Factsheet

Developer:

Studio217, LLC

based near Baltimore, Maryland

Founding Date:

August 2015

Team:

Karen Chang (www.karenmchang.com)
Co-Founder/Owner, 3D Generalist, Programmer, Game Designer

Cole Pritchard (www.colepritchard.com)
Co-Founder/Owner, Programmer, 3D Generalist, Game Designer

Currently Developing:

Pin City

Website:

www.Studio217Games.com

Press / Business Contact:

StudioTwoSeventeen@gmail.com

Social:

Twitter.com/Studio_217

Facebook.com/Studio217Games

Instagram.com/Studio217Games

Discord

Releases:

Circle Soiree on Android, iOS (self-published)

Mister Mart on SteamVR (self-published)

Studio Logo and Icon

Pin City Assets

Description

Studio217, LLC is a small independent game studio founded by a couple in Baltimore, Maryland.

History

Early History

Cole and Karen met while studying at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), in Baltimore, MD. They were in the same graduating class and both majored in Interactive Arts. They worked together on multiple projects and discovered they worked well together! As a result, they decided to collaborate for their senior thesis/capstone project. This project turned into Mister Mart, the game they are most well known for, and that has received the most recognition. They showed the game at the 2015 Commencement Exhibition at MICA, and at IndieCade 2015 in NYC. Over the next several years they continued to work on Mister Mart, their studio branding, development practices, and more games.

Mister Mart

Mister Mart was originally developed for the Oculus DK1 paired with a Leap Motion Controller (for hand tracking). The gameplay was often updated as new VR headsets were released.

Mister Mart has been shown at many different venues and conventions during its development, including:
Baltimore Artscape, IndieCade, MAGFest, PAXEast, PlayNYC, and Awesomecon.

Mister Mart was released on Steam Early Access in early 2017, and has seen multiple updates, with a full release completed in Spring of 2018. Since its Steam release, Mister Mart was exhibited a few more times at conventions and development on it stopped in order to focus on future projects.

Mister Mart is compatible with Oculus Rift CV1, Rift S, and Meta Quest 2 with Quest Link.

Circle Soiree

Though starting development after Mister Mart was first created, Circle Soiree saw an earlier release. Circle Soiree was first prototyped as a last minute college assignment in 2014. The simple and unique idea of a local-multiplayer physical tablet game was too good to let go, therefore Studio217 continued to develop and refine the game until its release in 2017. Circle Soiree was also exhibited at Baltimore Artscape, MAGFest and SAAM Arcade.

Circle Soiree was available on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store, but as of this writing, it is only available on the Google Play Store.

Development of this app is paused in order to focus on future projects.

Pin City

Studio217 is still going strong, with a new VR game titled Pin City, in development. Pin City made its first public appearance at PAX East 2022 and most recently at PAX East 2024. Now with more experience, the team is taking a more focused approach to develop and release Pin City.
Pin City is currently targeted for SteamVR and Meta Quest Store. (Using OpenXR)