Xona Games is an award-winning indie game studio, co-founded by twin brothers, Jason Doucette and Matthew Doucette. We make intense retro games and are known for our #1 shmup hits in Japan.

Jason Doucette and Matthew Doucette, co-founders of Xona Games.*

Jason and Matthew have been coding games since they were seven years old, before they owned a computer. Their fist personal computer was a TI-99/4A. Starting in early elementary school, they developed a "game code", a formulated and sometimes philosophical list of do's and don't's by which all of their games abide. Xona Games is the realization of a lifelong passion.

Matthew (left) and Jason (center) in Xona Games headquarters!*

We have won prestigious awards (Innovacorp's $100,000 prize) and received worldwide press (Develop, Retro Gamer, Famitsu, Reviews On The Run, Official Xbox Magazine). Our games have been rated from #1 in Canada (Duality ZF in Dream Build Play 2010) to #1 in Japan (Decimation X and Decimation X3 on XBLIG), and been top picks across many categories (IGN, Famitsu, Gamasutra, Joystiq). Every game we developed, released or not, has won awards.

Our games have also become #1 best sellers in multiple countries (Decimation X, Decimation X3, and Score Rush). We have dominated the Japanese market with three of the top five games and two best sellers, simultaneously. We have dominated XBLIG with 3 of the top 7 four-player shoot 'em ups and out of thousands of developers we are 1 of 3 studios to produce 3 or more 4+ star rated titles.

Our game engine technology was recognized for technical excellence (IndiePub semi-finalist). Microsoft invited our studio to develop a launch title for their Windows Phone 7 launch (Decimation X2). We have strong indie ties and were chosen to represent the Indie Games Winter Uprising. Our only mobile title won a highly commended award in WP7COMP, a Microsoft-supported Windows Phone 7 Competition, and was the only game that placed (the rest were "apps"). Turbulenz, a new online gaming platform, funded us to develop a launch title (Score Rush port) and even turned one of our games into a cake!

Jason (left) and Matthew (right), in Xonaplex! *

We have continued support by the Nova Scotian government, who have sent us to international game conferences including MIGS '09, GDC '10, MIGS '10, with a floor booth at GDC '11, GDC '12, PAX East '12, PAX Prime '12, PAX East '13, GDC '13, plus included us in the "Your Studio Here" promotions. We have even been congratulated by Nova Scotia's House of Assembly.

Jason (left) and Matthew (right) in Xona Games offices.*

Our games feature beautiful Imphenzia and hard-rocking Dragon Music Productions soundtracks, and are 4-player shoot 'em ups. Expect to see more genres exploited for their true potential in the future, including racing and beat 'em ups. We have only just begun. We are currently working on Duality ZF for Xbox LIVE Arcade and Steam. Feel free to visit our developer's blog and check out our friends who have all done amazing things in the indie gaming industry!

Platforms:

We have developed for Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG) (Decimation X, Decimation X3,  Score Rush), Windows Phone 7 (Decimation X2) and Turbulenz (Score Rush). We are currently developing for Windows PC (Steam) (Duality ZF) and Xbox LIVE Arcade (XBLA) (Duality ZF). We plan to develop for PlayStation Network (PSN), Nintendo Wii (WiiWare), and iPhone/iPad (AppStore), and newly OUYA!

Interviews:

Jason at GDC 2012 (blog entry).

Matthew on the "Are You Smarter Than A CEO?" contest (blog entry).

Matthew (left) and Jason (right) at GDC 2010 (blog entry).

Xona Games winning $100,000 (blog entry).

Xona Games on CBC TV News (blog entry).

As Gamers:

We are also avid gamers. We can both beat the R-Type, Raiden, and Raiden II arcades. My old notes show that we both beat 1943: The Battle of Midway arcade together. We can complete Contra and Super-C with one life, twice over. We are huge shoot'em up fans, as you may know. Jason has beat 15+ Xbox LIVE games and can beat the OutRun arcade. Matthew has beat 70 NES games, 60+ Xbox LIVE games, and many other games, as well as competed and placed second (2012) and first (2013) in PAX East's Geometry Wars 2 contest.

Here's some examples of our gameplay:

Matthew playing Pacifism in Geometry Wars 2, scoring 600 million / 705 worldwide rank.

Unrecorded, in Pacifism, Matthew obtained a peak rank of #553 worldwide out of about 300,000 players and separately a peak score of 890 million points.

Jason (red) and Matthew (blue) beating Super-C in 17 minutes at PAX East 2012 (blog entry).

Jason getting the Cardiogram achievement (Score an overall AAA in Heart Attack Mode) in OutRun Online Arcade.

*Original photoshoot article: Xona Games NSBI Photoshoot! Photos by John Sherlock.

More Xona Games Articles: