We've been thrilled with the response to Transistor for iPhone and iPad, which launched some weeks ago back in June to critical acclaim and commercial success. Now if you've been keeping up with the latest news about Apple, then you'll have heard about the new Apple TV, unveiled today at an event here in San Francisco. While there's a lot there to be excited about, something we're particularly excited about is that our game is coming to the platform!
Transistor coming to the new Apple TV! Image from Apple.com.
We look forward to sharing more details about this new version of the game soon, so stay tuned!
Update 10/1/2015: Thanks to everyone who expressed interest in the programmer position. At this point we're no longer seeking new applicants. Should we have any additional job opportunities in the future, we'll likely post about it here and via our Twitter feed.
~ ~ ~
We're seeking a programmer to join our small team in San Francisco. The ideal candidate is a skilled and self-motivated programmer who thrives in a creative, collaborative environment and has interest and experience in a variety of game systems. As the third member of Supergiant’s engineering team, the candidate will take on a variety of engineering responsibilities configured around his or her strengths and the needs of the studio’s projects.
Do you have what it takes to grow our engineering team by 50%?!
Requirements:
2- or 4-year college engineering degree or equivalent work experience
Credited on at least one commercial, student, or personal game project from start to finish
Fluency in C/C++ or C# and excellent math skills
Disposed to communicating with both technical and non-technical collaborators in a team environment
Experience in many aspects of game programming including but not limited to: tools, gameplay, AI, networking, performance, UI, multithreading, and graphics
Experience certifying and shipping a console or mobile game is a plus
Local resident or willing to re-locate to San Francisco area
What we offer:
Work on a small, creative, high-performance team
Responsibility and ownership over key systems
Competitive compensation and medical benefits, including 401k
Opportunity to travel to game conventions and conferences
To apply:
Please send your resume, in the body of an e-mail, with the subject line “Programmer” to jobs@supergiantgames.com. No attachments please.
Complete the questionnaire below in the body of the e-mail.
Questionnaire:
As part of your application, please answer the following questions as though you were responding to a colleague via email. Use your best judgment to answer as completely and concisely as possible. There is no minimum or maximum word count.
Describe the history of your interest in video games.
Why do you want to work at Supergiant Games?
What is a technical feature or project that you are proud to have worked on, and why? What did you yourself contribute to that project? Please describe how it works for a non-technical reader.
What are some advantages and disadvantages of object oriented programming when compared to procedural and functional styles? Please describe using examples from your personal experience.
When, if ever, is it appropriate to use a “hack”? Please describe a hack you’ve used and why you chose to use it.
We will reach out to prospective candidates by the end of September, 2015.
Note: This is our only available job opportunity at this time.
The first time we went to PAX Prime in 2010 was a turning point for our studio, as it was there that we first showed Bastion to the public. We've gone to the show ever since, making this our sixth consecutive year at the event! So if you're coming to the big show in Seattle this week, we hope you'll stop by our booth 3010 and say hello. Here's what we've got in store:
- Play Bastion for the PS Vita: The Vita version of Bastion we announced last year is far along in development as you'll be able to experience for yourself! We're often asked when it will be released -- the Vita version of Bastion should be out before the end of the year, and will be cross-buy-enabled with the PS4 version. We'll have more specific details at a later date.
We'll have Bastion for the Vita hands-on playable for the first time. Coming sometime later this year!
- Take a Photo with the Transistor: Get up close and personal with the latest one-of-a-kind creation by @VolpinProps! We'll have a photo booth where you can take a free commemorative photo with everyone's favorite extraordinary weapon of unknown origin. And, yes, it talks!
- Get Merch: We'll have all the items available in our online store, including the popular Transistor Flash Drive, Pinny Arcade collectible pins, T-shirts, and of course our soundtrack CDs. For the first time we'll also have the Camerata embroidered patch, available for $5. What better way to express your deep-rooted belief that when everything changes, nothing changes?!
Wear Cloudbank Fashion Week's hottest new look with the Camerata embroidered patch, debuting at PAX Prime ($5).
- Play Transistor for iPad: Go hands-on with the latest version of Transistor, now available for iPad and iPhone. We'll also have both Transistor and Bastion playable on the PlayStation 4. It's always fun showcasing our small-but-growing library of games at PAX, and seeing folks experience these games for the first time.
- Meet the team! As always, members of our team will be there throughout the show, so don't be stranger and say hi!
Booth 3010 is the place!
So, if you're coming to PAX, safe travels, and hope to see you there.
This latest version of our award-winning second game features all the deep strategic action and rich atmospheric presentation that made Transistor a hit, with all-new controls and interface designed for touch from the ground up. After the success of our first foray onto the App Store with Bastion, we're happy to bring Transistor to iOS devices, and appreciate having heard a great deal of interest in it from many of you over the months. We hope you find it to be everything you hoped for, and then some.
