Cavedog Entertainment

Cavedog Entertainment was a PC game developer based in Bothell, Washington. Founded in 1995 as a division of edutainment game developer Humongous Entertainment, Cavedog was known for the 1997 release of Total Annihilation—which won several accolades, such as multiple Game of the Year honors[3]—considered one of the "greatest games of all time" in 2004 by GameSpot.[4]

Cavedog Entertainment
TypeDivision
IndustryVideo games
FateDissolved
Founded1995 (1995)
Founders
DefunctFebruary 11, 2000 (2000-02-11)[1]
Headquarters
Bothell, Washington
,
US
Key people
Ron Gilbert (creative director)
Chris Taylor (TA's creator)
ProductsTotal Annihilation series
Total Annihilation: Kingdoms series
Number of employees
≈20[2] (1997)
ParentHumongous Entertainment

History

Early days

Cavedog Entertainment was a label created in 1995[1] by Humongous Entertainment, a developer of children's video games founded by Ron Gilbert and Shelley Day, to pursue the creation of mainstream games.[5] Humongous Entertainment was originally independent, but was purchased in 1996 by GT Interactive.[6]

In the same year Squaresoft closed its office in Redmond, many of their former developers were hired for Cavedog, notably game music composer Jeremy Soule and graphics designer Clayton Kauzlaric, who created the logo for Cavedog.[7][8] After two years of development on Cavedog's first product, Total Annihilation, it was presented at the 1997 E3 in Atlanta, and published on September 30, 1997.

After Total Annihilation

Total Annihilation's creator, Chris Taylor, left the company shortly before the release of the Core Contingency expansion pack to found his own development house, Gas Powered Games. Cavedog released one more expansion pack, Battle Tactics, as well as many freely downloadable enhancements and patches, and built strong community support with their own online service, Boneyards (now shut down), that matched opponents and provided a continuing game campaign.

In 1999, Cavedog released Total Annihilation: Kingdoms, largely reusing the Total Annihilation game engine, but replacing the science-fiction theme with a fantasy one. Kingdoms did not resonate as well with critics or fans of the original title. One expansion pack was released, The Iron Plague.

Closure

The closure of Cavedog came as the game industry began to experience a downturn in sales, to which parent company GT Interactive was affected. Besides the Total Annihilation franchise, Cavedog had three other ambitious[9] games in development, but only Total Annihilation and the related Kingdoms made it to store shelves, and their sales were much smaller than their user base.

The unfinished projects were: Amen: The Awakening, a first-person shooter; Elysium, a fantasy adventure title; and Good & Evil, an adventure title from Ron Gilbert. With GT Interactive spiraling into debt and no ship dates in sight, all three were discontinued by the fall of 1999.

GT Interactive was purchased by Infogrames and the Cavedog label was discarded by Humongous Entertainment in 2000, which renewed its focus on children's games. Cavedog declared bankruptcy in 2000. Humongous Entertainment was shut down in 2005 by Infogrames (now called Atari). Cavedog's developers have played significant roles at Gas Powered Games and Beep Industries.

References
  1. Gestalt (February 28, 2000). "Let Sleeping Dogs Die". Eurogamer.
  2. Keighley, Geoff (June 9, 1997). "TA-Team". gameslice.com. Archived from the original on January 21, 1998. Retrieved March 26, 2011.
  3. "Game of the Year". Best & Worst Awards 1997. GameSpot. January 31, 1998. Retrieved June 22, 2010.
  4. Kasavin, Greg (March 26, 2004). "Armed to the Core: Total Annihilation". The Greatest Games of All Time. GameSpot. Archived from the original on March 8, 2013. Retrieved June 22, 2010.
  5. Keighley, Geoffrey (2007). "The Total Annihilation: The Story So Far". gamespot.com. Archived from the original on August 7, 2007. Retrieved January 8, 2011.
  6. "GT INTERACTIVE LAUNCHES CAVEDOG ENTERTAINMENT, A NEW INTERNAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT STUDIO". gtinteractive.com. February 5, 1997. Archived from the original on May 30, 1997. Retrieved January 7, 2011.
  7. Keefer III, John. "Cavedog: Annihilation, Aggravation and Anticipation". GameSpy. Archived from the original on March 10, 2010. Retrieved March 31, 2011.
  8. Kauzlaric, Clayton (October 2, 2006). "TA-ncient History #4: Dogs, Yaks & Boron". Ton of Clay. Retrieved March 26, 2011.
  9. Bye, John (June 25, 2001). "The Death Of the Celebrity Studio". Eurogamer. Retrieved November 27, 2007. One by one their other projects were cancelled as it became obvious that the games were simply far too ambitious, until in February 2000 the company was closed down entirely and its remaining staff absorbed into parent company Humongous.
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