Frima Studio

Frima Studio

Industry	Video games, Animation
Founded	2003
Headquarters	Québec City, Québec, Canada
Key people	Philippe Bégin, Christian Daigle, Steve Couture
Products	Chariot, Nun Attack, Pocket God (Facebook), Build-A-Bearville, A Space Shooter for 2 Bucks!
Number of employees	265
Website	www.frimastudio.com

Based in Quebec City and founded in 2003, Frima Studio is a Canadian multiplatform game developer. The studio develops products across multiple platforms, including the Web, console, handheld, iPhone, iPad, TV and mobile. They also develop technologies focusing on game development and data analysis.

They have been noted as one of the fastest-growing companies in Canada.^[1]

To date, they have developed 12 MMOGs/Virtual Worlds, two dozen Console and Smartphone titles, over 80 Mobile games, and more than 200 Flash games.

History

Founded in the city of Québec in 2003 by Steve Couture, Philippe Bégin and Christian Daigle in the midst of the dotcom crash. Originally, the name Frima comes from the French word “frimas,” which is the layer of frost that forms around windows during winter. This is due to the fact that the studio made its debut in the poorly-insulated apartment that the three founders shared. It is from these premises that the production of Flash games for Hollywood brands such as Harry Potter and Looney Tunes allowed the business to develop.

In 2008, Frima acquired Humagade, a mobile game developer.^[2]

In 2010, with the opening of a second studio in Matane, they counted some 265 full-time employees, and showed no signs of slowing down. Later that year, they became the beneficiary of a $2 million joint investment between the company and the Government of Quebec to fund employee training, the creation of 147 new jobs over the next three years, and the maintenance of 201 pre‐existing production‐oriented jobs.^[3]

Softography

Original productions

Console games

Virtual worlds and CMMOs

Social and web games

Smartphone games

Development services

Virtual worlds and CMMOs

Social and web games

Console games

Smartphone games

Animation and special FX

Awards and mentions

• 2009

Profit 100: Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies: 10th position

Issued by Profit Magazine^[7]

• 2010

Pixie Awards: Gold Pixie Award for Qualinet Space Odyssey

Issued by the American Pixel Academy^[8]

Indie Game Developer of the Year

Issued by Gamefocus.com^[9](fr)

The Best Facebook Games of 2010: 4th place for Pocket God

Issued by Inside Social Games^[10]

GalaXseeds

8.5/10 by Play BBG^[11]

Rock Paper Sumo

“This game is really fun, addictive, and cute. Even if you don't like Facebook games this is a good one.”

By Tech and Games^[12]

Zombie Tycoon

“Fun Gameplay. Simple but effective controls.”

8/10 By PlayStation Lifestyle^[13]

A Space Shooter for 2 Bucks!

“If you're looking for a fun way to spend your commute for a week or a way to pass the time while on a lengthy plane ride, you needn’t look much further.”

9/10 by IGN^[14]

Chariot

“A lot of love and care went into this game, and it shows in both the excellent mechanics and audio/visual package.”

9/10 by Nintendo Enthusiast^[15]

Technologies

Molehill: Frima has been working with the latest version of Adobe Flash Player, which delivers the ability to create, texture and simultaneously animate hundreds of avatars without losing performance, as well as generate advanced special effects.^[16] Frima was selected by Adobe as a Molehill pre-release partner.^[17]

The SnowStorm Gaming Grid allows the creation of customizable social games and MMOGs.

The NorthStar Dashboard is a set of data tracking tools used to monitor key metrics linked to an online application.

The IceField 3D Engine allows the creation of in-browser 3D experiences using hardware acceleration.

The IceWave 2D Platform is used to easily and seamlessly deploy a project on multiple platforms.

Notes and references

External links

• Frima’s official website
• An article on Rock Paper Sumo and Frima Studio
• An article on A Space Shooter for 2 Bucks!