JoWooD Productions

Background

JoWooD Productions was a game company headquartered in Liezen, Austria. It was founded in 1995 by Andreas Tobler. In 2006, the company expanded into the North American market with the purchase of DreamCatcher Interactive. In January 2011, JoWooD declared bankruptcy and after a short struggle, it was fully acquired by Nordic Games on 16th August 2011. It was announced that JoWooD and DreamCatcher would become publishing labels, but they weren't used in games yet.

1st Logo (April 14, 1998-February 28, 2001)

Nickname: "Earth Zooming"

Logo: We see the Earth zooming towards the camera, and when it leaves, the JoWooD logo zooms out, which is a plate with a deep blue right section, on which the white words "JoWooD" and "Productions" are written. On the cyan-colored left side, there is an image of a sun rising over the water, surrounded by seven dots.

FX/SFX: Too rough and simple, even for the time.

Music/Sounds: An electronic jingle with a single beat.

Availability: Extremely rare. It can be seen on early games. Appears on Mayday, Traffic Giant and Industry Giant.

2nd Logo (May 11, 1999-October 21, 2002)

The planets
The finished logo

Nicknames: "Planet Parade", "Wonderful Planets", "JoWooD Sunrise"

Logo: We see a water surface with a vague reflection of "JoWooD" over it. Then we move up to see an orange sun rising from the horizon. Seven various planets pass by and stop around the sun. Then it splashes and shows the original JoWooD logo, zooming out a bit. The logo then shines.

FX/SFX: The water, the sun rise, the planets, the splash and the shining. It is done entirely in quite dated CGI.

Music/Sounds: An bombastic orchestra fanfare with some wind sounds of the planets.

Availability: Rare. Seen exclusively on PC games like Rally Trophy, Alien Nations, Zax: The Alien Hunter, Beam Breakers and Panzer Elite, among other games.

Editor's Note: A very good concept, but it didn't age well in terms of its animation.

3rd Logo (June 7, 2002-May 14, 2007)

The meteors
The finished logo
Söldner: Secret Wars
Santa Claus Jr. Advance
Keep The Balance

Nicknames: "Meteors", "JoWooD Sunrise II", "Planet Parade II", "Wonderful Planets II", "Enhanced JoWooD Sunrise"

Logo: The basic concept is similar to the previous logo. We see a water surface once again, but with improved visuals and without a word reflection, then rise up through the clouds. The screen trembles and a fire meteor passes really close, followed by other meteors to the rising sun. The sun splashes and turns into the complete logo.

Variants:

On Söldner: Secret Wars, the meteors are replaced with helicopters, and the music contains war drums.
On various games like YetiSports, Neighbors from Hell and its sequel, and on the European versions of Future Tactics and Kao the Kangaroo Round 2, the logo is still.
On Legend of Kay, the still logo has some glow behind.

FX/SFX: Same as before, but the meteors replace the planets and the shine is absent. All done in much better animation than before.

Music/Sounds: Same as before, but with added loud whooshing sounds from the meteors. Sometimes, the end part of the fanfare is shortened.

Availability: Common. The animated version appears on games such as Spellforce, Arx Fatalis, Ski Racing 2005, Ski Racing 2006, Freak Out: Extreme Freeride (even though the next logo appears on the packaging) and Michael Schumacher World Tour Kart 2002, among others.

Editor's Note: Unlike the previous logo, this has amazing CGI that still looks good today.

4th Logo (April 26, 2007-February 25, 2011)

Nickname: "Merging Plates"

Logo: On a crystallized blue background, two plates join each other. One contains "JoWooD" now in a slightly different font, and the other has the sun also made differently. There are eight dots above the curve line. The logo shines.

FX/SFX: Two parts of the plate joining each other with a splash. After the previous logo, this is a big step back.

Music/Sounds: Background rustling and a loud junction sound.

Availability: Uncommon. Seen on the last games from them, such as Space Force: Rogue Universe and the multiple expansions for the 2004 game Painkiller.