Dark Energy Digital

Dark Energy Digital Ltd.

Former type	Defunct
Industry	Video games
Founded	1998
Defunct	2012
Headquarters	Manchester, England
Key people	Deborah & Pete Jones (managing directors) Gary Leach (technical director)
Products	Hydrophobia

Dark Energy Digital,^[1] was a privately owned video game developer and publisher based in the United Kingdom. It was formed from members of Blade Interactive, which continues to operate as a separate company.^[2] On September 28, 2007, following the public announcement of Hydrophobia, it was announced that a deal had been made between Blade Interactive and Total Asset Limited and was to become a publisher in its own right and publish its own titles.^[3] On March 19, 2012, it was announced the company was closed due to low sales of Hydrophobia.

History

Blade Interactive was founded in 1998 and are largely known as a developer of pool and snooker games.^[4] Three years developing HydroEngine, their dynamic fluid game engine used in Hydrophobia.^[5] As part of a major expansion, Blade Interactive has a new mobile game development division based at Blade Interactive's new office complex in Manchester, known as 'BIG' (Blade Interactive Games). One of the founding Directors of Blade Interactive, Peter Jones, was formally Managing Director of Mirage Technologies Multimedia Ltd, the studio behind Rise of the Robots and Rise 2: Resurrection and the PlayStation/PC title Bedlam.

Technology

The company created a new video game engine / game creation system to create a new generation of download games called Infinite Worlds. It also created the world's first fluid dynamics engine, known as HydroEngine, which allows dynamic modeling of flowing water and other liquids. Fluids are completely dynamic, which means the effect is not repeated and thus allowing different effects each time. The engine also interfaces with solid body physics engines such as Havok, which allows objects and debris to be carried with the flow.

Games

Developed by Blade Interactive:

• G-Surfers (2002) - PlayStation 2
• HSX: Hypersonic Xtreme (2003) - PlayStation 2
• Room Zoom: Race for Impact (2004) - Microsoft Windows, Xbox
• Pocket Racers (2005) - PSP
• The Hustle: Detroit Streets (2005) - PSP, PlayStation 2, Xbox
• World Championship Pool 2004 (2003) - Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows
• World Championship Snooker 2000 (2000) - Microsoft Windows, PlayStation
• World Championship Snooker 2002 (2002) - Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2
• World Championship Snooker 2003 (2003) - Xbox, PlayStation 2
• Pool Shark 2 (2004) - PlayStation 2, Xbox, Microsoft Windows
• World Championship Snooker 2004 (2004) - PlayStation 2, Xbox, Microsoft Windows
• World Championship Snooker 2005 (2005) - PlayStation Portable, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox
• World Pool Challenge 2007 (2006) - PlayStation Portable
• World Pool Championship 2007 (2006) - Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3
• World Snooker Challenge 2005 - PlayStation Portable
• World Snooker Championship 2007 (2007) - PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable
• WSC Real 08: World Snooker Championship (2008) - Wii
• WSC Real 09: World Snooker Championship (2009) - PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation Portable

Developed by Dark Energy Digital:

• Hydrophobia (2010) - Xbox 360
• Hydrophobia Prophecy (2011) - Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3

Closure

On March 19, 2012, the company suffered due to not having enough money, went broke and was ultimately put into administrative control. It is in the process of selling IP and assets, most notably the Hydrophobia series and the Hydroengine.3

Notes