12 Video Games Made in New York

The variety of video games made locally showcases the creative range of the New Yorkers behind them. That diversity can also make it tough for the city to earn an easy-to-remember reputation, as the development scene in Austin, Tex., enjoys, said Kurt Bieg, of Simple Machine, a mobile game company based in New York.

The games featured here take inspiration from all kinds of sources:the United States invasion of Panama, the digestive process, the camouflaging abilities of the peppered moth and, naturally, the city itself.

1. Just Cause 3

Avalanche Studios

The first game built by the New York office of Avalanche Studios, a Swedish company, Just Cause 3 gives the hero a helicopter, a wingsuit and a rocket launcher to topple a dictator.

2. Pop the Lock

Simple Machine

Downloaded 25 millions times, Pop the Lock requires the player to align the center dial with eye-thumb coordination. Its creator, Kurt Bieg, studied game development (and occasionally teaches) at Parsons School of Design.

3. Maui Wowie Smash Up

Exog3n Studios

Due out in 2019, Maui Wowie Smash Up combines elements from platform and shooting games, and was inspired in part by Super Mario Bros.

4. A Memoir Blue

New York University Game Center

The work of two N.Y.U. game design students, A Memoir Blue recounts a day the story's hero spent with her mother as a child, visiting a city that seemed magical at the time.

5. Monkey Preschool Fix-It

Thup Games

Monkey Preschool Fix-It is an early learning app designed to test users on colors, numbers and fixing leaky pipes. The Monkey Preschool series has sold over three million copies.

6. Exposure

The Sheep’s Meow

Inspired in part by the color-changing abilities of the peppered moth, Exposure’s hero is an amoeba-like creature who must outwit its predator by strategically hiding. Co-creator Brian Chung is also one of the organizers of the Game Devs of Color Expo, held annually in Harlem.

7. Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy

Bennett Foddy

In Getting Over It, by the N.Y.U. games professor Bennett Foddy, a player must climb a mountain of digital trash using a hammer, dressed only in a cast-iron cauldron.

8. Next Up Hero

Digital Continue

A gauntlet-style dungeon crawler, Next Up Hero gives players a very special ability: Bringing dead fighters from the community back to life.

9. Killer Queen

BumbleBear Games

Designed to play in an arcade (or bar) with two teams of five players, Killer Queen is a strategy game that has inspired a passionate cult following.

10. Slime-San

Fabraz

Swallowed by a giant worm, Slime-San must navigate a slippery intestine or be digested by stomach acid.

11. Skylanders SuperChargers

Activision

The Skylanders series, developed for the game giant Activision, helped solidify the reputation of the upstate New York development studio Vicarious Visions as a world-class game producer.

12. Two Dots

Playdots

The heroes of Two Dots are, well, two dots. They travel a world filled with beautiful landscapes, playing clever and occasionally maddening puzzles.