ACE Team (2002)
The Chilean Visionaries Crafting Surrealist Masterpieces: Zeno Clash and Rock of Ages
Founded in 2002 in Santiago, Chile by the Bordeu brothers—Andrés, Carlos, and Edmundo—ACE Team is celebrated worldwide for its wildly imaginative visual surrealism and unconventional gameplay design. Breaking out internationally with their prehistoric first-person brawler Zeno Clash on Valve's Source engine, the studio pioneered artistic independence in South America.
Zeno Clash: The Biopunk First-Person Brawler
Dissatisfied with conventional military shooters flooding the Source engine ecosystem, ACE Team crafted the fantastical world of Zenozoik. Zeno Clash subverted expectations by prioritizing close-quarters, bare-knuckle hand-to-hand martial combat, combining visceral parry and combo mechanics with dreamlike anthropomorphic creature designs, earning universal indie acclaim in 2009.
Rock of Ages and Evolutionary Biology in Gaming
In 2011, ACE Team released Rock of Ages, rolling giant boulders down historical landscapes while satirizing classical art movements through hilarious cut-out animations. With The Eternal Cylinder (2021), players guided alien creatures mutating in real-time to survive a giant cosmic rolling cylinder, establishing ACE Team as Chile's most audacious auteur development studio.