One of the fascinating discoveries to come out of our Origins of Australian Game Developers article is to see how many studios linked directly (and indirectly) from a small studio based in the outskirts of Melbourne called Torus Games. The studios to come directly out of Torus are:

• World class mobile game developer, Firemint
• Professional vehicle outsourcing company, Virtual Mechanix
• Physics middleware solution, True Axis

and the following start ups..

• Wicked Witch
• Endgame Studios
• Funburger

..and also indirectly with Firelight Technologies (FMOD), Dimsdale & Kreozot, and Thatgame (now part of IR Gurus / Transmission Games).

Founders of those companies had previously worked at Torus Games.

I thought it would be interesting to get a response from the founders and co-founders of these companies to see if there was anything about Torus that brought out so many entrepreneurs. 

Rob Murray, CEO and founder of Firemint

When did you start at Torus Games, what kind of work did you do there, and what year did you leave?

I started at Torus in 1996. I was a senior programmer there, I worked my way from junior to lead to engine developer. I left in late '99. 

Did you have plans before Torus to start up a company of your own, or was Torus a big part of your decision?

I had already had a go at starting up a games development company when I was 17 through to 19. My entire teenage life was dedicated to starting a games company! However, by the time I joined Torus, after most of my engineering degree, starting a company of my own was the last thing on my mind. It was simply a dream come true to be working on games for a living. I am not sure that Torus influenced my decision particularly either way, but I did learn the ropes there.

We have six companies listed that has its roots from Torus. What do you think it is about the Torus environment that encourages such entrepreneurship?

It is hard for me to compare the Torus culture itself, because I haven't really worked for any other games companies except Torus and Firemint. I think Bill hired a lot of entrepreneurial people and he respected that sort of drive and attitude. Many of those company founders are from a similar vintage, they had to teach themselves everything in isolation, without the Internet to help. It required a certain amount of independence and drive. Many of the founders of those Melbourne 3rd generation companies that you list have worked for us at Firemint also, it's a very small industry. 

Chris Wise, CEO and founder of Virtual Mechanix

When did you start at Torus Games, what kind of work did you do there, and what year did you leave?

I scored my job there in late 1998 and worked there until early 2001. I knew Torus were one of the few Aussie developers involved in racing games and this genre was of particular interest to me. It was a fairly big move uprooting my family from Newcastle and moving down to Melbourne, but I saw this as a great opportunity and too good to let slip by. My role there was initially as a level artist but later I became a vehicle modeller and was also responsible for setting up the in-game vehicle dynamics.

Did you have plans before Torus to start up a company of your own, or was Torus a big part of your decision?

I'd already operated my own business for quite a few years so I had a pretty good idea that I'd eventually want start another business involved in game development (in some capacity), providing I could get my foot in the door and learn what I needed to learn.

The whole idea of even wanting to work in the games industry really came about by accident - I stumbled across some wireframe images of a Formula One circuit in a games magazine that really inspired me want to learn 3D modelling, initially just as a hobby... those pics incidentally were of Bizarre Creations first Formula One game for PSX, little did I know at the time that I would one day play a part in the development of their future racing games.

What do you think it is about the Torus environment that encourages such entrepreneurship?

Honestly, I don't think any company actively encourages their staff to become entrepreneurs, resulting in them leaving to start their own businesses... if you have good staff you should naturally try to hang on to them. It just so happens that some staff at Torus might not have been recognised for their full potential, or they had their own entrepreneurial aspirations, so they sought other opportunities and acted on them. Game development is an extremely fickle business and those people who left were prepared to take one hell of a risk in starting their own businesses so I applaud each and every one of them... just as I applaud Bill for taking a chance on me. 

Grant Davies, co-founder of Endgame Studios

When did you start at Torus Games?

I started at Torus in late 1999. I should also note that Nick Kovac is a co-founder of Endgame and he worked at Torus from 2001.

What kind of work did you do there, and what year did you leave?

