Black Pants Game Studio is an independent video game developer based in Kassel and Berlin, Germany. The studio was initially founded as fabs(4D) in 2002 at the University of Kassel to serve as a house for the development of the Scape Engine; after seven years and the enlistment of several students from the nearby Kassel School of Arts and Design, the studio's current name was adopted in 2009. Their first game, Tiny and Big, was released to the public in 2012.
Their work prominently features quirky humor, distinctive art, and unique gameplay. In addition to the games the studio has released as a whole, some of the individual team members have also released their own individual projects in various other media, with one comic book being released under the Black Pants name.
Games developed and published by Black Pants:
- Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers (2012)
- About Love, Hate and the other ones (2012 for iOS and Samsung devices, 2014 Steam re-release) (by Tobias Bilgeri)
- Symmetrain (2013) (publisher, developed by Daniel Goffin and Philipp Beau)
- Blown Away (2015) (by Tobias Bilgeri and Christian Niemand)
- On Rusty Trails (2016)
- Mississippi Blues (TBD, upcoming)
Comic books:
- Leschek's Flight (Sebastian Stamm, 2013)
Tropes commonly found in Black Pants' work:
- Cel Shading: Averted. Both Tiny and Big and On Rusty Trails employ textures with thick outlines in order to achieve a similar effect to it, though.
- The Homeward Journey: A variant; Hendrik from Blown Away and Elvis from On Rusty Trails are both on quests to find a new home to replace their destroyed ones. Leschek's Flight averts this, however, as its protagonist can't wait to leave.
- Puzzle Game: Tiny and Big, Blown Away, Symmetrain and About Love, Hate and the other ones. The first two are platformers, too.
- Signature Style: All of their work is highly stylized and often quirky, but barring the semi-externally-developed Symmetrain, one can immediately tell if the art on one of their projects was directed by Sebastian Stamm (who uses a look that falls almost exactly within the middle ground of realistic and cartoonish work) or Tobias Bilgeri (who almost exclusively uses cartoony imagery).
