The name Deck Nine pays homage to an early interactive storytelling game that inspired us. Released in the mid-80’s, Planetfall, written by Steve Meretzky and published by Infocom, was an instant classic. The AI character, Floyd, still stands the test of time and his death evokes memories of wonder and sadness – quite possibly the first time a game did that. The game begins with you aboard the Stellar Patrol Ship Feinstein, scrubbing filth with your patrol-issue self-contained multi-purpose all-weather scrub brush and your location is: DECK NINE.

The story of our studio actually began many years ago. In 1997, Mark Lyons founded Idol Minds, a small independent game developer focused on PlayStation 1 games. Early hits include the beloved snowboarding series CoolBoarders. For the next twenty years, the studio grew with the gaming industry, ranging far and wide, but always building a reputation for innovative technology and compelling gameplay. For the past three years, we have been preparing to leap into a new genre of gaming, narrative adventure games. Our first narrative title, Life Is Strange, Before the Storm, was completed in 2018. We are currently working on another title for Square Enix that is not yet announced.