For most of the time I was a lead and senior programmer and left in 2003 to start Endgame. Nick was a programmer and left at the same time.

Did you have plans before Torus to start up a company of your own, or was Torus a big part of your decision?

I had plans before I started Torus (in fact before I started anywhere) to do something myself. Torus wasn't a significant part of my decision, although experiencing Torus's success and growth during that time certainly was an inspiration. Other factors in the industry had more to do with me leaving when I did to start Endgame, as it was becoming increasingly difficult for smaller companies to get a start around that time. It would have been much harder had I left later (perhaps impossible).

We have six companies listed that has its roots from Torus. What do you think it is about the Torus environment that encourages such entrepreneurship?

There were always plenty of opportunities to experience elements of other roles and become involved more broadly in the development process at Torus. For example, I was always interested in learning more about the business development and production process, and there were opportunities to represent the company as a delegate at trade shows and talk at seminars. Being part of Torus's growth and success gave me inspiration that such things were still possible in the industry at that time. 

Luke Ryan, founder of True Axis

My name is Luke Ryan, and yes, I first started commercially in game development at Torus Games as a Programmer.

I was a programmer and lead programmer during my time at Torus. The major projects I worked a lot on where, Dick Johnsons V8 Challenge and Carmageddon 3: TDR2000 on PC as well as Duke Nukem Advanced and Doom II on the GBA. Also, I probably spent about half my time at Torus working on tech and demos, unfortunately never released publically. I quickly became the 'go too' guy at Torus for anything really technically challenging, especially physics simulation. However, in the end, I felt stuck at Torus and was itching to try my own things. I guess I just have the entrepreneurial itch. 

After Torus, I've also done a lot of work for Firemint and a bit of work for Wicked Witch and Firelight.

I'm not sure that Torus did anything to encourage entrepreneurship, certainly not intentionally, that would be pretty silly. One thing I did notice about Torus was there Hiring practice. They where the only company at the time that advertised that they where looking for entry level positions with no prior experience necessary. Most places where asking for 2 years, which I can understand but on the other hand, if somebody has the passion and the talent, that is infinitely more important then experience. I think that Bill McIntosh, who was involved heavily in the hiring when I started, had a pretty strong gut instinct when it came to judging people and was willing to give people a chance. It lead to us getting some pretty interesting people sometimes. I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it.

Also, Torus was going through a lot of teething problems while I was there. It quickly grew from 30 to 60 people which I think is a really difficult transition for any studio to make. Plus, at the same time we had some really difficult projects putting a lot of stress on everybody. It caused a lot of casualties. I am guessing that other studios have similar stories. But I think that Torus has managed to keep a lot of good and experienced people who know what they are doing now.

Another thing became apparent after leaving Torus. On talking to people who had left some of the other studios, it sounded like the atmosphere at Torus was more relaxed and friendly with everybody trying to help each other (Most of the time). There was a real feeling of, lets rally the troops, that Bill created while I was there. Maybe after leaving Torus at that time, everybody was scared that joining any other studio would be a step down;) not the step up they wanted;) So they felt no option but to make there own studio? Not sure if that had much to do with it, but personally, at that time, I wasn't too excited by anything happening in the industry locally.

I think that many of the people who left probably always had bigger aspirations. I my self was working on my own games before starting Torus and was trying to work out how I could commercialize them. However, working for Torus was a much better option. I got regular pay and the experience you can only get from working in a games studio.

In the end, I suppose that Torus just did a good Job of hireling entrepreneur types. Torus nurtured them but it was always going to be hard to keep them. Especially when we have inspiration from the likes of Brett Patterson who left to create the extremely well respected FMod. Any time you have a bad day in your job, for what ever reason, the entrepreneur itch starts to flare up. 

Mick Solomons, co-founder of Funburger

When did you start at Torus Games, what kind of work did you do there, and what year did you leave?

