Veterans from Shiny Entertainment, Heavy Iron, EA and Sony Computer Entertainment have formed a new developer called Checkpoint Studios. Their first title will be AviNation for Facebook launching in June, later expanding to smartphones and tablets.
“When I first started playing social games, I was frustrated by what I felt was a lack of quality and real game play in so many of the titles,” said Brian Wiklem, CEO and Founder of Checkpoint Studios. “The click-reward-repeat nature felt more like an activity or social chore than a game and, while there’s clearly an audience for that, I know we can do better.”
“While at Heavy Iron, I worked closely with Pixar to create the console versions of several of their properties such as Ratatouille and Up for THQ,” continued Wiklem. “I once asked how they made such successful kids’ movies, to which they responded that they didn’t make kids’ movies, but instead ‘made movies they would want to watch’. That philosophy really resonated and stuck with me, so our driving force is to make social games we’d actually want to play.”
