Excerpt: Daring to Change Norms
(Source: Laura Stevens for Wired)
Below is an excerpt from my book, How Games Get Made: The Stories of the People Who Make and Play the Games We Love, publishing December 7, 2020. This excerpt is part of an article series I am writing to raise awareness for my book and get you excited to read it! For more information, check out the end of this article.
“Let’s give ourselves six months, full-time, working our asses off, with a five or six-man team… I’m gonna buy PCs, I’m gonna buy desks, I’m gonna pay you for six months,” Cage told his friends. “After six months, we either have a prototype and bingo, we sell it, we start a company, and it’s great, or we don’t have a prototype, we stop everything and everybody goes back to what they were doing before.”
A few of his friends declined. They had safe positions at their respective jobs at Cryo Interactive (which would soon go defunct in 2002). But Cage had four people to work with on his team.
To put things into context, the word “start-up” didn’t even exist at this time. What was the video game industry was highly volatile in the late 1990’s, with companies transitioning from 2-D to 3-D, and stagnating growth as their target audience was mostly young- to middle-aged men. This was an era where gaming company giants like Sony, Sega, and Nintendo were harsh rivals that would pretty much use any means possible to outsmart their competitor.
Cage and his team worked in a fifteen square meter soundproof sound studio. They worked twelve to fifteen hours a day. They started by creating a 3D engine from scratch for the PC, using video graphics cards from 3dfx, a company specializing in 3D computer chips. They also worked with a motion capture company to incorporate a man’s face into the game, one of the first in history.
After they came to a close with working on their second prototype, the team called up video game publisher companies by phone from a directory. Cage managed to land several appointments in London.
One of the publishers he showed his game demo to was Eidos Interactive, also the publisher of Tomb Raider (1996), a hugely popular game that went on to sell over 7 million units globally.
Cage showed the agent his game demo, who insisted he sign a contract on the spot. “I have to show [the contract] to [my lawyer],” Cage tried to argue. “No, no, you [don’t need] a lawyer,” the man replied. “But [we have] to talk money…” Cage also tried to point out. “No, no, it’s okay, tell me what you want and you’ll have it. Listen. You’ll be here tomorrow morning. Our lawyer’s working, he’s preparing your contract, come here tomorrow morning and you’ll have it.”
“Perhaps he was afraid I’d run away or something,” Cage said. He recalls walking out of his meeting, and on the street was a chauffeur waiting for him besides a car that took him to a five-star hotel in London. Cage had never been in a five-star hotel before. The chauffeur even asked Cage if he’d like to meet Arsene Wenger, the French coach of Arsenal, a famous French football team. All as a way to convince him to stick with Eidos, who had seen Cage’s potential, and leapt on it.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be sharing excerpts from my book, How Games Get Made: The Stories of the People Who Make and Play the Games We Love, as well as thought pieces and deep dives in the format of an article series. How Games Get Made launches on December 7, 2020 on Amazon (link coming soon)! If you want to connect, you can reach me via Twitter: @emschaale!
