s actions will result in a personnel reduction of approximately 200 people. all affected employees are eligible to apply for open positions within the company globally .
“with this realignment, we are narrowing our focus to high - quality owned ip with broad appeal that can be leveraged across multiple platforms, and to work with the best talent in the industry. by right - sizing our internal development capacities for our console portfolio, our five internal studios are focused on delivering high - quality games with talented teams driving the execution of those titles to market, ” said brian farrell, president and ceo, thq. “as we have outlined in our business strategies, we are making shifts to reduce movie - based and licensed kids’ video games in our portfolio, which underscores our strategy to move away from games that will not generate strong profits in the future. ”
the company has recently outlined its four - pillar digital strategy: 1) create a digital ecosystem around key console title launches such as the scheduled november 15, 2011 release of saints row: the third, which includes plans for a robust dlc schedule, online season pass, and in - game store for consumables; 2) create a critical mass of users on social media platforms such as facebook and mobile platforms, including ios and android™, using thq - owned or branded content, such as the upcoming fall release of margaritaville® online, based on jimmy buffett’s popular brand; 3) create an ongoing digital revenue stream with the launch of the company’s mmo, warhammer 40, 000: dark millennium™ online; and 4) continue to drive digital end - user sales through existing channels as well as through the upcoming re - launch of thq. com .
another one? we won' t have any devs left in this country at this rate .
well, the news about the closure is absolutely everywhere now with the thq president and ceo releasing a press release on the reasons. i' ve posted a part of it in the main news item .
i guess they can' t come out and say
it' s too expensive to develop games in australia .
in case you haven' t been paying attention, the global economy is foobar .
this is really bad news, i have friends at both studios, this is the last thing they needed. : (
brisbane' s games development industry is nothing like it was 3 - 4 years ago. i estimate something around 300 + jobs lost in that time between auran, pandemic, krome and now thq .
higher aussie dollar is definitely a downfall for publisher - owned local studios. what once was a cheap source of workers for them is now a money sink .
it really is a pity. i used to work for bt and have many friends still there who i hope can hit the ground running in some way .
90 people at studiooz, not sure how many at bt, very well looked after for redundancies, but devastating just the same .
owwww. well, there goes the last of the serious game development in brisbane. what' s left, creative assembly and halfbrick? (and i somehow doubt that creative is long left for the world either ...) australia - wide it' s not looking too healthy either .
well, actually i can, i think the high aud is a big factor in this decision, it' s more expensive to run a studio in australia now than the us. it bounced below parity yesterday, but now it' s back up again. what worries me though is that this exodus of big international studios is going to be hard to build up again if / when the dollar becomes more favorable again .
yeah it' ll create more indie devs, but being an indie dev also means running a business, something that a lot of developers don' t want to have to worry about .
and what really boils me up is that every time the aud goes up, the news always seems to tout that as a win. we' re an export country guys, it' s not a win! we should be worried .
japan had recently moved to devalue their currency against the usd as have a lot of other central banks around the world. but when it comes the rba they intervene to pump the aud when it hits 80c just because they don' t want to have people rattling their change tins and moaning about how much it' s costing to hold 3 investment properties while the money from mining keeps the good times rolling for the average joe .
wow, what a ridiculous tangent. so, on the flipside, you would prefer punishing the overwhelming number of consumers to artificially prop up fewer businesses? businesses that weren' t smart enough to have a strategy, say like currency hedging? no, there' s a reason the wealth of countries have a floating currency, and there' s no reason to be involved in any direct intervention on the currency. not unless you want to chop off a hand to save a toe .
of course it didn' t take long for someone like you to come on here and kick people when they' re down .
sorry but my comment wasn' t about thq, but the idiotic comments about monetary policy. for anyone who wants to know, currency hedging can help medium / large sized companies get access to preferential currency rates - it' s basically insurance against the highly speculative currency market. call your bank to talk about it .
as for the workers, i have nothing but the utmost respect for bluetongue and thq, as they were one of the few aus dev houses actually producing games with profile. i' ve been laid off twice, once along with 90 others so can definitely sympathise. you guys are handling it admirably, best of luck for the future .
well, actually i can, i think the high aud is a big factor in this decision, it' s more expensive to run a studio in australia now than the us .
actually, it' s still not more expensive to run a studio in aus compared to the us, as australian salaries are generally lower by 20% on average. nonetheless, the point remains .
the list to the right is going to get very small now, hopefully the talent doesn' t leave to canada or europe or join other it sectors and join the growing indie scene and add experience and talent so one day those indie devs can grow into larger studios to replace them. lucky sega australia (creative assumbly brisbane) is making the london olympics game that sega has said good information about, so they are in business until mid next year .
