What Are Some Of The Most Varied Game Developers?

So with the release of Jurassic World Evolution coming up I decided to look at the game catalog of developer Frontier Developments.

I had no idea they had their name on so many different types of games. Everything from roller coaster tycoon, to platformers like, Lostwinds, kinect games and Elite Dangerous.

It got me thinking about other developers out there and I was wondering if anyone could come up with some other developers who make pretty different games and don't just stick to one that works.

Nintendo's the first one I think of, but there are so many dev teams under that umbrella that it kinda doesn't count.

Klei is a pretty good example. They've made beat-em-ups (Shank 1 and 2), a stealth ninja game (Mark of the Ninja), a survival game (Don't Starve), a turn-based tactical game (Invisible, Inc.), and their current main project is a simulation/management game (Oxygen Not Included).

Blizzard. They've made a top tier Shooter, Card game and Puzzle-Platformer and a few RPGs and RTSs.

SIE Japan Studio. It may be a bit of a debateable pick since a lot of the projects they've worked on have been in conjunction with other studios and it's hard to say how big or a role they played in those cases, but either way, their résumé is insane.

Supergiant Games.

I appreciate a developer that looks to do different things for their different games (when they're not sequels). They're not looking to keep repeating, or refining, their old formulas but rather taking their whole design style and applying it to something different. Bastion was straight action RPG, Transistor had turn based elements, and Pyre is a match structure competition game. Supergiant is seeming to be the antithesis of most AAA developers that are heavily influenced by publishers.

Supergiant Games - Bastion, Transistor, Pyre.

5th Cell Media - Drawn to Life, Scribblenauts (even though they've made a lot of those), Hybrid, Locks Quest, D.N.A.

@flashflood_29: Well said. They're one of my favorite indie developers and I always get the sense that they pour a ton of effort in to making each game the best unique thing it can be.

The one that immediately (and depressingly) came to mind is Westwood. Between Command and Conquer, (RTS) Eye of the Beholder, (First-Person RPG) Legend of Kyrandia, (Point-and-Click adventure) Nox (Diablo-esque ARPG) and C&C Renegade (FPS) they sure dipped their toes in a lot of genres during their lifespan.

dude, doublefine 4sho! they're CONSTANTLY flipping the script.

Motherfucking ACE Team. Their games include:

A melee based first person game. (Zenoclash 1/2)

A rogue-ish side scrolling fighting game. (Abyss Odyssey)

A top down twin stick shooter (Tower of Monsters)

And a tower defense plus marble madness/skeeball game (Rock of Ages 1/2)

That is to say nothing of the theme of each of these games which are wildly different too. One of my favourite developers out there.

@hayt: i was just going to post the same thing :D ACE team is great.

The first one off the top of my head is Introversion. They usually make cold games where technology creates some sort of barrier between people, but within that format, they're all over the place. They had a hacking simulator (Uplink), a nuke-based RTS (DEFCON), a prison management game (Prison Architect), a minimalist artsy spelunking game (Scanner Sombre), and whatever the hell Darwinia was. One of the reasons their games are so varied is that it rarely seems like they're trying to work from rigid genre blueprints like "FPS" or "fighting game". Not that you can't categorise all their games in some way, but it feels like they're being truer to their very specific subject matter than to any standardised design practices.

I’d say Image and Form comes to mind at first: they made Steamworld Tower Defense, Steamworld Dig 1 and 2 (Metroidvanias) and Heist (Turn Based Strategy game). I’d also say Nintendo EAD is up there (Mario, Zelda, Star Fox, Animal Crossing, so on).

From Software has a pretty varied lineup. King's Field, Armored Core, Cookie and Cream, Dark Souls, the excellently named Metal Wolf Chaos.

I remember we had a thread like this a while back. ACE Team is definitely the first that comes to mind.

Not only are each of their games pretty wildly different compared to each other, but compared to most video games in general they're also really out there. Zeno Clash in particular is really great.

Got to echo ACE Team again, they're the first guys I thought of when I read the thread. One of the most unique voices in videogames.

Grasshopper Manufacture has got to be up there. Everything from Michigan Report from Hell to No More Heroes. They have their trademarks to be sure, but the variety is still impressive.

I'd like to say Naughty Dog?

Shout out's to ACE team. Rock of Ages 2 wasn't that bad to be honest can't wait for there next project.

Am I fucking crazy or has nobody said Rare yet?.......

Are you people for real?

Doublefine is another great long-time example.

Crystal Dynamics is the Tomb Raider studio these days, but they were hustling doing all sorts of varied work in the 90s.

Broderbund made all sorts of stuff in their day.

Creative Assembly is pretty one note for the most part, content with making new entries in the Total War series. But they made what's probably the best Alien thing since the second movie a couple years back with Alien Isolation, so they clearly capable of branching out.

Capcom covers a diverse range of genres:

Platformer: Ghosts 'n Goblins, Mega Man, Bionic Commando, Strider

Fighting: Street Fighter, DarkStalkers, Marvel vs. Capcom, Rival Schools, Power Stone

Beat 'Em Up: Final Fight, Dungeons & Dragons, Viewtiful Joe, God Hand

Action-Adventure: Resident Evil (Pre 4), Dino Crisis, Onimusha, Devil May Cry, Okami, Dead Rising

Third-Person Shooter: Resident Evil (Post 4), Lost Planet

RPG: Breath of Fire, Monster Hunter, Dragon's Dogma

Adventure/Visual Novel: Ace Attorney, Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

Puzzle: Super Puzzle Fighter II

@truer: Capcom is a publisher that contains several studios though, so not quite what OP asked for I think.

Supergiant is probably my top pick as well!

Sierra was pretty diverse, despite being known mainly for adventures and Hoyle games.

@muppjockey: I had the same take. It’s easy to say EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Capcom, or Konami. I think the spirit of this is a single studio, or a small multi-studio shop.