Deck13 Interactive GmbH (formerly TriggerLab GmbH) is a German video game developer and publisher based in Frankfurt. The company was founded in July 2001 by the team behind Artex Software, a studio that primarily developed video games for RISC OS, such as Ankh: The Tales of Mystery. Originally bearing the name TriggerLab, the company was renamed to Deck13 after the release of its first game, Stealth Combat, in 2002. Deck13 is best known for developing the action role-playing gamesLords of the Fallen and The Surge. Deck13 also operates a Hamburg-based subsidiary studio, Deck13 Hamburg.
History
Deck13 is the successor to Artex Software, a development team that created the game Ankh for RISC OS.[2] The company was founded as TriggerLab in 2001 by Jan Klose and Florian Stadlbauer.[3] TriggerLab developed Stealth Combat, which was first released in Germany on 25 February 2002; shortly thereafter, on 2 April 2002, the company was renamed as Deck13 Interactive.[4] The name "Deck13" was derived from "DM-Deck16", a game map from Unreal Tournament (1999).[5]
In 2005, the humorous adventure gameAnkh was released, which was a remake of the 1997 game Ankh: The Tales of Mystery by Artex Software. As the product sold very well and won several awards (especially in Germany), the sequel Ankh: Heart of Osiris was produced and released almost exactly one year later, reusing elements of the previous title. In August 2007, the adventure game Jack Keane was released which was similar to the Ankh series in terms of graphics and gameplay but which was set in England and colonial India. The third part of the Ankh series, The Battle of the Gods, was released in Germany on 19 November 2007. One of their latest games, the role-playing game called Venetica was released in September 2009 and was the first RPG to be published by the company. Afterwards, Deck13 Interactive was working on Blood Knights, a comic hack-and-slash for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, which was released in 2013.[6]
In 2015, Deck13 released Lords of the Fallen in co-operation CI Games. While a sequel was announced by the publisher, Deck13 was not named as the developer.[7] Instead, the studio was announced to be working with Focus Home Interactive on the then-upcoming The Surge.[8] In September 2016, managing director Florian Stadlbauer announced that he had left the company and had since replaced by Mathias Reichert.[9]
In June 2020, Focus Home Interactive acquired the company for €7.1 million.[10]
In February 2021, Deck13 opened a development studio in Montreal.[11]
^Fröhlich, Petra (15 August 2024). "Die größten Games-Studios in Deutschland 2024" [The largest game studios in Germany in 2024]. GamesWirtschaft (in German). Archived from the original on 15 August 2024. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
^"News". TriggerLab (in German). 2002. Archived from the original on 8 October 2002. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
^Deck13 Interactive GmbH. "Company / Deck13 Interactive". Archived from the original on 29 March 2023. Retrieved 29 June 2023. The small team back then came up with the name Deck13, inspired by the Unreal Tournament Map Deck 16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
