1990 turned out to be stormy for commemorative events. The republics of the USSR announced one after another their sovereignty, Mikhail Gorbachev received the Nobel Prize of the World, Germany and GDR united in a single state, Viktor Tsoi, Nintendo, launched the Snes prefix in Japan … In the same year in Wisconsin, two brothers dreaming of creating games, who dreamed of creating games, They founded Raven Software, which in two decades turned from a modest provincial studio into a company, whose name became synonymous with the word "quality".
Brothers Brian and Steve Raffeli were fond of games from an early age. First – desktop led by Dungeons & Dragons , Then – computer. When the brothers first thought about turning their hobbies into a profitable lesson, 1986 stood in the yard. Brian at that time taught painting in secondary school, Steve was engaged in silkography, and in his free time they composed adventure modules for Dungeons & Dragons, hoping to sell their companies in the future TSR. However, all their efforts did not bring fruits – and soon Raffelov was carried away by a new idea: they began to draw on Amiga computers.
One evening, sitting at a party, the brothers sorted out new games for Amiga and noticed that the graphics in these commercial releases were not at all so good as in their amateur crafts. Steve raised his eyes to Brian and said: "We could make our own game". There was only one problem: not one of the brothers knew how to create computer games – but this did not stop them.
They began to realize ideas, as they knew how – in the form of drawings and sketches. Subsequently, the bet on the creative thinking of artists and designers will become the line of the branded style of the studio: where other companies would cost one or two employees, crows attracted to work from half a dozen brush masters and tablet.
The first game, of course, took place in a cave – for demo, the brothers wanted to create two halls. The game territory was divided into cells, for each cell they decided to create four separate files with graphics (one in each direction of movement). But it turned out that for a small demo version we need hundreds, if not thousands of such files – and what to do with it, the Raffela did not imagine. The brothers needed the help of professionals who are versed in computers – and through friends who traded games, the Ruffles went to young programmers Ben Goka and Rick Johnson.
Thus began the history of the studio Raven Software. She got the name with the light hand of one of the friends of the Ruffles, who played with them in Dungeons & Dragons. When the brothers asked how to call them his company, he, without hesitation, said: “Raulus,” that that was the name of his character.
Under the roar of garbage tanks
For the first project, the Raffela not only invented the monsters (for dispute – who is better!) but also developed level design and even personally recorded tracks. Brian, rushing on the ceiling of animals, announced, for example, Shkrybay with a microphone on an unshaven cheek; The sound of a clapping door and a lion roar perfectly simulated an explosion; For the clanging of weapons and the ringing of armor, the roar of garbage tanks. When the knowledge of the four like -minded people was not enough, the crows attracted acquaintances. So, music for their first game was written by Kevin Schilder – a teacher who worked in the same school with Brian. Today, a former teacher leads to Raven Software, responsible for the musical accompaniment of games. To invite friends to the studio or find new employees through friends has become a good tradition of ravens, and it is no coincidence that everyone who worked in Raven Software recalls its special, almost family atmosphere.
Six months later, the ideas and sketches of Brian and Steve turned into a demo version of the game, which later received the name Black Crypt. Given the brothers' love for Dungeons & Dragons, it is hardly surprised that it was a fantasy RPG akin Eye of the Beholder And Dungeon Master.
The result of many months of work justified all the expectations of the young team: the Raffela sent the Black Crypt demo of ten companies, and after three days six of them responded, ready to publish the game – and the remaining four simply did not consider the proposals of third -party studios. Success could be called one hundred percent.
As a result, the crows entered into an agreement with Electronic Arts , and two years after the founding of the studio, her first game was light. She did not arrange a revolution in the genre (and against the backdrop of the dissipation of computer adaptations Dungeons & Dragons even made the impression of a secondary product), but captivated the performance of the performance and attention to the details. Black Crypt has dispersed by a circulation exceeding thirty thousand copies – a good result for a young studio at that time, especially considering that the game came out on only one platform, on Amiga.
Strong middle peasants
However, the Ruffles soon realized that the Amiga was no longer a tenant, and decided to do RS-game. They placed an announcement in the newspaper that a young studio required a RS-programmist, and they responded to their statement … John Karmak, John Romero and Tom Hall. Interested ID Software I arrived to visit my colleagues in full composition, the developers made friends, and soon the crows acquired the right to use the engine from the ID Wolfenstein 3D. On its basis, Raven Software already in 1993 released a fantasy shooter with elements of role -playing game Shadow Caster. This itself, not a very remarkable project, has become a turning point in the history of the Voronov. Firstly, Brian and Steve, finally making sure that they can create games, decided to devote all their time to a new interesting job. Secondly, starting with Shadowcaster, the studio relied on action, and PC became a priority platform for the company. However, role roots are still noticeable in the games of the ravens – the plot, characters and the narrative, they invariably pay paramount attention.
