ABOUT

Step inside the walls of Next Level Games and you’ll see the difference, scratch that – you’ll feel it. As an established, full-service, independent game development studio in Vancouver, Canada, we’re different and we’re not afraid to show it.

Next Level Games was founded in 2002 by four industry veterans with a single vision of how work should be. While others paid lip service to the idea, NLG created a new standard that put life ahead of work without sacrificing the business. We evolved to the next level.

This commitment to a new way of working made it easy for Next Level Games to amass some of the industry’s best talent under one roof. We continue to attract and reunite passionate, gifted developers, esteemed for their high quality of work and creativity, from many well-established companies, including Electronic Arts, Black Box Games and Radical Entertainment. We believe that excellent games are made by fostering a healthy, positive and creative environment for these individuals - and they deliver.

We live to play the game

Great games start with great gameplay that is balanced and fun. At Next Level Games, we create engaging gameplay experiences by focusing on a set of core goals: we make games that are responsive and player-driven, and allow the user to create unique gameplay experiences each and every time they play.

Among the great collaborations we’ve had with publishers, Next Level Games has developed a particularly strong relationship with Nintendo. We were the first North American developer entrusted with the Mario Brothers IP for the creation of a hybrid soccer game.

We understand how to work with publishers and license holders to maximize sales

Next Level Games is a pro-active, responsive partner during all phases of the product development cycle. We take a broad view of the games we make, working with publishers and license holders to craft unique and innovative experiences that fill niches within product lines and satisfy consumers.

We deliver our products and milestones on-time, with quality

Next Level Games is well respected for its strong leadership and production practices. We have a proven history of delivering quality, on-time milestones for multi-platform projects. We take pride in consistently hitting our production milestones. Our games receive great reviews and their quality is recognized in the industry and marketplace.

We are distinct

At Next Level Games, we go against the industry grain to create an environment that promotes stability, exceptional products and engaged people. We’ve been honoured with several awards including the Best Company to Work For in British Columbia, Canada’s Top 100 Employers and two nods for Excellence and Innovation from WorkLife BC.

We have an international outlook

In 2006, Next Level Games opened a studio in Beijing, China. This offshore endeavor deepens our talent pool by incorporating some of the cities’ best artists into the NLG family. It also allows us to bring our unique perspective on work and life to Beijing. In both our home studio and our international wing, people and product quality come first.

TECHNOLOGY

Next Level Games developed our own rendering engine and a flexible, robust art pipeline that can handle any character or environment challenge. We have hands-on experience with next-generation hardware and continually evolve tools, pipelines and processes to meet the challenges ahead.

We offer full-service game development and content creation for Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and the previous generations of each console. We have also successfully incorporated 3rd party middleware applications into our pipelines and processes in order to enhance our development capabilities, where it makes the most sense.

ART

Art is a product of human activity, made to stimulate both the senses and the mind. The Next Level Games art team takes that idea to heart as they strive to create the most captivating games on the market.

We don’t follow the pack. Our small army of concept artists and designers work together to create characters and worlds that will provide engaging and fun user experiences.

We are experienced production artists and we understand game development. We’ve lived through the rigors of numerous development cycles and know what it takes to get the job done. We have a strong work ethic and bring a professional attitude to the design challenge.

We also have some of the best art-tech know-how in the business. We use this knowledge and our ever-improving tools and processes to empower our artists and give them the greatest creative freedom possible.