Jan Klose Revives Artex and Collaborates with Pithead and Other Indies

Former Deck13 founder and CEO Jan Klose has launched a new indie publisher called Artex Software. At the same time, publishing partnerships with Pithead, Sigma Unit, Freedom Burger Games, Borb Games, Weltenwandler and Sebastian Grünwald were announced.

The name of the new publisher, Artex Software, is not entirely new. At the end of the 1990s, there was a studio of the same name in Frankfurt, where Jan Klose, among others, worked. The studio developed various adventure games, including Ankh: The Tales of Mystery. Later, a legal dispute arose with the then insolvent publisher TopWare/Zuxxez over the title Iron Dignity (in German). Ultimately, a group of former Artex employees founded Deck13.

“Back then, we developed games under the name Artex. More than a quarter of a century later, we want to discover and support young studios and start-ups in particular, because we see an incredible amount of creative potential here”, explains Jan Klose, co-founder of Deck13 and now co-founder of Artex. "Additionally, fair conditions and supporting business development are extremely important to us when working with others. With Artex, we are starting a whole new chapter."

Artex will present its first projects at gamescom as part of the joint Hesse stand. Artex has already entered into several publishing partnerships with well-known German indie developers. For example, Artex will release a console version of Cralon together with Pithead Studio. Artex is also working with Sigma Unit (Blob the Klex). Freedom Burger Games (American Cooking Simulator), Borb Games (Wyrm Saga) and Weltenwandler Designagentur and Sebastian Grünwald (Venice after Dark).

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