I started at Torus in 1999 and spent about a year in test, then moved into a role as a game designer for about a year and a half and then associate producer and producer. I also did some business development work and initiated and helped to negotiate with Nokia to secure 2 first party N-Gage titles "Ashen" and "Operation Shadow" of which I was producer on both of those games.

Overall I worked on about 15 projects during my time there. I left in November 2005 and started Fun Burger with Chris Hayton who was also worked at Torus as an engine and lead programmer.

Did you have plans before Torus to start up a company of your own, or was Torus a big part of your decision?

I never intended to set up a company when I first joined Torus as I didn't really know that much about the industry and I was still relatively young and green. Working at Torus taught me a lot about the industry and how development is actually done, and gave me a really good grounding to start my own company, especially in my later years there, being on the management team you realize there is a lot more to running a company than just sitting a bunch of people in a room and letting them make a good game. 

We have six companies listed that has its roots from Torus. What do you think it is about the Torus environment that encourages such entrepreneurship?

At Torus I was given a few opportunities to work on some original game concepts, and that's where I think I was inspired to pursue that further on a full time basis in my own company.

Just generally being in the industry opened my eyes to the endless possibilities of game development, where a couple of guys can make a great game and earn a fortune... I suppose that is the desert mirage that a lot of people chase, even if it is a miniscule chance that your game will be a smash hit, we all still chase it! 

Daniel Visser, CEO of Wicked Witch

Indeed! Nice point of interest isn't it.

I had always dreamed of having a game studio when I was younger - but initially I was happy enough to get into the industry in Australia. I had taught myself programming while at school and used to do the code, art and sound for original games on my own, back in the 8bit and 16bit days.

I started at Torus games in 1994 I think, I remember because we worked in Dos back then and I remember when Windows 95 came out! ;) I was a programmer and designed most of the games I worked on also. I designed Dragon Heart with the other programmer on the project, and then went on to program on Touring Cars with Brett Patterson from Fmod. After that I think I designed and coded Jurassic Park - the lost world on Gameboy mono.

It must have been 1996 when I then went to Melbourne House for a couple of years as a 3d programmer where I worked on a few projects, doing some physics and collision, where I joined Simon Heart and Dave Theodore whom I had worked with at Torus until they left early on. I left Melbourne House (Beam) after they became Infogrammes, but before they became Atari. ;)

I then developed a Gameboy game in my own time, with help from a few artist friends, including a high school friend who was to become Wicked Witch's lead artist - Shannon Trottman. It was on this project I had the first thoughts of starting a studio with some guys and the names 'Wizards of Oz' and 'Wicked Witch' were tossed around in the coffee shop. In the end It was too big a commitment for most people to found a games studio, and I was the only one that was willing to risk their money and current job.

I then moved back to Torus games as a lead programmer / producer this time, working on 3d racing games around the time of Carmageddon TDR until I finally left to form Wicked Witch Software.

Wicked Witch did it's first 3 games for Crawfish Interactive in 1999 and 2000, with Cameron Sheppard in the UK! Roswell conspiracies was done before we even had an office, Aliens:Thantanos Encounter and Marky kate & Ashley:Crush Course followed in the next year as we set up a tiny office in a residential unit.

Our original RTS on Gameboy color was picked up by UbiSoft and then canned at the last minute when the GBA was announced. :( In fact, that started a run of several projects we won, started, and then were canned on GBA. As a result, we never finished a GBA title and did PC multiplayer and Mobile games for a while there.

I think the reason many people left Torus earlier on, was because it was a small company and there was not much room to 'get promoted' if individuals wanted even more involvement. We were lead programmers and running projects, but without the authority to make the major decisions or reap any rewards, which eventually leads to frustration, and finally a burning desire to get the hell out! ;)

I certainly learnt a lot from Torus and equally from Melbourne House, both on what to do, and also what NOT to do, as well as absorbing the kind of culture and environment that the intelligent, like minded creative people in our industry seem to enjoy!

