A splash of neon is coming to Chip Theory Games!
We’re very excited to announce a long term acquisition and partnership with Manny Trembley and his brand new studio, Neon Knight Games! Chip Theory and Neon Knight have come to an agreement that will make Neon Knight a Chip Theory Games studio.
What the heck does that even mean? Well, we’re still in the process of figuring that out! But here’s the story on this huge announcement and what it will look like in the short term.
After collaborating with Manny first on the Tanglewoods universe that sprouted (ha!) during the original 20 Strong campaign, and then subsequently on Wroth, it became clear that there was a lot of overlap in how we like to operate. The working relationship has been easy, productive and fun from the jump. While the highly acclaimed Dice Throne remains Manny’s day job, he’s long wanted to operate his own independent studio, a studio that gives him free reign (ha!) to create and release projects without being beholden to other releases or the schedule of a parent company.
In the meantime, over the last four years, Chip Theory has been working hard to diversify our portfolio. Chip Theory Kids, 20 Strong and Wroth have been big steps in this direction, offering games of different complexity and price to bring a wider audience into the Chip Theory family. Manny has a heart and passion for mid-weight games that engage people immediately with his signature art style and can also be taught/tabled in minutes. With Chip Theory’s bread and butter being titles of huge scope, dense rulesets and intimidating price tags, the types of games Manny makes were exactly the types of games our catalog was lacking.
Now, regarding this partnership and the last few weeks:
Both Manny and his business partner Jeff Jacobson have been busily preparing the launch of their new studio’s first game, a card-based dueling game titled Neon Reign. He brought the prototype over shortly after the Wroth campaign came to a close to show it to us. We loved it! But with the launch imminent, Manny was curious about whether he could maybe leverage the working relationship we had already established to help support his studio and game in some capacity. They have the game almost entirely ready to go, but were looking for some backup as it related to fulfillment, customer support, and a number of other things related to getting a new studio off the ground.
After extensive talks, we determined the best way forward was to acquire Neon Knight Games as a sub-studio of Chip Theory. We can already hear your questions! Does this impact Wroth? Does this impact Tanglewoods? Does this impact CTG’s bigger titles, quality, or current timelines!? The answer to all of those questions is quite simply, “No.” The goal here is that Neon Knight will operate as its own unique brand under the Chip Theory umbrella. Manny’s games connect with people in a deep way in retail and convention environments. They skew toward being much more affordable than your typical Chip Theory title. We want to embrace that and not force Neon Knight down the same (over)production road titles coming direct from our own Chip Theory internal studios always go down. In short, we think the Chip Theory brand can help elevate Neon Knight, and we think the Neon Knight brand can elevate Chip Theory.
The other bonus for fans of both CTG and Manny’s work is that Neon Knight Games will operate as an almost entirely autonomous studio, bringing fresh games and products to the market without affecting the internal development and release timelines of Chip Theory Games products.
But, this is only the beginning! The future of Neon Knight is extremely bright (it is neon afterall). We believe the Neon Knight brand could serve a number of functions down the road in terms of allowing us to potentially release some medium-weight titles that we’d love to bring to market, but don’t quite warrant the $100+ price tags that Chip Theory’s production ethos tends to force. Manny also has a huge number of other projects in the works that we’re excited to support bringing to life through this partnership. In short, the sky’s the limit.
We’ll have much more to say on this partnership as things develop – but in the meantime, head over to Kickstarter and follow the Neon Reign campaign! It’s a beautiful, fun, and fast dueling game based on classic arcade 2D fighters. And while Neon Knight won’t necessarily always do this, note that they’ll be offering a deluxe version of the game on the campaign, full of PVC cards, acrylic tokens, and metal coins – all at a wonderfully affordable and discounted rate. Check it out!
Check out the Neon Reign Campaign!
Read the Official Press Release!