KING Art Games is a German independent video game developer based in Bremen, recognized for its remarkable versatility across genres and its evolution from a multimedia agency into an award-winning studio known for narrative-rich adventures and ambitious strategy titles. Founded in 2000 by Jan Theysen and Marc König—childhood friends who had wanted to make video games since their school days—the company began as a multimedia agency producing web content and contract projects for major German media and corporate clients, releasing its first browser game in 2001 while steadily building toward its true ambition of full-fledged game development. The studio broke through in the late 2000s with a series of critically acclaimed point-and-click adventure games that ranked among the highest-rated German productions of their era, establishing KING Art's reputation for humor, storytelling craft, and richly realized worlds, while parallel forays into free-to-play browser and mobile titles broadened its commercial foundation during a formative period of growth.
The studio became an early and successful pioneer of crowdfunding in the German industry, financing turn-based strategy and adventure projects through Kickstarter campaigns beginning in 2013, and further demonstrated its range through tactical role-playing games adapted from acclaimed fantasy literature before making a decisive move into real-time strategy. That transition yielded a landmark original mech-warfare RTS franchise that earned KING Art the "Studio of the Year" honor at the German Game Developer Awards for the second time, cementing its standing as one of the country's most respected developers. Committed to openness and knowledge-sharing—teaching at universities, giving industry talks, and mentoring young developers—while emphasizing workplace inclusivity and environmental sustainability, KING Art has grown to around 110 employees drawn from around the world across its Bremen offices. Now entrusted with developing a new entry in a globally renowned science-fiction strategy franchise, the studio remains proudly independent and founder-led after more than two decades, continuing to pair technical ambition with the storytelling sensibility that has defined its work across an unusually diverse portfolio.