I still think of Melbourne House as the root studio from which Tantalus and Torus (to mention a couple) sprang and where Adam Lanceman worked with those studio's, even RatBag I think, and indeed most of the other Australian studio's in their early days. I think of that as the 1st generation Australian Studio. Torus, Tantalus, maybe Ratbag etc, to me, are the second generation Studio's that left the mother ship Beam and Melbourne House, which makes me 2nd generation having started at Torus. Now Wicked Witch, Firemint and Iron Monkey, are like 3rd generation studio's having come from the other studios (often with connections back to Beam Melbourne House). I suppose if some of our young guys eventually split off from these newer studio's, that will be like a 4th generation of game developers in Australia. 

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to write out a response on the topic. Luke Ryan from True Axis also provided a great account of the people who left to start companies while he was working there, and I thought it would be great to just leave it intact here.

Luke Ryan, True Axis

I noticed your chart before but the main thing I noticed was a mention Brett Paterson from Firelight but no mention that he actually started at Torus Games. I'm sure you are now aware of this by now. It is just that he was the most important person to note. As far as I know, he was the first to start a new company after Torus. Maybe he was the role model for all the others. He had already left before I started, but people would still talk about him a bit. Also, Drew Scott, one of the senior programmers when I started at Torus, he left while I was at Torus but now works for Firelight.

Its an interesting question I guess. Is, there something special about Torus? Is there something special about the people Torus offers jobs too? Or is it just a statistical anomaly? Its probably just random chance but its only human to try to find patterns in chaos. So, rather then saying, "that is just the way it is", I will instead try to come up with crazy thermos to try explain it all.

It is all a bit hazy now but I think I started at Torus in 1999. I worked there for 3.5 years. As I mentioned, Brett had already left before I started.

Rob Murray (Firemint) was just looking to leave. He left not too long after I started and I ended up taking over a lot of his work. I learnt a lot from Rob. People are usually pretty impressed by his intelligence. Everything he does is high quality.

Not long after I started, Daniel Visser (wicked witch) came back from beam, to work for Torus, his second time at Torus as a programmer. (It was is pretty clear that he was interested in starting his own studio during that time) Daniel is really creative and has kind of an infections enthusiasm for making games which is fun to be around.

Chris Wise (virtual mechanics) was one of 3 people called Chris who sat next to me at the same time Torus. He started a bit after me. I think Chris might have been the oldest but least experienced games artist at Torus, however, he certainly had a real passion for racing games. He now puts that passion to good use.

Grant Davis and Nick Kovac (EndGame studios) started at Torus a while after me as GBA programmers, although, I think Grant worked at Beam for a while first. I can't say too much about them though, Torus was at its peak of over 60 people when I left, didn't have too much contact with Grant and Nick apart from being beaten at table tennis all the time. Brassards.

Mick Solomon, Chris Haydon. (Fun Burger, etc) I was surprised to have Mick introduced to me as the new QA member starting at Torus because he was in my class at school but I hadn't seen him in years. I think that Mick's strength probably turned out to be in Biz Dev. I think he is in China now doing some new business or something. Chris started a long time after me at Torus but as a junior programmer, he was really impressive taking on every challenge thrown at him and winning. Not sure what Chris is up to now. He was a free agent last time I was heard.

I guess there where a couple others worth mentioning who had some time at torus, Ross McRae (Dimsdale and Kreozot United Games Manufactures), Artist, also left Torus to start a studio while I was there... but I think he may of started somewhere else before Torus. Ross is exceptionally creative when it comes to crazy game ideas. Wayne Simmons joined Torus coming from Beam and then left to start ThatGame with Ben Palmer while I was there. 

Ross McRae provided some insights on the connection between Dismdale & Kreozot and Torus Games. We're tried getting a response from Firelight Technologies (FMOD) but haven't received an answer, unfortunately.

D&K is more an off shot from Evolution Games than Torus. I spent over 2 years at Torus and left to work at Evolution Games. There, when that when down, 2 of us formed D&K.

Cheers, Ross McRae D&K UGM