Meanwhile, ID Software has released its legendary Doom , And again, the Texans gladly shared technologies with friends who soon developed the action Heretic. The crows did not change the successful game mechanics – they only enriched it with several innovations (like an interactive environment) and transferred the action from Mars to gloomy fantasy reality. A similar approach was another feature of the corporate identity: the raffels of the comradely were never among the innovators moving the industry forward. But they, like no one else, learned to polish successful game models, so that almost all of their projects can boast of the highest quality of execution. If the Raven Software games lacked originality, then they more than redeemed this drawback due to a well -thought -out gaming process, detailed elaboration of the atmosphere and original design solutions. And with which the crows were not afraid to producing, so it is with the format of the publication of Heretic – it has become one of the first games consisting of episodes.
Heretic was reprinted several times, only in the first circulation it was printed almost half a million discs. The game became the only long -playing series in the history of the studio: from 1994 to 1998, four full -fledged games and several large additions were released. But such fertility – often the studio issued two projects per year – Raven Software did not give. Of course, the studio employees could not be counted on the fingers for a long time, but people still disastrously lacked. Raffelah had to simultaneously solve organizational issues and literally drag the development itself. She became more and more laborious every year, competition increased by day, but by the hour. In 1997, six employees immediately left the company, founding their own studio Human Head Studios , And the Ruffles realized that they would not stretch for a long time on free bread: if they want to develop, they need a large business partner.
What do you deign?
In the same 1997, a publishing house took the Raven Software studio under its wing Activision. For ravens, the deal was extremely successful. Brian remained the head of the studio, she retained a fair creative independence, the structure of the company underwent minimal changes. At the same time, developers could no longer beat their heads with issues of advertising and marketing and – which is worth noting – gained access to the most popular gaming franchises.
However, at the turn of the century, Raven Software has not yet been fixed by the reputation of artisans of the highest level specializing in license games. Sometimes the crows could not fully use the potential of other people's technologies, which prompted them to take up the development of their own three -dimensional engine called Spectre. He was supposed to provide an unprecedented freedom to the designers, but work on him was never completed – becoming part of Activision, the studio threw all his strength to other projects.
In 1998, Activision acquired https://lucky-barry-gb-casino.co.uk/ the rights to release games based on the cult television series Star Way and immediately announced several projects based on. One of them was entrusted with ravens who managed to break the sadness sad for the brainchild of Jin Roddenbury – before the "star path" was not lucky with game adaptations. The secret of success was ridiculously simple. Instead of indulging the tastes of the primary source fans, the developers thought about which game would fall in love with a wide gaming audience. On Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force The crows for the first time tested the mechanism for creating a hit on a license, which also later became branded: they took a game model of a universally recognized blockbuster – in our case Quake 3 – and meticulously adapted to the needs of the popular universe.
Work on Elite Force marked a new era in the history of Raven Software. In the twenty -first century, the company switched to the creation of license games – and in this ungrateful field it achieved even more success than in the nineties when it was engaged in its own projects.
As soon as the studio finished work on the "star route", as another cult fantastic universe came to her – rains had to continue the most popular series Star Wars: Jedi Knight. Having seasoned the same Quake 3 technology with the surroundings of the Star Wars, an exciting plot and magnificent battles on light swords, the crows, it would seem, did nothing supernatural. But this turned out to be enough for fans of the distant galaxy to this day to play in Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast And Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy and secretly dreamed of the third part of the series.
The founders of Raven Software since childhood were fond of not only role -playing games, but also comics, and one of the leading designers of the studio, Brian Pelletier, and completely began the artist’s career in the publishing house Marvel Comics. At the end of the last century, it sold Activision the rights to develop a game on the motives of its comics, and, of course, this fact did not go unnoticed by the Voronov. Activision publishing house happily went towards the studio, who was burning the desire to make a cool game about superheroes.
Having received at your disposal " X -Men ", Raven Software decided to experiment and create a superhero RPG. However, many years of experience with action made itself felt – from RPG in X-Men: Legends There was only the pumping of the characters and the opportunity to control the whole team of heroes. Nevertheless, a sort of Diablo In the comic entourage, fans of Wolverine and the company came to the taste of, so the continuation did not force themselves to wait long.
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Even getting outdated technologies in hand, crows manage to give out surprisingly strong games – Quake 4 And Wolfenstein serve as a visual confirmation. The fact that the craftsmen, led by the Raffela brothers, managed to resurrect Wolfenstein, pretty much eaten by moth, and it was interesting to chop the Nazis, as for the first time, generally from the category of miracles. It is not surprising that, according to rumors, Activision plans to plug the holes formed in the ranks Infinity Ward , Including crows.
However, this is a matter of the future, but for now the crows released the action Singularity. The first Raven Software game for its own IP in ten years; Events unfold on full anomalies of an abandoned island, where secret experiments were conducted during the time of Stalin … Is this enough to fulfill the cherished dream of the founders of the studio – to create a hit for all times that will turn the game industry over? Most likely, there is no (why – you can read in our review on page 94), but those who do not set ambitious goals will certainly never achieve success.