Arcen Games is a small video game company founded in 2009 by Chris McElligott Park.^[6] The company launched their first product, AI War: Fleet Command, in mid 2009 for Windows PCs.^[7]

The company became one of the early notable examples of heavy procedural generation in almost all their games.^[8] They are also known for taking unusual gameplay ideas in an idiosyncratic range of genres,^[9] and exploring to the extreme ends of each idea.^[10] Most of Arcen's titles include some form of overarching goals with a lot of freedom as to how the player goes about reaching said goals.^[11] The company founder has a stated aversion to being stuck into any one genre.^[12]

Arcen Games is best known for its real time strategy game AI War: Fleet Command,^[13] which had six DLC expansions released between 2010 and 2014.^[14] Arcen released the puzzle game Tidalis in July 2010,^[15][16] 2D side scrolling game A Valley Without Wind in April 2012,^[17] its divergent sequel A Valley Without Wind 2 in February 2013,^[18] environmental puzzle game Shattered Haven in March 2013,^[19] turn-based god game Skyward Collapse in May 2013^[20] with an expansion called Nihon no Mura later that year,^[21] and tactical mech game Bionic Dues in October 2013.^[22]

In April 2014, Arcen released The Last Federation, a space-themed strategy/simulation game.^[23][24][25] This title did well enough to get two expansions by the end of 2015.^[26] The Last Federation put the company in a "relatively cash-rich position," after which a major project by the name of Stars Beyond Reach was undertaken.^[27] In October 2016, after an 18-month development cycle with the company's largest-yet team of staff and contractors, and with funds dwindling as long-term sales from other titles tapered, Stars Beyond Reach was put on indefinite hold.^[28]

Arcen then rapidly developed and released the shoot 'em up roguelite Starward Rogue for January 2016,^[29] but the title was a commercial failure that led to the layoff of all but three of their staff.^[30] In August 2016, they released and then pulled from sale a 3D dino-vs-robots game, In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor due to overwhelmingly poor sales.^[31] In January 2018, a mostly-independent group of former contractors dubbed the "Extended Team"^[32] finished their work on a "labor of love" expansion for Starward Rogue, which was also well-received without generating much income.^[33]

After one failed kickstarter in late 2016, a followup successful kickstarter the next month,^[34] and then an extended period of early access starting in October 2018,^[35] Arcen Games released AI War 2 in October 2019^[36] to positive reviews.^[37] The first expansion for AI War 2 was released in February 2020.^[38]