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Flagship Studios
From Hellgatewiki.com
"We have 41 people in Flagship Studios, and of that number, 18 of us worked at Blizzard North on the Diablo titles. Three of our founders - Dave Brevik, Erich Schaefer and Max Schaefer - were the original creators of the Diablo games. We also have a lot of other folks on the team who have worked on everything from RPG to FPS to RTS to slot machines - each bringing their particular expertise to the table."
--Bill Roper, January 2007
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Flagship Studios History
Flagship Studios was officially formed September 22, 2003. There were nine co-founders, all gaming industry veterans, most of whom came directly from Blizzard North, where they were well-known for creating hit games Diablo, Diablo II, and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, while contributing to other Blizzard titles including the Warcraft and Starcraft titles.
A quote from their introductory press release.
The creators of the massively popular computer game franchise Diablo announced today the formation of their new entertainment software development company, Flagship Studios.
Flagship Studios has been founded by David Brevik, Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer, Bill Roper and Kenneth Williams, all former executives at Blizzard North. David Brevik served as President while Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer and Bill Roper held Vice President positions within the company. Ken Williams was Blizzard North's Director of Business and Operations. Together, the management and executive team for Flagship Studios represents over 45 years of game development experience. Joining them as additional co-founders are David Glenn, Peter Hu, Phil Shenk, and Tyler Thompson. David Glenn and Philip Shenk served as art leads on the games in the Diablo series, with David focusing on background artwork and Philip leading the character artists. Peter Hu and Tyler Thompson were senior programmers at Blizzard North and held lead positions on Diablo II and the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion set.
The Early Days
After leaving Blizzard North, the "big four" (Bill Roper, Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer, David Brevik) were beseiged by interview requests, and did a fair amount of talking. Check these interviews for more details about why they left, what they had planned next, and more.
- Bill Roper, Gamespy, July 2003.
Flagship's Philosophy
One of the primary sources of their dissatisfaction with Blizzard North was the way the company grew and spread out to work on multiple projects at once. Many of the senior guys felt they were spending too much time managing and not enough making games, and they do not want to repeat that mistake at Flagship. They're keeping the company small and focused and tightly-knit. Everyone knows everyone else and everyone has a voice in the game design and creation.
"We have a very flat organizational structure at Flagship, and this means that we help each other with the load. For example, we have five Chief Officers and no President because none of us wanted to work for the other - we wanted to work together. I consider myself to be the executive producer for the company as opposed to the game in some ways, so perhaps the biggest perk is that fact that I have an incredible group of people that truly make our company a team."
--Bill Roper, November 2006, WetaNZ interview
See the Design Philosophy page for more insight into how they made a company and how they make games.
Hellgate: London Announced
After a flurry of initial media coverage and speculation over what sort of game these guys were working on, the fans went into a waiting mode. Our patience was rewarded in early 2005, when Hellgate: London was announced:
SANTA CLARA, Calif., (April 26, 2005) - Leading games publisher and developer Namco Hometek Inc. today announced HELLGATE: LONDON, the first original PC title from premier developer Flagship Studios. HELLGATE: LONDON is a role-playing game set in the immersive first-person perspective. With a completely randomized world that offers a unique experience every time you play, HELLGATE: LONDON introduces a demon-ridden world where the last survivors of the human race must meld science and magic to survive.
"HELLGATE:LONDON is an incredibly ambitious title that will break the mold of conventional role-playing games," said Nobuhiro Kasahara, President and CEO of Namco Hometek, Inc. "With Flagship Studios' unprecedented experience, we are confident that HELLGATE: LONDON will be one of the most anticipated PC games ever."
The game was first publicly shown at E3 2005, and true to form, even that early build garnered nearly unanimous praise. During the remainder of 2005 and 2006 Flagship Studios continued to grow, as more employees were added to handle the growing responsibilities of creating Hellgate: London, as well as preparing its online destination, creating game movies, supporting the community, and more. Hellgate: London continues to progress nicely, and with a beta scheduled for early 2007, the game remains on track for release sometime in 2007.
Flagship: Seattle and Mythos
In a surprise announcement on December 14, 2006, Flagship revealed that not only did they have a second studio operating in the Pacific Northwest, but that it had another RPG under development. And that that RPG was nearly complete, and ready to begin alpha testing! The press release:
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (December 14th, 2006) -- Flagship Studios today announced that it has expanded operations with the formation of a new development studio: Flagship Seattle. Flagship Studios is already one of the most respected independent videogame developers in North America. The creation of Flagship Seattle plays an integral part in the company's development plans.
The studio is led by Travis Baldree, Project Director. Baldree previously worked at Wild Tangent as the Lead Designer on the popular free-to-playrole-playing game Fate. Flagship Seattle has a diverse history of game development. Other team members have worked on titles including Total Annihilation, Dungeon Siege and SWAT 3.
Flagship Seattle is currently working on Mythos, an online role-playing game that will be used to test the networking technology behind the multiplayer component of the highly-anticipated action role-playing game Hellgate: London. Mythos will be digitally distributed by Flagship Studios subsidiary Ping0, LLC in North America and Europe in 2007. HanbitSoft, Flagship Studios’ partner in Ping0, will be responsible for distributing Mythos in Asia.
"We were very impressed with the work of Travis from when we were first shown Wild Tangent's Fate at E3 2005", said Phil Shenk, Creative Director of Mythos and founding member of Flagship Studios. "Both he and the Flagship Seattle team have an exceptional pedigree in games development. Their skills and expertise make them real assets."
"To be involved in the formation of Flagship Seattle is an honor", said Travis Baldree, Project Director of Flagship Seattle. "We are sure that Mythos will put Flagship Seattle on the map, and in turn will become an integral part of the Flagship Studios experience".
Mythos is covered extensively on our Mythos sister site and in its Mythos Wiki.
It's less common these days for and independent group to create their own game, but it can still happen. Distribution deals and partnerships are necessary to get the game on store shelves and in the media's eye though, and it seems likely that this is what the Mythos team is doing becoming Flagship North. Currently (February 2007) Mythos is serving as a sort of guinea pig to test Ping0, with a small, but expanding, group of Alpha Testers (who are under an NDA to not talk about the game, or we'd have a lot more to add about it here) breaking in Ping0's hosting capabilities in advance of Hellgate: London's larger and eagerly-awaited alpha and beta tests.
Categories: Flagship | Ping0 | Mythos
