Surreal Software

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Surreal Software
Websitesurreal.com

Surreal Software was an American

Drakan
series. Surreal Software employed over 130 designers, artists, and programmers. Surreal was acquired by Warner Bros. Games during the bankruptcy of Midway Games in July 2009. After a significant layoff in January 2011, the remaining employees were integrated into WBG's Kirkland offices, along with developers Monolith and Snowblind.

The studio last worked on This Is Vegas, a title which was scheduled to be released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows.[1] The first screenshots, video and game information for This Is Vegas were unveiled the week of February 4, 2008, at IGN.[2]

History

Surreal Software was founded in 1995 as an independent video game development studio by Alan Patmore, Stuart Denman, Nick Radovich and Mike Nichols. Patmore, Nichols and Radovich attended Eastside Catholic High School in Bellevue, Washington together.[3] They found Stuart Denman, a University of Washington grad, through an online message board. The group began operating in 1995 in an office in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood. Previously, Radovich sold real estate, Patmore worked at a wireless company, Nichols was working at local game company Boss Studios, and Denman had just interned at Microsoft on the Excel team.

Their first contract was with Bothell-based children's game developer Humongous, which found Denman's website and called to recruit programmers for Humongous. Surreal instead offered to do contract work. Surreal developed the Riot Engine for its games in 1996. First receiving critical acclaim with the 1999 release of Drakan: Order of the Flame,[4][5] Surreal Software continued its success with Drakan: The Ancients' Gates in early 2002, both games selling in excess of 250,000 units. Having grown to two development teams, Surreal released The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring later that same year, selling over 1.8 million units.

In March 2004, Surreal Software released

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. In 2010, the company was merged into the nearby studio Monolith Productions
.

Founders

All of the founders had left the company prior to its merging with Monolith.

  • Stuart Denman – CTO
  • Alan Patmore – CEO and Creative Director
  • Nick Radovich – CFO
  • Mike Nichols – Art Director

List of games

Year Title Platform(s)
PC Console
1999 Drakan: Order of the Flame Microsoft Windows —
2002 Drakan: The Ancients' Gates — PlayStation 2
2002 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Microsoft Windows
2004 The Suffering PlayStation 2, Xbox
2005 The Suffering: Ties That Bind

Canceled

References

  1. ^ Midway Press Release: GC 2008: Midway Promises Show Line-Up with Extra Punch and Two European Premieres
  2. ^ IGN.com: Games, Cheats, Movies and More
  3. ^ "A Surreal Seattle approach to producing video games". The Seattle Times. March 18, 2002.
  4. ^ J. C. Herz (August 12, 1999). "GAME THEORY; The Feel of Cinema, but a Game at Heart". New York Times.
  5. ^ Stuart Denman. "Postmortem: Surreal Software's Drakan: Order of the Flame". Gamasutra.
  6. ^ Richard Rouse III. "Postmortem: The Game Design of Surreal's The Suffering". Gamasutra.
  7. ^ Jeremy Dunham. "Original PS3 IP From Surreal". IGN.
  8. ^ Midway Press Release:PR 2004-04-06 A

External links

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