not to put an extra bummer on things, but kmm games (brisbane) is finishing up in october as well .
wow, that was quick. i was expecting it to be a couple of weeks before hearing something like this. it' d be surprising if this was the last of it for oz considering the current economic climate .
the problem with thq isn' t their inability to make high - quality games, or their lack of vision and willingness to take risks, or the fact that they cripple their dev staff with layer - upon - layer of corporate procedure, or the global economic downturn, or even poor management decisions made by the people at the top. no, the real problem is with their new logo, it doesn' t adequately reflect the companies underlying synergetic management structure or the transitional projections behind their concept - driven mission critical contingency policies. just ask thq managment, i' m sure they' ll agree ...
you could see this coming a while ago: thq' s share price has been in a nasty slide since the beginning of the year (- 70 %), and aus is the most expensive, least convenient place to have a studio. it' s definitely disappointing, but not at all surprising. actually i' m just surprised it didn' t happen a bit sooner .
yeah, well given that they' ve averaged a net loss of $ 150 million a year for the past 4 years, and currently have a market cap of just $ 136 million, it didn' t take much to see they were staring down the barrel of imminent bankruptcy .
matt ditton posted this picture up of thq' s stock price which shows how much serious trouble thq are in ...
this is really becoming beyond a joke. if this industry is meant to worth so much every year why isn' t the government trying to protect at least some of these companies that have proven there worth. it' s like they are taking the stance of ok if we let it all go to fubar we don' t have to worry about it .
because the industry isn' t worth much at all, not to the studios themselves; it' s the overseas publishers that make all the money. if anything the game industry is seen as a liability by tying up good staff that would be contributing more to our economy by working in other fields .
and unlike the film industry we' re not seen as being culturally significant enough to warrent an inexhaustible supply of grant money .
by that logic, one could also argue that the tv and film industries are also tying up useful people and are holding the country back, as many of the shows we see on tv and the vast majority of films shown are from overseas. if, all of a sudden, all tv except news and all movies except government approved documentaries were canceled, would you still posses such a cavalier attitude ?
wasn' t saying it' s how i see it myself, just pointing out it' s how the australian government sees it .
my sympathies to all the super skilled guys and girls at thq and bluetongue. i hope you all find yourselves back on your feet soon enough .
i' m happy to sit down and talk to anyone from bt / thq looking for advice on going indy, approaching investors for funding or managing small scale projects as it' s something i' ve been working in for the last few years .
error trying to change banner image and change of username does not appear on profile page .
sony santa monica makes us care about kratos in this stunning revival of the series .
far cry 5' s story is a real let - down, but the action still makes for a solid co - op experience .
there are some elements around the edges that haven' t aged all that well, but burnout paradise is still a fantastic racing game .
podcasts giant bombcast the giant beastcast giant bombcast (premium) the giant beastcast (premium) giant bombcast aftermath! all systems goku premium podcasts giant bomb presents gaming minute 8 - 4 play alt + f1 bombin' the a. m. with scoops and the wolf !
a game developer that is most famous for its game' de blob' .
beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. make sure this is what you intended. this will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live .
until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other giant bomb users. this process takes no more than a few hours and we' ll send you an email once approved .
because you' re new to wiki editing, we sent your submission off to our moderators to check it over. most changes are approved within a few hours. we' ll send an email when it is .
points you' ll be able to bypass this step and make live edits to our system. until then, gain points by continuing to edit pages .
one of the rare third - party successes on the wii, de blob, is getting a sequel. what colour does de blob: the underground add to thq' s burgeoning fran ...
de blob, known as blob: colorful na kibou in japan, is a 2008 platform - puzzle video game that allows players to explore and liberate an alien city from the evil, monochromatic inkt corporation that has taken over the city and outlawed all colour and fun from daily life... .
another awesome game? oh yes. . and plenty more where that came from
jobs available at the moment: contract animator, contract programmer, assistant project manager, senior environment artist, senior programmer, senior animator .
while at bluetongue, baker was a software engineer, burns an animator and morrow an artist. the trio have combined their skills to kick off their first project, stunt jumper, a physics - based stunt jumping game for iphone and ipad where players can modify their vehicles with rocket engines, ejector seats and parachutes .
the trio have spent the past few months adapting to life as indie developers, saying that their new roles require much more work than when they worked at thq' s melbourne studio .
so i' ve gone from that to doing all the programming myself. the variety of work has changed because i now have to cover all bases .
chris burns says going indie has given him a chance to be more hands - on with the art direction of the game .
i draw something and then i animate it and put it in the game. we' re hands - on the whole way .
as an animator, you' re handed the artwork and models from the art department and then you animate then, whereas in this project i have full control from beginning to end ,
burns says .
we have a lot of freedom now and it' s a lot more fluid because we only have three people involved. you make a decision and you just do it .
fallout 76’s todd howard: no cross - console play because ‘sony is not as helpful as everyone would like. ’
this article has a component height of 18. the sidebar size is long .
in 1996. it reached the third place in the australian sales charts, selling 15, 000 units. its next title, the equestrian simulation
were based on existing franchises. the studio created its own cross - platform game engine toshi. it was first used in
there is no trivia on file. if you have any interesting trivia about this company, please add it .
warning! to get all of the features imdbpro offers, you must enable javascript .
you can share this page with anyone, including non - imdbpro subscribers. a shared page will expire 7 days after it is first opened .
submit additional information and / or report errors on this page. if it is approved by imdb database managers, it will be added to the page in a future update .
taken from
de blob 2
for wii. sorry about the cackles on the video .
please rate, comment, and subscribe! why has this been getting no attention? seriously, i only saw one article about this on ign. i guess arguing over whether mario 3 or mario world is superior is more important than 180 talented gamemakers being put out of work.
blue tongue entertainment pty ltd was an australian video game developer founded in 1995 . it was acquired by thq on 17 november 2004 , and remained an internal development studio of thq until its closure in august 2011 . in addition to thq , blue tongue had worked with the publishers hasbro interactive and vivendi universal games . blue tongue originally provided web development services , but moved into video games in 1995 with their first release , afl finals fever . it was released on 9 june 1996 and reached number 3 on the australian software sales charts , selling a total of 15,000 units overall . another game , riding star , was their first international release . it was ported to multiple platforms , including the playstation and the game boy . blue tongue developed the toshi game engine used internally for many of its projects . in 2008 , blue tongue finished de blob , its first original game since riding star , for the wii system . since its release , de blob has garnered significant and favorable acclaim from various gaming websites , including official nintendo magazine , which awarded the game a rating of 92 % and a gold award , and ign.com , which awarded the game several wii-specific awards in its 2008 video game awards , including best platform game , best graphics technology , and best use of sound . in addition to the awards won , ign also nominated de blob for several other wii-specific awards , including best new ip , best original score , most innovative design , and game of the year . in 2011 , blue tongue was announced to be closed down under a restructuring and realignment plan by parent company , thq
blue tongue entertainment pty ltd was an australian video game developer founded in 1995. it was acquired by thq on 17 november 2004, and remained an internal development studio of thq until its closure in august 2011. in addition to thq, blue tongue had worked with the publishers hasbro interactive and vivendi universal games. blue tongue originally provided web development services, but moved into video games in 1995 with their first release, afl finals fever. it was released on 9 june 1996 and reached number 3 on the australian software sales charts, selling a total of 15,000 units overall. another game, riding star, was their first international release. it was ported to multiple platforms, including the playstation and the game boy. blue tongue developed the toshi game engine used internally for many of its projects. in 2008, blue tongue finished de blob, its first original game since riding star, for the wii system. since its release, de blob has garnered significant and favorable acclaim from various gaming websites, including official nintendo magazine, which awarded the game a rating of 92% and a gold award, and ign.com, which awarded the game several wii-specific awards in its 2008 video game awards, including best platform game, best graphics technology, and best use of sound. in addition to the awards won, ign also nominated de blob for several other wii-specific awards, including best new ip, best original score, most innovative design, and game of the year. in 2011, blue tongue was announced to be closed down under a restructuring and realignment plan by parent company, thq
blue tongue entertainment pty ltd was an australian video game developer founded in 1995. it was acquired by thq on 17 november 2004, and remained an internal development studio of thq until its closure in august 2011. in addition to thq, blue tongue had worked with the publishers hasbro interactive and vivendi universal games. blue tongue originally provided web development services, but moved into video games in 1995 with their first release, afl finals fever. it was released on 9 june 1996 and reached number 3 on the australian software sales charts, selling a total of 15,000 units overall. another game, riding star, was their first international release. it was ported to multiple platforms, including the playstation and the game boy. blue tongue developed the toshi game engine used internally for many of its projects. in 2008, blue tongue finished de blob, its first original game since riding star, for the wii system. since its release, de blob has garnered significant and favorable acclaim from various gaming websites, including official nintendo magazine, which awarded the game a rating of 92% and a gold award, and ign.com, which awarded the game several wii-specific awards in its 2008 video game awards, including best platform game, best graphics technology, and best use of sound. in addition to the awards won, ign also nominated de blob for several other wii-specific awards, including best new ip, best original score, most innovative design, and game of the year. in 2011, blue tongue was announced to be closed down under a restructuring and realignment plan by parent company, thq