It’s interesting how sometimes companies you might have interacted with on a daily basis in the past return to haunt your present – or in this case, my future.
Moon over Endor’s Ayane has an article up about developer Simutronics, who recently re-organized to deal with the demand for HeroEngine, an engine used by a variety of companies, and most recently and curiously, Bioware. Apparently, the engine will be used for Star Wars: The Old Republic, necessitating the need to expand offices and increase developer support.
Simutronics is not an unfamiliar name to me – but it isn’t because of the fact that I’ve been following SW:TOR for a while. No, Simu and I have a relationship that goes way back to my years in college (hey, it wasn’t THAT long ago, but I’m just saying) when hours and hours in a computer lab doing work was somewhat buoyed by a little-known pay-to-play MUD called Gemstone III. Gemstone, now Gemstone IV, was interesting in that it had dynamic events driven by GM-controlled characters, a system of customization that made getting an item designed unique, and roleplayers and stories galore. Even though the lure of graphical MMOs eventually cut deep into the playerbase, Gemstone retained a loyalty of a few thousand players that became a tight-knit community of folks from all walks of life. Among any of the old school developers out there, Simutronics seemed to me to have the most staying power.
All of this feeling has been proven with the fact that Simu’s HeroEngine is now good enough to be employed by a developer as credible and huge as Bioware. Simutronics has to re-organize teams in DC and in St. Louis to accommodate the new business, and the company is now making forays into iPhone development as well as cultivating their engine. I have to say, Simu has come a long way since I was grinding away at ice trolls in a black-and-white text-driven environment. If SWTOR is as much of a success as we think it might be, then Simutronics is going to have a whole hell of a lot more to celebrate about than just possessing some nostalgic memories of mine. I’ll be cheering for them.
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