Sparkworkz

Sparkworkz was an American online web-games division of inXile Entertainment that was founded in 2008 and shut down in 2015.
==History==
inXile Entertainment announced the formation of "SparkWorkz" in May 2008, an online division that would focus on hosting creative indie gaming content and building an online community. The concept originated from their success with Line Rider, with the company wanting to provide a platform where more creators could succeed."inXile Entertainment announces SparkWorkz division". inXile Entertainment. May 7, 2008.
David Heeley, a former Microsoft executive, was named Sparkworkz's director. InXile's CEO Brian Fargo described the branch and the decision to choose Heeley as:
"Our goal is to construct a highly entertaining and engaging online destination for people to show off their creative talents across a number of different game and non-game media environments... David brings a wealth of knowledge to this new role and we expect to see him build an amazing new experience for fans in the coming months."
The first game Sparkworkz acquired was Fantastic Contraption, which was released in September 2008 and given an iTunes app next January."Fantastic Contraption™ goes mobile on iTunes™! Now available from inXile Entertainment for iPhone™ & iPod Touch™". inXile Entertainment. January 26, 2009. 
Content was slow for a majority of 2009 before picking up towards the end of the year with the release of ShapeShape and Line Rider Racing among others."All you need is love, inXile Entertainment scores another hit with the ShapeShape™ puzzle game on the App Store and the web!". inXile Entertainment. September 14, 2009."inXile's Sparkworkz™ announces new multiplayer excitement in Line Racer™ for the iPhone™ and iPod Touch™!". inXile Entertainment. November 12, 2009."inXile's Sparkworkz™ brings the addictive web hit Super Stacker 2™ to the iPhone™ and iPod Touch™!". inXile Entertainment. October 8, 2009."inXile’s Sparkworkz™ announces Line Rider™ beta 3!". inXile Entertainment. October 22, 2009."inXile's Sparkworkz™ launches Impossible Quiz for the iPhone™ and iPod Touch™!". inXile Entertainment. October 30, 2009.
2010 featured several large releases, including a sequel to Fantastic Contraption, Super Stacker's PlayStation Network port, a Nintendo DS adaption of Alpha and Omega and an extensive expansion of their library in October."Sparkworkz launches Super Stacker™ onto the Sony PlayStation®Network!". inXile Entertainment. May 25, 2010."Sparkworkz teams up with Lionsgate® and their new 3-D animated feature Alpha and Omega!". inXile Entertainment. September 14, 2010."Sparkworkz.com" (October 2010 archive)
Various games were ported to Sparkworkz in the first half of 2011, however apart from iPhone releases to already acquired titles, 2011 saw a major reduction in new content. 
Shortly after the final batch of games were added, inXile suffered substantial layoffs that effectively reduced the company to a skeleton crew."Un*varnished: Episode 3 with Gavin Rich". Cura Studios. July 5, 2018. 
No further content was added for the remainder of Sparkworkz's existence, with inXile deciding to permanently close the service in February 2015 after continued declining revenue, moving several exclusive games elsewhere. Visiting the site until 2023 lead the visitor to a bulletin explaining the shut down."sparkworkz.com" (March 2023 archive)
==Platform Racing 3==
inXile revealed through a press release in March 2010 that they had been collaborating with Jacob Grahn to develop Platform Racing 3."inXile's Sparkworkz™ announces the next installment in the hit Flash series Platform Racing™!". inXile Entertainment. March 22, 2010. While he coded the desktop version, Sparkworkz focused on its art, developing an iPhone app, received exclusive hosting rights and rights to the series as a whole. Jiggmin confirmed the news in his blog the next day."hmmmm". Jiggmin. March 23, 2010.
A preview of the game containing the level editor was released in June alongside a contest for players to get their level on the campaign."The PR3 campaign creation beta has begun!". Jiggmin. June 2, 2010."One week notice". Jiggmin. June 17, 2010. A closed beta of the full game was also posted for invitees to test the servers and work out bugs before the open beta was released later in July. The game received regular updates throughout the year along with several in 2011, but was never completed.
==Controversy==
Sparkworkz has been extremely controversial within the Jiggmin community for much of PR3's existence. Players began experiencing lag issues immediately after release due to the amount of ads on the game's page, which could only be removed by donating to Sparkworkz or going to the game's file directly.
Starting in spring 2011, Sparkworkz began to regularly experience extensive downtime that rendered the game largely unplayable, normally coming online for only a few minutes before going down again."Sparkworkz's Server Failures". Jiggmin's Village. March 2011. While the multiplayer servers were hosted by Jiggmin, levels and blocks were hosted on Sparkworkz, leaving players who were able to login to the game unable to play or edit anything.
inXile laid off a majority of their employees shortly after PR3's May 2011 update, terminating development on Sparkworkz and leaving Jiggmin unable to update the game. Only a few staff were left to maintain the site afterwards, resulting in more frequent and longer downtimes that made accessing Sparkworkz nearly impossible; ultimately dwindling PR3's and Sparkworkz's userbases as a whole over the course of the year.
Sometime between then and May 2013, Jiggmin and inXile contacted each other to discuss the game and series as a whole's status. The two came to an agreement that the series rights would return to Jiggmin and he could release PR3 elsewhere, but the exact terms are unclear. According to inXile they handed the rights to PR3 over to Jiggmin and gave him free rein to post it elsewhere."Reply from inXile staff member "Brother None" to "purr cot": Sparkworkz is indeed not being very actively updated. We gave the rights of Platform Racing 3 back to the developer so they could run and update it if they were so inclined. I don't know if he has done so though." inXile Forums. May 27, 2013. Jiggmin on the other hand said he was under the belief releasing it came with the stipulation that all of Sparkworkz's contributions be stripped from it.jiggmin.com/threads/102950-Jiggmin-lied-to-us-this-whole-time?p=2601071&viewfull=1#post2601071 (lost post from Jiggmin) A project briefly sprung up for this, though it never materialized. In addition, despite inXile's agreement to return the series rights to Jiggmin, documents reveal they held onto the Platform Racing trademark until 2017 when it expired from lack of use."PLATFORM RACING" - United States Patent and Trademark Office
While the servers eventually stabilized after a couple years, Sparkworkz was unable to recover, leading to inXile's decision to shut it down in February 2015. While most games were available on other platforms, PR3 was excluded as it was deemed unprofitable and hosting its custom blocks required too much upkeep in server costs."Platform Racing 3 Reborn". Acid Forums. August 19, 2015.
==Other Sponsored Games==
*Fantastic Contraption
*Line Rider
*Shape Shape
*The Impossible Quiz
*Super Stacker
*Crush the Castle
==Other Layouts==
====3.0 Varients====
Sparkworkz - Homepage 2010-2011.png|Variant showcasing Fantastic Contraption 2's mobile app.
Sparkworkz - Homepage 2011.png|Line Rider's mobile app.
Sparkworkz - Homepage 2011-2012.png|PR3's mobile app.
==References==
Category:Websites
Category:Platform Racing 3 Articles