Welcome to the Blackbird Interactive blog!
This is where we will be posting all the news and updates on our development process.
You can also keep up with us at our forums. They're full of discussion of our games and a good place to chat with like minded fans, or connect with our developers.
Artist Profile - Noah Stacey Blackbird Interactive has art at its core. Today we talk with Noah Stacey and learn what it was like to be part of that artistic core from the very beginning in Rob's garage. When did you start working at BBI? I was lucky enough to start at Blackbird during its initial inception, back when it was run out of the garage in Rob Cunningham's backyard. My "desk" was a green leather couch up in the loft and the neighbours probably thought we were running some kind of shady operation, with the small crowd of scruffy... Read More »
In January of 2017, Blackbird Interactive Inc. was contacted by Dr. Jeff Norris of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and asked to collaborate on a project. The proposal was to create an interactive art demo showcasing what a base on mars could look like, with the hopes of inspiring new generations to dream of human settlement beyond planet Earth and support the exploration and colonization of our solar system. When you are a company of self proclaimed "space nerds" this is simply an offer you can't refuse. Project Eagle is an interactive model of a Mars colony in Gale... Read More »
From Rob Cunningham, CEO of Blackbird Interactive: hey there! best wishes to everyone from Blackbird! its been a great year - we were super excited to release DoK and were totally overwhelmed with the enthusiastic welcome it received. bringing a memorable experience to you guys is why we do this. the volume and sincerity of fan feedback was amazing - the criticism too! all of us that worked so hard to pull it off felt incredibly rewarded. THANK YOU so much to all the contributors! the fan artists, streamers, casters, tournament organizers, community superstars and posters – all of you... Read More »
Artist Profile - Cristina Lavina Ferez Vancouver is an awesome place to live, and an incredible place to work making games. Today we talk to Cristina about what drew her to Vancouver and to the Blackbird Interactive team. Why did you decide to move to and work in Vancouver, Canada? Before living in Vancouver, I was working and living in London. I was there for 3 years and started to feel I wanted a change. Even though my career in London was growing and getting better every day, I didn't feel 100% happy in the city. London was too big,... Read More »
Artist Profile - Brennan Massicotte What makes Blackbird Interactive such a fantastic place to work? The people, and the artistic and creative vision they bring to the studio. Today we share the first of what will be a series of employee profiles, meeting some of the incredible talent that make up our team here at Blackbird. Today we talk to Brennan, a senior concept artist here at BBI. Why did you choose to work at BBI? Like a lot of people who work at BBI you have to go back to the first time I cracked open a PC game called... Read More »
On Tuesday October 18, 2016 the Vancouver games industry suffered a terrible loss with the closing of United Front Games (UFG). UFG was one of Vancouver's premier independent game studios, best known for creating critically acclaimed games such as Sleeping Dogs and Modnation Racers. The closure of the studio left nearly 100 of our friends and colleagues without jobs. Fortunately the tight knit Vancouver gaming industry was not inclined to sit idly by and do nothing. 23 different companies gathered here at BBI studios and put on a Job fair to give the ex-UFGers the opportunity to meet face to face with... Read More »
If you want to jump the start of the series, click here. Sitting down to brainstorm for the BBI Jam, we began with a laundry list of possible mechanics, and notes about themes / settings we liked. Mechanically, many things jumped out at us as potentially interesting: grappling hooks, messing with gravity, genetics / evolution, to name a few. Thematically, something that immediately captivated us was this concept of a person tasked with collecting deep space wreckage.The idea developed as we discussed the feeling of loneliness, the primal fear of the black emptiness, and the ever-present danger of being in... Read More »
For the start of our game jam articles, click here. From Concept to Playable A few weeks ago Blackbird Interactive gathered and split the whole company into teams for the inaugural BBI Game Jam. I’ve been involved in pro-level experiences like this before and had a few observations to share with my newly-formed team: 1) This is awesome; You'll learn lots and grow as a developer. Yay! 2) A week is a really short time; it's key to go for an idea that matches our skills and we can scale up from if time permits. 3) This is a huge opportunity.... Read More »
For the start of our game jam articles, click here. Mechanical Monster Multiplayer For game developers coming off the tail end of shipping a game, having a week to scratch build something new is wonderfully cathartic. It cleans the palate and soothes the soul, flash-igniting creativity in wholly new and unexpected directions. Heaps of thanks to everyone who pitched in. No sandbaggers here. Great to work with different folks than usual, and to have the support of the audio team as we asked for way too much, to the production team for keeping us honest, and the executive team for... Read More »
For the start of the series of articles on the game jam, click here. Back To The Future: A Game Jam Odyssey Our group of seven people designed and developed a side scroller inspired by eighties era arcade games and the classic Simon Says™ handheld over the course of a week. The team was made up of three artists, two programmers (one of whom was working from Halifax), a narrative designer, game designer, and our studio’s controller. We kicked off with a whiteboard... Read More »