studio industry video game industry founded 2005 headquarters austin texas us area served worldwide key people gary gattis cinco barnes anthony l. sommers jake rodgers website http www.spacetimestudios.com spacetime studios sts is a games development studio based in austin texas . founded in 2005 by a small group of experienced pc mmo game developers garry gattis cinco barnes anthony l. sommers and jake rodgers . with experience developing such games as wing commander and star wars galaxies the start up was created with the aim to create sci fi mmos for the pc market . contents 1 history 2 spacetime engine 3 developing mobile mmos 4 ios & android markets 5 games developed or published by spacetime studios 6 references 7 external links history edit in 2005 spacetime studios was founded by a group of developers with collaborative experience working on such titles as wing commander star wars galaxies and ultima online . 1 in march 2006 they successfully contracted to begin development of an original ip for a pc sci fi mmo for ncsoft called blackstar . this was facilitated in part by the veteran game developer s long standing working partnership with personnel at ncsoft and familiar with their previous work on sci fi games . 2 after several years of preproduction work in january 2008 ncsoft cancelled their agreement with sts to publish blackstar 3 citing a change in economic conditions in the market after poor performance of two other mmos in their publishing group such as tabula rasa 4 and a consequent reassessment of the korean publisher s north american portfolio strategy . 5 spacetime studios had initially contracted the full rights and ownership of the technology and tools for the newly created in house game engine called the spacetime engine written in c for the purpose of massively scalable tools and in game assets . but ncsoft still owned the blackstar ip including all artistic concepts and narration assets . 6 sts laid off 12 team members as a result of this and continues to explore options to bring its flagship ip blackstar to market in addition to unveiling a first glimpse of blackstar video clip in february when to market the project to a new publisher 7 in addition to a presence at games developer s conference that year . 8 in may 2008 sts reacquires the blackstar ip from ncsoft . 9 uncertainty in what is perceived as a difficult market transition leads to sts to consider various options to attract a new publisher or market the project to console and or as a free to play business model . 10 in august 2008 sts halved its staff in search of a new publisher and delivered video footage of preproduction of their game for gdc showcase . 11 in june 2009 sts published some concept art from blackstar in a sign that it is still confident and committed to developing the project . 12 sts announces completion of pre production ready for mass production of blackstar 13 but subsequently reduces staff to the four founding members plus two . during 2009 sts invested time experimenting with the ios applications during self publishing games such as shotgun granny under the moniker of clockrocket games and decided a mobile mmo is achievable on this platform using the spacetime engine . 14 work began in october 2009 and completed the underlying mechanics of a new game called pocket legends in january 2010 . 15 on 3 april 2010 spacetime studios launched pocket legends in a stripped down mobile mmorpg . 16 in september 2010 spacetime studios updates the app regularly spacetime and announces multiplatform support including the android platform with investment from insight venture partners . 17 on february 10 2011 sts announced development of their original title blackstar and confirm it will be released quarter 2 of 2011 . 18 subsequently blackstar was showcased at gdc in march 2011 for the third time in its development history and receives widespread press coverage and interest in the games industry . 19 in april 2011 spacetime studios celebrated the anniversary of its fantasy mobile mmo pocket legends release . 20 on january 12 2014 they explained that no new expansions for pocket legends were released since 2012 as the player base has shrunk due to the company s focus on the launch of new titles . 21 spacetime engine edit the spacetime engine 22 23 allows a cross platform 24 ios android windows os x linux pc 25 play across a wide range of radio transmission technologies edge 3g 4g wi fi across a wide range of device specifications and types allowing effective performance data communication between the client and server e.g. consistently 1kbit s. 26 it allows rapid delivery of updates in addition & external to apple app store approval process resulting in such statistic as updating pocket legends mmo on average 2 times daily with over 200 updates over a 12 month period . we can do that because that s our engine and we know that we can release stable content . people ask how much we test the content and sometimes not that much . but we know it s going to be stable it s not going to break the servers . it might be off balance but we release it put up a feedback thread ... gary gattis at gdc 2010 . 27 28 29 developing mobile mmos edit with the unveiling of the iphone at macworld 2007 signified an important development in developer environment and an entirely new digital market of downloadable apps with micro transactions . these factors led to spacetime studios investigating the developer and production pipelines of this new market opportunity and deciding that a 3d mobile mmo was a newly viable development prospect . 30 technically in 2009 we re done with pre production which means we can confidently mass produce engaging content . our tools are data driven so they re very extensible . ... developers can have a fresh build of the game installed on their systems with a single click . 31 this would allow spacetime studios to have a fully multiplayer game running within one month and full prototype within two months . 