Backflip Studios

Backflip Studios was an American mobile game developer and publisher founded in April 2009 by Julian Farrior, Dale Thoms, and Tom Blind in Boulder, Colorado. Its work focused on accessible games for iOS and Android, spanning physics puzzles, flick-action games, fantasy simulations, and licensed entertainment properties.

Early releases including Paper Toss, Ragdoll Blaster, and NinJump established the studio through straightforward controls and short, approachable play sessions. These games helped build its audience during the early growth of smartphone gaming. Its development capabilities combined game design and software engineering with mobile publishing, monetization design, community management, and ongoing live operations.

From casual games to long-running simulations

Released in September 2011, DragonVale became the studio’s flagship game. Players bred, nurtured, and displayed fantasy dragons in floating habitats, with a free-to-play structure supporting continued updates and ongoing player engagement. The game expanded Backflip’s portfolio beyond quick-play action and puzzle mechanics into a persistent simulation built around collecting and developing a fantasy environment.

In July 2013, Hasbro acquired a 70% majority stake in the company for $112 million. Backflip continued operating from Boulder under its original management team. Its subsequent work drew on Hasbro properties, including mobile adaptations of The Game of Life, Monopoly Slots, and Clue. It also co-developed the 2016 combat strategy game Transformers: Earth Wars with Space Ape Games.

Backflip expanded into third-party publishing in March 2014, working with external developers to bring their games to mobile audiences. Published releases included LightBox Interactive’s PlunderNauts and HandCircus’s Seabeard, extending its role beyond internally developed titles.

Hasbro announced the studio’s shutdown in October 2019 after concluding that it lacked a sustainable financial path forward. Operations ended in December 2019. Following the closure, DECA Games took over DragonVale, while Hasbro assumed direct oversight of Transformers: Earth Wars with Space Ape Games continuing its involvement.