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On February 1, 2013, the company announced that due to their recent co-development efforts with Nintendo, that they were undergoing a change in internal structure, which included changing the name of their company to 1-Up Studio. Since then, 1-Up Studio has been acting as a support development company for Nintendo developed titles.
The company consists of many ex-Square Co., Ltd. 2D artists. At least two of its founders (Kameoka Shinichi and Kouji Tsuda) had previously worked on the award-winning Mana series on the Game Boy and Super NES platforms. The founders left Square due to "differing ideals."
The company's first original creation was the Japan-only Magical Vacation for the Game Boy Advance, which was released in 2001. Another popular title developed by Brownie Brown was Sword of Mana, which was created for and published by Square Enix. Thought to be a new title in the Seiken Densetsu series, it was actually an enhanced remake of the first game in the series, Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden (known as Mystic Quest in Europe and Final Fantasy Adventure in North America).
The company has also been credited with the development of Mother 3 in a collaborative effort with Shigesato Itoi and HAL Laboratory for the Game Boy Advance, and Magical Starsign (Magical Vacation: When the Five Stars Align in Japan) for the Nintendo DS. Brownie Brown expressed interest in a Nintendo DS port of Mother 3 if Nintendo asked them to make it, and that they would like it to be enjoyed by fans abroad.