Factsheet
Developer:
Lazy 8 Studios
Based in San Francisco, CA
Founding date:
May 7, 2008
Company Website:
lazy8studios.com
Project Website:
extrasolar.com
More Info:
WhatIsExtrasolar.com
Press / Business Contact:
press@lazy8studios.com
Social:
Twitter
Facebook
Google+
Releases:
Address:
3055 Market St.
San Francisco, CA 94114
Phone:
(617)548-5540
Description
Lazy 8 Studios™ is an independent game studio in San Francisco, CA. Founded in 2008, Lazy 8 is committed to making high-fidelity, immersive games that break down the barriers of traditional game genres.History
Early historyLazy 8 Studios, LLC, was founded in 2008 by Rob Jagnow. While finishing his Ph.D. at MIT, Rob got his start in game development by working on flight simulators for companies in Switzerland and Japan. He worked on a variety of projects with Demiurge Studios, Gearbox, Kaos, EA and WXP before deciding to take a chance on his own. Puzzle games have always been Rob's passion and Cogs was brewing in his mind for years before he finally had an opportunity to make the game a reality. Made by just one programmer, one artists, and one musician, Cogs went on to sell more than a million copies and win a number of awards, including the grand prize in the professional category at the 2010 Indie Game Challenge.
InspirationsWith his background in computer graphics, Rob Jagnow found himself looking for new ways to bring gorgeous, photorealistic images to a Web audience. Starting from that initial concept, his team has authored a powerful, expansive story that plays out through photoreal renderings, emails, videos, voicemail messages, documents, and a collection of websites.
The game borrows several aspects from Alternate Reality Games (ARGs). You play the game as yourself -- not an avatar -- in a world that blurs the line between fantasy and reality. But unlike prior ARGs, we've created something that can be played by a single player, started at any time, and played from anywhere in the world. We genuinely believe that Extrasolar is the birth of an entirely new hybrid game genre.
Extrasolar®Extrasolar puts you at the heart of a sci-fi thriller as you explore an alien planet one unique, beautiful photo at a time. On its surface, Extrasolar looks like a legitimate scientific expedition. When you apply to the program, you’re promised a chance to control one of the many rovers that the eXoplanetary Research Institute (XRI)™ has put down on the surface of an alien world. As a citizen scientist, you volunteer your time to help explore the planet one photo at a time. Before long, the story back on Earth becomes just as compelling as the startling discoveries on the planet as our player finds herself wrapped up at the center of a conspiracy, not sure whom to trust.
Extrasolar is pioneering new gameplay and technology. Gorgeous images of the planet's surface are rendered in the cloud and delivered to the player every few hours, making each player's experience unique and raising the bar for the appearance and immersion of Web games.
Projects
Videos
Extrasolar Trailer YouTube
A peek into the world of Extrasolar YouTube
Let's Play Extrasolar -- with Founder Rob Jagnow YouTube
Images
There are far more images available for Lazy 8 Studios, but these are the ones we felt would be most useful to you. If you have specific requests, please do contact us!
Awards & Recognition
- Best Desktop Game, Indie Prize Showcase USA 2014
- Nominee for Most Innovative, Indie Prize Showcase USA 2014
- Bronze Winner, 2014 International Serious Play Conference
- Finalist at IndieCade 2013
- Nominee for Nuovo Award, Independent Game Festival (IGF) 2014
- Nominee for Gamer's Voice Award at South by Southwest 2014
- Nominee for Best Game Design, 2014 Animago Awards
- Honorable Mention for the Innovation Award, 2015 Game Developers Choice Awards
Selected Articles
- Road to the IGF: Lazy 8 Studios' Extrasolar
Mike Rose at Gamasutra, January 28, 2014
"The Nuovo award is meant to celebrate the most unique and different indie games, and in this regard, Extrasolar is a perfect fit." - Storytime: Extrasolar Gets ‘Immersion’ by Leveraging Reality
Phil Hornshaw at Game Front, January 22, 2014
"While lots of game developers talk seriously about immersion... Extrasolar achieves its immersion not by drawing players into some other world, but by overlaying itself onto theirs." - Extrasolar Channels the Explorer in All of Us
Phil Hornshaw at Game Front, January 22, 2014
"...to the credit of developer Lazy 8 Studios, it feels like you might actually be vicariously wandering a new world, uncovering a place no human eyes have ever seen." - Interview with Rob Jagnow
Dusty Wright at Game Academy Radio, January 17, 2014
"...after playing the beta, it certainly shows: these guys are on their way to making a truly unique that tells a story in one of the most unique ways you will ever witness." - Lazy 8 Studios to Bring Extrasolar to Gamers
Raktak Takrak at The Mittani, January 11, 2014
"The browser-based, free-to-play game puts a player in the pilot’s seat of one of many space rovers that have been deployed to explore the fictional planet Epsilon Prime." - Interview: Rob Jagnow on the Extrasolar Project
- Keram, IndieGameReviewer.com - More at http://www.lazy8studios.com/press
Additional Links
More Info
Learn more about the game by taking a sneak peek behind the scenes at WhatIsExtrasolar.com.
Team & Repeating
Collaborators
Rob Jagnow
Producer and graphics programmer
Brendan Mauro
Lead artist
Jonathan Le Plastrier
Server-side programmer
Keith Turkowski
Client-side programmer
Lucas J.W. Johnson
Writer
Brian Ramage
Graphics programer
Contact
Inquiries
press@lazy8studios.com
Twitter
twitter.com/Lazy8Studios
Facebook
facebook.com/Lazy8Studios
presskit() by Rami Ismail (Vlambeer) - also thanks to these fine folks