Riverman Media LLC is a small, independent, game development studio dedicated to the art of 2D game creation. It was founded in 2005 by brothers Jacob and Paul Stevens.

Jacob and Paul check out classic Famicom games in Tokyo’s Akihabara electronics district.

Jacob and Paul grew up loving classic games such as Super Mario Bros. 3, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, The Legend of the Mystical Ninja (Ganbare Goemon), Starcraft, and Chrono Trigger. When the game industry almost universally adopted 3D in the mid 1990s, it took many of these games with it. While their 3D counterparts, like Super Mario 64, Starcraft II, and The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time are amazing games, Jacob and Paul believe that the shift to 3D left a huge job undone: to update 8-bit and 16-bit concepts with new technology, graphics, and gameplay.

There are countless ways that advances in technology can help create new 2D game experiences. Sheer graphics horsepower is an obvious example. The enormous pizza in Pizza Vs. Skeletons would have been impossible to implement in the SNES-era. The smooth character animation in IKAROS is also made possible by advanced graphics hardware. Non-graphical technologies, such as the Box2D physics engine used in Deathfall also present intriguing new possibilities.

Through Jacob’s unique and slightly twisted art and music, and Paul’s meticulous coding and sense of game balance, Riverman Media works tirelessly to bring players new 2D experiences with each game.

Riverman Media is dedicated to staying small and self-funded so it can pursue its 2D experiments unencumbered.

Please direct any questions to info@rivermanmedia.com

Riverman Media also provides consulting services to teams looking to improve their games with the help of an outside perspective. To learn more, visit the Consulting page.