De Blob

An iOS version of the game, developed by Universomo, ended up releasing earlier on 8 July the same year. A version for the Nintendo DS was being developed by Helixe, but it was ultimately canceled. Released for Windows on 27 April 2017, ported by BlitWorks. Ports of the game for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One came later on November 14 of the same year. A Nintendo Switch port was released on 26 June 2018.

Publication is recorded by THQ and THQ Wireless. The recorded date of publication is 2006. It belongs to the series de Blob. It is associated with United States and Australia. Recorded genres are platformer, puzzle video game and action-adventure game. It forms part of Dutch Computer Games Canon. It is recorded in the collection of The Finnish Museum of Games and Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.

• Title — De Blob • Developer — * Universomo (iOS) • Blue Tongue Entertainment (Wii) • BlitWorks (PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch) • Publisher — * THQ Wireless (iOS) • THQ (Wii) • THQ Nordic (PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch) • Director — Nick Hagger • Designer — Mark Morrison Christian Canton Andrew Trevillian • Programmer — Dan Khoan Chau • Artist — Terry Lane Lewis Mitchell Lynda Mills • Composer — John Guscott • Platforms — iOS, Wii, Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch • Released — iOS8 July 2008Wii'Windows27 April 2017PlayStation 4, Xbox One14 November 2017Nintendo Switch26 June 2018 • Genre — Puzzle-platform • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer

de Blob is a 3D Platformer where the player controls Blob. Blob starts out each level with 10 Paint Points (out of a maximum of 100). Blob's paint points are increased by collecting paint from Paintbots scattered throughout the environment. Paintbots are found in red, blue, and yellow; Blob can mix those colours to turn green, purple, orange, or brown. Touching water causes Blob lose his current colour. • Illustration — Blob is shown in yellow, spreading color throughout the level as a Raydian watches. The time left in the level is shown in the top left. The player's current score and the required score to progress to the next gate are shown in the top right. The game is organized into 10 levels. Each level is divided into sections by gates, which require a certain number of points to progress. The player can earn points in many ways, including by painting blocks of buildings, freeing Graydians, and completing missions given by members of the Colour Underground. These missions include painting buildings a certain colour, following certain paths through the level, or destroying INKT facilities with Paint Points. Each level also has a time limit, which can be lengthened by collecting timers throughout the level. The goal is to reach the exit pool before time runs out. Levels start out colourless and drab, with most of the environment being white or grey. Blob can touch various elements in the level, such as buildings, trees, lampposts, and walls, to paint them his current colour. As the level is coloured in, the soundtrack adapts. Levels also feature enemies from the INKT Corporation, who must be defeated by slamming them with Paint Points. In addition to enemies, there are various hazards that must be avoided, including hot plates and ink. If Blob touches ink, he steadily loses Paint Points and must touch water to wash it off before his Paint Points reach 0. Objects touched while Blob is filled with ink will lose their colour.

Told through a combination of pre-rendered cinematic sequences and in-game dialog, de Blob tells the story of Chroma City, its invasion by the INKT Corporation and its subsequent liberation by the titular Blob and the Colour Underground. Initially a lively and colourful city populated by its equally colourful and diverse citizens, the Raydians, Chroma City is suddenly invaded by the INKT Corporation. An alien corporate military dictatorship, INKT is led by the villainous Comrade Black and dedicated to the eradication of colour through its "War on Colour". Chroma City quickly falls to the invading army of Inkies and colour-draining Leechbots, leaving its landscape barren and devoid of colour. The citizens are rounded up and turned into "Graydians", encased in homogeneous gray prison suits distinguished only by a bar code on the back of each shell. The Graydians are forced to serve as both menial labor and as a living resource of ink, the latter of which is mined from their sadness. Blob witnesses the takeover of Chroma City from his jungle retreat and goes into action, first rescuing the only remaining pocket of resistance, the Colour Underground. Blob joins the group, and under their orders, begins to win back sections of the city and arouse the vicious ire of Comrade Black. In response, Black orders everything from propaganda campaigns to the creation of super soldiers in an attempt to stop Blob, to no avail. With nearly all of Chroma City liberated by Blob and the Colour Underground, Comrade Black desperately orders all his troops to retreat to his spaceship in Lake Raydia, and attempts to launch all the stolen colour into a black hole where it will be lost forever. However, Blob manages to stowaway onto the spaceship and defeat Black, then detonates a device that devours the spacecraft in a burst of colour and whimsy while escaping on a Hoverboard. With the Raydians finally safe, Blob returns to his jungle retreat, napping on a tree as he was at the story's beginning. A post-credit scene reveals that Comrade Black survived the destruction of his spaceship and is now trapped on a tiny island populated by cute and colourful creatures, much to his chagrin.

de Blob was originally developed as a downloadable game for Windows by eight students of Game Design & Development at the Utrecht School of the Arts and one student studying Game and Media Technology at Utrecht University, in the Netherlands. At the time of conception, sections of Utrecht were being rebuilt and the principal task in creating the game was to convey how the railroad station area of Utrecht would look in 10 years. It was primarily intended for short-duration play, keeping people entertained for at least a few minutes at a booth while learning about the city's plans for the station. The city of Utrecht adopted Blob, de Blobs protagonist, as its mascot. Two versions of the game were released as freeware in late June 2006 through the Utrecht School of the Arts website. There was a Dutch version, called "De Blob", and an English version, called "The Blob" ("de" is the Dutch cognate of "the"). It was created using the OGRE graphics engine, the FMOD audio engine, and the Open Dynamics Engine for physics and collision detection. The developers also stated that they had used 3D Studio MAX for modeling-level designs, Adobe Photoshop for textures, and Reason and Sound Forge for audio. While the freeware version was referred to by its English name internationally, the Dutch name was adopted by THQ as its official title. It was further stylized without a capital letter to become "de Blob". THQ acquired the rights to the game, then handed over the game to Blue Tongue Entertainment and Helixe, with both companies developing their versions for different consoles. The game had a marketing budget of $3 million. Five members of the original team later formed Ronimo Games.

During THQ's fiscal third quarter conference call, president and CEO Brian Farrell announced both de Blob and Saints Row would see new titles in the coming years. Farrell said that "our de Blob franchise will be back again in fiscal 2011. We successfully launched this highly-rated franchise in fiscal 2009 to broad, critical acclaim".