Transistor costs $9.99 in North America (regional prices may vary) and runs on the latest iOS devices starting with the iPhone 5, iPad 4, or iPad mini 2. Get it right here!
This is a universal app, so for example you can start playing on iPad and pick up right where you left off on iPhone. It features GameCenter achievements, an optional Classic Controls setting for a more console-style experience, and support for iOS gamepads.
Now you can endlessly tinker with the Transistor's many different functions right on your phone or tablet!
We created this version of the game in partnership with the talented team at Southern California-based Confetti Games, and we're grateful to them for all their work making Transistor for the App Store shine. And we're grateful to you for your interest and support! Thanks for reading.
Many PlayStation owners out there know us best from
Transistor, which debuted on the PS4 last year. But before that, we created Bastion, and this launch means a whole new slew of people soon will get to see what that game's all about. So, whether you're about to play one of our games for the first time, played Transistor and want to see what else we can do, or just want to play Bastion again, thank you! You're the reason we get to do what we do every day.
It was always difficult to describe Bastion while the game was in development. We designed the game in an organic way, little by little, listening to what it needed most and building whatever that was next, until we felt that we were done. It didn't start with an elevator pitch for what would make the next big blockbuster. After all, one of the nice things about being a small independent studio is you can focus all your energies on making the game you really want to make, and with any luck, you can discover much of that during the process.
We liked to joke about how the pitch for Bastion would have been just awful, and how the game never would have been made if it started off that way: "Well you see it's this action RPG where an old man talks to you
the entire time!"While this is technically accurate, it's selling the game more than a little short. We wanted Bastion to feel cohesive rather than like a collection of cool features. This trailer we came up with is one of our attempts to convey that:
The Bastion launch trailer!
Thankfully, these days, the success of Bastion helps explain it better than we ever could. For one thing,
more than three million people all around the world have bought this game, and for another, it's earned more than 100 different awards and accolades. As you might imagine, this exceeded our wildest fantasies. We just wanted to make something that felt personal to the seven people on the team, building a game in the living room of a house in a California suburb. We hoped, and did our best to make sure, that it would do well enough that we could stick together and keep going, and make something new (that something was Transistor).
It feels great having made a game we feel has stood the test of time, as the first version of Bastion launched almost four years ago -- practically an eternity in game years, yet you wouldn't know it just from playing this latest version, with its hand-painted scenery running at a silky smooth 60 frames per second in 1080p and all that! And for you completionists out there, it's another Platinum Trophy you could add to your collection. We couldn't have done this without the help of the team at
BlitWorks, based over in Barcelona, who we knew would be up to the task from their great work on PlayStation 4 versions of games like Don't Starve and FEZ. The result is an exacting translation of a game that's very near and dear to us, and we hope will be near and dear to you as well.
This week we're headed to warm, sunny Boston for our fifth
PAX East! If you're coming to the show too, we hope you'll stop by and say hello to us at booth 8224. Here's what we'll have in store:
- Play a near-final build of Bastion for PS4: Our first game Bastion is coming to the PlayStation 4 on April 7 as part of the Spring Fever event! Come try it out, whether you're a dyed-in-the-wool Bastion fan or ain't ever heard of it!
- Play Transistor for PS4: Our latest game will also be playable at the show! Transistor of course is available now on PlayStation 4 and Steam.
- Pose for a Photo in Cloudbank or Caelondia: For the first time, we're setting up a photo booth where you can transport yourself to the worlds of our games! Pose with a one-of-a-kind scale replica of the Kid's hammer from Bastion, or a special surprise from Transistor. We'll email you the photo.
- Get Merch! We'll have a wide assortment of goods on offer from our online shop, including PAX-exclusive Pinny Arcade pins featuring the Kid and Red, art prints, T-shirts, and more!
This 8 GB Transistor Flash Drive is one of our more popular store items, and will be making its PAX East debut this week!
That's our lineup! Here's where you can find us at the show, same place we've been the past couple of years if you've visited before:
Booth 8224!
To everyone planning to make the trek to PAX, we wish you safe travels, and hope to see you there.
Update Oct. 2020: Downloadable themes including this one are no longer for sale on the PlayStation Store, though we're leaving this up for posterity!
One of the many cool features of the PlayStation 4 is the ability to use custom themes for the console's interface. We decided to make one based on our latest game!
Now available on the PlayStation Store, the Transistor Theme can be yours for $2.99. Have a look in lo-res gif form:
Immerse yourself in the world of Transistor with our dynamic PS4 theme!
The theme features all-new artwork by Josh Barnett, who created the look and feel of Transistor's sleek menus and visual effects. It also features sound and music by Darren Korb, notably a new mix of Tangent from the Transistor Original Soundtrack, with vocals by Ashley Barrett.
Here are some additional images of the theme:
The Transistor Theme features a fully 3D wire-frame diagram of a certain extraordinary weapon of unknown origin.
The Theme has a separate look for when you're accessing admin-level functions on your PS4.
Another look at the Transistor Theme, a.k.a. Royce's desktop wallpaper.
If you enjoyed Transistor for the PS4 (or are in the process of doing so), we hope you'll download the new theme! Let us know what you think on Twitter.
Update: Thank you to everyone who expressed interest in this job. At this time we're no longer seeking new applicants. Should we have any additional job openings in the future, we'll post about it here and via our Twitter.
~ ~ ~
We're seeking a programmer to help maintain our studio’s catalogue of released titles across a variety of platforms, and port them to new platforms. The ideal candidate would enjoy working largely independently while still communicating well with the team. Those seeking this position should be motivated by the technical problems inherent in cross-platform engineering and working with existing code bases or emerging platforms. Join usssss!!!
Requirements:
2- or 4-year college engineering degree or equivalent work experience
Credited on at least one commercial, student, or personal game project from start to finish
Fluency in C/C++ or C# and excellent math skills
Disposed to communicating with both technical and non-technical collaborators in a team environment
Experience certifying and shipping a console or mobile game is a plus
Local resident or willing to re-locate to San Francisco area
Responsibilites:
Maintain, fix, and update Bastion, Transistor, Pyre across PC, Mac, Linux, console, and mobile
Port games in our catalogue to new or emerging platforms
Manage and improve build servers and render farm
Proactively assess Quality Assurance and consumer feedback regarding existing releases
What we offer:
Work on a small, creative, high-performance team
Responsibility and ownership over key systems
Competitive compensation and medical benefits, including 401k
Opportunity to travel to game conventions and conferences
To apply, please follow these instructions exactly:
Send your resume, in the body of an e-mail (no attachments please), with the subject line “Platforms Engineer” to jobs@supergiantgames.com
Complete the questionnaire below and include it in the body of the e-mail.
Questionnaire:
As part of your application, please answer the following questions as though you were responding to a colleague via email. Use your best judgment to answer as completely and concisely as possible. There is no minimum or maximum word count.
Describe the history of your interest in video games.
Why do you want to work at Supergiant Games?
What is a technical feature or project that you are proud to have worked on, and why? What did you contribute to that project? Please describe how it works for a non-technical reader.
Discuss your experience with an existing codebase and how you became familiar with it. Describe a feature or fix that you contributed to the project.
When, if ever, is it appropriate to use a “hack”? Please describe a hack you’ve used and why you chose to use it.
We will reach out to prospective candidates by mid October, 2017.
Note: This is our only available job opportunity at this time.
The launch of Transistor back in May of last year was a big deal for our small studio, as it was our next original game following the success of our first game, Bastion. Bastion's success exceeded our wildest fantasies by quite a bit -- it's sold more than 3 million copies to date, the majority of which happened many months after the game first came out on Xbox 360 and PC.
So, we were very happy to see Transistor selling even faster relative to Bastion during the first couple of months after its launch. With the new year upon us, we checked our spreadsheets, rubbed our eyes, checked our spreadsheets again and can now report that, thus far,
Transistor has sold well over 600,000 copies between Steam and the PlayStation Store!
Yeah but Red's all like, "So?"
Word-of-mouth is what kept Bastion going for way, way longer than we could have imagined, and it's what's kept Transistor going strong, too. To that end, over the past few weeks
Transistor has earned more than 70 industry accolades, including end-of-year awards and nominations for all sorts of different reasons you can read about below. Here's a list of some of the award categories in which Transistor was a contender:
Let us know on
Twitter if we missed anything! And once again, thank you very much for helping make 2014 such a strong year for Supergiant. It was a big year for us, and now, we're excited to be on the other side of it, working together to figure out what's next.
As 2014 winds down and we look toward the new year, we wanted to take a moment to wish you and your loved ones a happy holiday season from all of us at Supergiant.
If the Red and the Kid can enjoy a little holiday cheer, surely so can YOU
It's been a big year for us, and we're very grateful for the incredible enthusiasm we've received from our fans. From the moment we revealed Transistor, you've been incredibly supportive, and that enthusiasm makes a huge difference during development. Even now, months after the game's launch back in May, we still get wonderful messages from you about your experiences with the game -- from all over the world.
Having launched Transistor first on PS4 and PC and more recently on Mac and Linux, we're now in that relatively quiet period where we're putting our heads together figuring out what's next. We're keeping busy in the mean time! Just this month we announced Bastion's coming to the PlayStation 4 and Vita, and Transistor for PS4 will soon be available on PSN in Japan, come January 8. Plus we just moved to a new space in San Francisco that's a better fit for us (and besides, our old lease was up). The change of scenery marks a fresh start for whatever comes next, and we'll be sure to keep you posted. Thanks for sticking with us in 2014, and see you next year!