32 and within four months the core game had been completed tentonhammer podcast 27 . spacetime studios summarized the challenges creating a mobile mmo that was restricted by hardware power bandwidth over edge small display size touch controls for user input wide appeal to a casual userbase for whom games would be a secondary consideration significantly reduced gaming sessions ranging from 5 10 minutes and a bottom line of highly consistent levels of performance underpinning an active and responsive core gameplay experience with scope in future design that allowed for organic growth . 33 34 instanced levels as opposed to a persistent open world allowed the game to be playable on low end devices and low bandwidth connectivity . it allows quick formation of groups of players through hot joinable hosted games allows for short 10 minute level completion and future levels addition with scope for variable duration and depth of gameplay required . 35 36 ios & android markets edit pocket legends has been downloaded over 4 million times in over 200 countries from april 2010 to may 2011 on both ios and android platforms . 37 38 on top of those download figures pocket legends monetizes at 10 % compared to an average of 2 % for other apps . 39 pocket legends initially released on ios on 3 april 2010 with subsequent release onto android in september 2010 . currently apple has over 190m ios devices with 350 000 apps downloaded 10b times compared to android s 100m devices 150 000 apps downloaded 3.7 b times as of march april 2011 . 40 41 expectations would be in line with general trends in financial success of other apps that would predict higher monetization on ios than android . 42 but in an interview with computerworld s jr raphael spacetime studios disclosed app data comparing ios with android first 30 & 60 days daily user activity on android is more than double its level on ios in practically every measure 9 000 daily downloads on android compared to 3 4 000 daily downloads on ios in the same time periods app use is x3 times higher on android than ios . 30 50 % higher revenue on android than ios . ad clicking is also x3 higher and ad purchasing x2 higher on android than ios over the same timeframe . gary gattis in some ways it s kind of like the wild wild west but that s where the gold rush people made their claim . for us the challenges have become opportunities . 43 games developed or published by spacetime studios edit pocket legends fantasy style mmo development of new expansions ceased since 2012 44 star legends the blackstar chronicles science fiction style mmo dark legends vampire style mmo arcane legends another fantasy style mmo battle dragons strategy games battle command strategy games arcane battlegrounds strategy games call of champions moba game references edit http www.tentonhammer.com node 14951 http massively.joystiq.com 2008 05 16 blackstar exclusive interview http gamasutra.com php bin news index.php story 16916 http www.ncsoft.net global ir quarterly.aspx bid & bc & bno & syear & stype & sword & pno 1 http www.tentonhammer.com node 50401 http www.gamasutra.com view news 18555 interview spacetime studios talks reacquired blackstar ip.php http gamasutra.com php bin news index.php story 16916 http massively.joystiq.com 2008 02 19 first glimpse at blackstar developed by spacetime studios http www.gamasutra.com view news 18555 interview spacetime studios talks reacquired blackstar ip.php http www.gamasutra.com view news 18555 interview spacetime studios talks reacquired blackstar ip.php http www.gamasutra.com view news 19700 spacetime studios halves staff in blackstar publisher search.php http massively.joystiq.com 2009 06 12 blackstar briefly resurfaces flaunts more concept art http www.tentonhammer.com node 14951 http www.develop online.net features 1115 massively multiplayer lessons http www.tentonhammer.com podcasts live 27 http gamasutra.com view news 27873 interview spacetime reveals iphone ipad mmo pocket legends.php http gamasutra.com view news 30705 spacetime gets investment announces crossplatform play for ios pc mmo.php http www.businesswire.com news home 20110210006788 en spacetime studios unveils mobile sci fi mmo blackstar http www.spacetimestudios.com content.php 222 recent blackstar press links http www.mmorpg.com gamelist.cfm game 556 feature 5185 why we didn t make a new expansion for pocket legends in 2013 . pocket legends forums . spacetime games . retrieved 17 january 2014 . first1 missing last1 in authors list help http www.tentonhammer.com node 28778 http www.businesswire.com news home 20110210006788 en spacetime studios unveils mobile sci fi mmo blackstar http www.businesswire.com news home 20100930005523 en spacetime studios reveals plan launch mobile cross platform http www.igameradio.com 2011 05 18 podcast igame chat gary gattis talks spacetime studios pocket legends http www.spacetimestudios.com content.php 5 tech http www.tuaw.com 2010 10 08 gdc online 2010 spacetime studios and the making of pocket lege http www.spacetimestudios.com content.php 242 spacetime studios celebrates 1 year of pocket legends with massive giveaway and celebration http www.igameradio.com 2011 05 18 podcast igame chat gary gattis talks spacetime studios pocket legends http www.develop online.net features 1115 massively multiplayer lessons http www.tentonhammer.com node 28778 http www.develop online.net features 1115 massively multiplayer lessons http www.develop online.net features 1115 massively multiplayer lessons http massively.joystiq.com 2010 10 10 gdc online 2010 spacetime studios cinco barnes talks mobile de http www.gamasutra.com view news 27873 interview spacetime reveals iphone ipad mmo pocket legends.php http massively.joystiq.com 2010 10 10 gdc online 2010 spacetime studios cinco barnes talks mobile de http www.spacetimestudios.com content.php 242 spacetime studios celebrates 1 year of pocket legends with massive giveaway and celebration http www.igameradio.com 2011 05 18 podcast igame chat gary gattis talks spacetime studios pocket legends http www.macworld.com article 158178 2011 03 blackstar djrivals deathrally.html http www.androlib.com http www.loopinsight.com 2011 03 09 one developers success does not make android better than ios http appleheadlines.com 2011 02 15 iphone users more valuable than