This [pdf] [large png] is an improved version of the chart I displayed today at my talk at the Powering Up session at Northeastern University. Powering Up was a discussion of the game industry from the point of view of Boston, and how academics, game industry, and government can cooperate to further the growth of all three.
I was asked to help set the context, and I thought it would be interesting to do so by looking back at the history of the Boston game industry. Boston doesn’t get enough credit for the seminal nature of its contributions to the game industry — several game genres got their start here:
- Infocom — text adventures like Zork, Trinity, Planetfall, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It spawned some of the best designers in the game industry.
- Turbine — Asheron’s Call, one of the first 3D MUDs, kicking off the MMORPG business.
- Looking Glass — an amazing idea factory, with games like Flight Unlimited, System Shock, and Thief: The Dark Project. It spawned some of the best designers in the game industry.
- Papyrus — creators of IndyCar Racing and the Nascar Racing series, they made physics-based driving sims.
So in this chart, which I created with Graphviz, I’ve called out some of the Boston-area game companies that I thought deserved mention as points of interest.
The notation:
- Pentagon: Universities — yellow is local to Boston
- Blue ellipse: companies still in Boston
- Gray ellipse: companies no longer in existence
- White hexagon: companies not in Boston
- Blue arrow: key employees followed this path. My definition of “key” is pretty vague.
- Red arrow: spinouts (a group of employees took this path, or the original company folded and was founded out if its ashes)
- Green dot: acquisition
- Brown box: I thought serious games deserved a mention as it’s big around here, so this is a way of showing which companies are working on it.
Please note that this list is neither complete nor definitive. However, I believe it’s reasonably accurate. If you’re inclined to improve upon it, please feel free. The .dot file from which it was created is here. Please send me any improvements you make.
– Kent Quirk