Daydream Software
Their first game was "Safecracker", a point and click adventure game published by DreamCatcher Interactive. The game had a tumultuous production, starting when GT Interactive bought initial publisher Warner Interactive Europe. Daydream Software went public in late 1996. The company's goal was to increase its economic and decision-making freedom, and to secure the ability to select a publisher at the end of each game's development rather than at the beginning. President Jans Phersson-Broburg argued that self-financing Daydream's future games with money from Swedish investors, instead of obtaining "funding linked to specific projects" from publishers, would offer the developer more stability, flexibility and room for growth. For Daydream's public launch, roughly 20 million kr worth of shares, or 45.5% of the company, were offered to investors in Sweden. The initial public offering was a success, and Daydream opened on the Stockholm Stock Exchange's Stockholm Börsinformation (SBI) list in January 1997. Daydream was eventually able to buy back the rights to "Safecracker".
Dark Souls – The Board Game
"Dark Souls" is an action role-playing video game series developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. "Dark Souls – The Board Game" is an officially licensed board game based on the series. It was created by UK-based company Steamforged Games. In 2015, designer and co-founder of Steamforged, Mat Hart, had been prototyping dungeon crawler tabletop games. He disliked the reliance on luck and repetitive nature of these games, so he sought to address these issues. Hart met with a friend, who was employed at Bandai Namco as a video game producer. Bandai Namco itself was eager to find a board game design that could translate the "Dark Souls" series into a new format. Before pitching their ideas to Bandai Namco, Hart and his team analysed the series to identify key aspects and find out which elements could make the transition to a board game format. Hart felt that the project he was currently prototyping shared some of the same design philosophies embedded in the "Dark Souls" series. The success of Steamforged's medieval fantasy football tabletop game, Guild Ball, contributed to them acquiring the "Dark Souls" license from Bandai Namco. The designers at Steamforged began rebuilding Hart's prototype as "Dark Souls" product. The biggest design challenge that Steamforged faced was trying to incorporate the high level of difficulty that the "Dark Souls" series is known for while maintaining an enjoyable board game experience. The design team was given full access to resources of the series so that they could replicate the tone and aesthetics. Initially, they found it difficult to decide what content should be included in their board game adaptation; they wanted to bring iconic bosses and enemies from all three games in the series. Designer Rich Loxam believed that the use of miniatures would appeal to players by helping to immerse them in the fictional universe.