Top 10 Game Developers of 2020 (II)

Jackbox Games

In a year that brought so much pain, sorrow, and anxiety, Jackbox Games provided much-needed respite from the realities of 2020, providing friends, family, and coworkers with Zoom-friendly game sessions that let them be together when they couldn’t be together.

Known for the Jackbox Party Pack series and standalone multiplayer classics like Fibbage and Quiplash, the 40-person Chicago-based studio had to react fast to server demands driven by record daily traffic, as lockdowns took place. Jackbox also completed Jackbox Party Pack 7 under remote working conditions, and contributed to over $1 million of donations to worthy causes. In 2020, Jackbox wasn’t just a sharp game maker--it was an active contributor and leader of a community.

Larian Studios

2020 saw the early access launch of Baldur’s Gate III. It’s something of a dream project for the studio; legend goes that Larian CEO Swen Vincke approached Dungeons & Dragons owner Wizards of the Coast about making a Baldur’s Gate III way back when and, after finding success with its own fantasy RPG series Divinity: Original Sin, Wizards returned and asked Larian to helm the new project.

We should admit that the early access still has a lot of problems, but crashes and bugs in the early days of the game were met with hotfixes and transparent blog posts about development, changes, and fun tidbits on player behavior.

Since those first patches and fixes, Larian has kept an ear to its community and paid careful attention to feedback. It’ll be a long road to release and beyond for an ambitious early access like Baldur’s Gate III, but Larian is showing how well developers can navigate the perils of an early access launch.