Atelier 801

Atelier 801 is a French independent video game development company founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Marchand (Tigrounette) and Mélanie Christin (Melibellule). They are best known for developing Transformice,[2][3] which as of 2020 has 105 million accounts.[4]

Atelier 801
TypePrivate
IndustryVideo games
FoundedOctober 14, 2011 (2011-10-14)[1]
Founders
  • Jean-Baptiste Le Marchand
  • Mélanie Christin
Headquarters
Lille
,
France
Number of employees
<50
Websiteatelier801.com

Their goal is to rally players from all over the world around fun multiplayer games.

History

Transformice was the second game Le Marchand developed, after Extinction, a platform with 3 games, Aaaah!, Bouboum, and Forteresse. Transformice was a side-project of Christin, designer, and Le Marchand, developper. They posted Transformice on an online forum in 2010.[5][6] The game quickly spread by word of mouth, and overwhelmed by the unexpected success of the game, they spent evenings and weekends to cope with the massive influx of players.

In 2011 they left their jobs at Ankama to start Atelier 801,[7][8][9][10][11][12] allowing them to finally fulfill players' demand by working full time on the game and now employing ten extra people.[13] Atelier 801 was hosted in one of the business incubators of the northern La Ruche network in Tourcoing until January 2013, when they moved to Lille.[5][14] Between August 2012 and August 2013, Atelier 801 posted sales of $1.2 million.[5]

They received, in 2013, the "Entrepreneur of the Year" prize by the local Nord area.[15]

Atelier 801 revived two of Le Marchand's games with Bouboum in 2013 and then Fortoresse a few months later. The year 2014 proved to be busy as they released Nekodancer, a massively multiplayer musical game, and then their first mobile game on iOS and Android called Run for Cheese, the first one set in the Transformice universe, in October 2014.

In 2015, they co-produced Transformice: The Cartoon Series, an animated series set in the Transformice universe, with Cross River Productions and Believe Digital.[16][17] They also began working on Dead Maze, a survival MMO set in a contemporary world, filled with zombies and crafting possibilities. It was released on Steam on 13 February 2018.[18][19]

In May 2019, Atelier 801 launched a Kickstarter campaign for Transformice Adventures, another game set in the Transformice universe.[20] The campaign was cancelled two weeks later, although the game is still in development.[21] Eight employees were laid off.[22] In July 2019, Antarès was released.

In 2021, the multiplayer platform game Tomb Rumble was released on Steam.

In 2022, Christin left Atelier 801.[23]

Games

All games are available on Windows, macOS and Linux, except Run for Cheese (iOS and Android).

Year Title Notes
2010 Transformice Released on Steam in 2015[24]
2013 Bouboum Released on Steam in 2020
2014 Fortoresse Released on Steam in 2020
2014 Nekodancer
2014 Run for Cheese
2015 Celousco Cancelled
2018 Dead Maze
2019 Antarès
2021 Tomb Rumble
TBA Transformice Adventures

References
  1. "Atelier 801 prend son envol". Agence Française pour le Jeu Vidéo. 23 January 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  2. Henley, Stacey (27 April 2020). "'Being pregnant changes everything': The game industry awkwardly grapples with maternity". The Washington Post. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  3. Suvilay, Bounthavy (2020). Indie Games: The Origins of Minecraft, Journey, Limbo, Dead Cells, The Banner Saga and Firewatch. Ablaze. p. 68. ISBN 978-1950912018.
  4. "Triche en ligne : quelles solutions pour les développeurs ?". Jeuxvideo.com. 8 April 2020.
  5. Askenazi, Bruno (24 October 2013). "Transformice : le jeu de la start-up s'impose au Brésil". Les Echos. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  6. "« Success souris » pour Transformice ?". Nord Eclair. 12 October 2011.
  7. "De Tourcoing à Lille, les petites souris continuent de faire leur trou". La Voix du Nord. 13 February 2013.
  8. "Pourquoi les Hauts-de-France comptent dans le domaine des jeux vidéo". La Voix du Nord. 13 December 2021. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
  9. Platteel, Antoine (May 2012). "La petite souris de Transformice qui monte, qui monte..." Le Nord. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  10. "Les souris de Mélanie et Jean-Baptiste envahissent la ruche des entreprises". La Voix du Nord. 30 September 2011.
  11. "Transformice fête ses 10 millions de comptes". JeuxOnLine. 20 February 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  12. "Exposition Digital Fantasies à Epitech Lille". Rom Game. 14 June 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  13. "Atelier 801 : des souris et des joueurs". Eco121. 4 November 2011. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  14. "Transformice, l'aventure de petites souris à l'assaut de la planète". La Voix du Nord. 7 February 2013. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
  15. "Les lauréats du Prix de l'entrepreneur de l'année". La Voix du Nord. 4 October 2013.
  16. "Transformice : Les French-souris qui ont conquis le web sortent du jeu pour lancer leur série animée". Agence Française pour le Jeu Vidéo. 14 September 2015.
  17. Bernard, Sandra (26 October 2015). "Transformice une web serie qui fait Cheese". Toute La Culture. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  18. "Dead Maze – Join thousands of others worldwide in surviving the zombie apocalypse". MMO Culture. 14 February 2018. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  19. "Le MMO zombesque Dead Maze enfin disponible sur PC !". ActuGaming. 15 February 2018.
  20. Monteiro, Rafael (13 July 2019). "Transformice: veja curiosidades sobre o famoso jogo online". TechTudo. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  21. Velasco, Ariane (24 September 2019). "Conheça o jogo Transformice e se divirta superando obstáculos". Canaltech. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  22. Charpentier, Frédéric (31 October 2019). "À la Paris Games Week, les studios indépendants défient les plus grands". Radio France Internationale. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  23. Christin, Mélanie (12 January 2022). "Paroles de Dev 2022". Atelier 801. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  24. Christin, Melanie (27 May 2015). "The Story of Transformice: the 60 million players indie game". Game Developer. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
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