| 2015, Inc. | |
| Type: | Private |
| Industry: | Video game development |
| Founder: | Tom Kudirka |
| Location City: | Tulsa, Oklahoma Omaha, Nebraska |
| Key People: | Tom Kudirka (CEO) |
| Products: | |
| Subsid: | Trainwreck Studios |
2015, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The studio is best known for developing .
2015, Inc. was founded by Tom Kudirka in 1997.[1] [2] He assembled a team of developers by researching people who were participating in the FPS mod community. After months of working online and mostly only communicating via ICQ instant messenger, his team created a Quake mod as a playable demo to show off their talent. Kudirka sent the demo to Activision who was so impressed with their work they awarded 2015 a contract developing the expansion pack to their upcoming game entitled SiN, developed by Ritual Entertainment.
Kudirka moved all of his team members to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to begin work on the expansion pack . The seven developers who spent over six months online creating the demo met one another for the first time. Three of the seven developers lived in a house rented by Kudirka where the living-room made up the development studio. The team was Tom Kudirka, Ken Turner,[3] Zied Reike, Carl Glave,[4] Benson Russel,[5] Paul Jury,[6] and Michael Boon,[7] who Kudirka relocated from Tasmania Australia.
See main article: SiN: Wages of Sin. Wages of Sin was the official expansion pack for Ritual Entertainment's game SiN. It was published by Activision and released for Windows in February 1999.[8]
See main article: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Following the release of the film Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg wanted to produce a World War II-themed video game, which was established by the Medal of Honor series, initially produced by DreamWorks Interactive, a joint venture between DreamWorks and Microsoft. While the first two Medal of Honor games were successful, DreamWorks Interactive had also produced the lackluster Trespasser in 1998, which left Spielberg unsure about continuing a video game division. DreamWorks Interactive was sold to Electronic Arts in 2000.
Spielberg was still interested in the Medal of Honor series, and his staff initially approached id Software about the project. id was at capacity at that time, but the id executives pointed them to 2015 as a possible candidate.[9] Spielberg's staff made contact with 2015 in May 2000 about their interest in the series.[10] Development began on soon after. To assist in the development of such a high-profile title, Kudirka hired additional developers such as Nathan Silvers,[11] Paul Messerly,[12] Keith Bell,[13] Mackey McCandlish,[14] Chance Glasco,[15] Jason West[16] and Radomir Kucharski,[17] who Kudirka relocated from Katowice, Poland.
The game was published by Electronic Arts and released for the Windows platform[18] [19] on January 22, 2002, in North America and on February 15, 2002, in Europe. The game was a critical and financial success with many considering Medal of Honor: Allied Assault to have pioneered the cinematic first person shooter genre. The game provided a substantial push for Electronic Arts' Medal of Honor series.[20] [21] [22]
Following the success of , Electronic Arts ended its contract with 2015, Inc. to develop the franchise in-house. Activision then approached key members of 2015, Inc., including Vince Zampella, Jason West, and Grant Collier, offering them a contract to create Infinity Ward. Under Activision, Infinity Ward developed Call of Duty, a competitor to Electronic Arts' series.[23] [24] The remaining members of 2015, Inc. continued working on projects like Men of Valor and other titles under the Trainwreck Studios division.
See main article: Men of Valor. In 2002, 2015 began development on its own intellectual property, Men of Valor, a first person shooter simulating infantry combat during the Vietnam era.[25] [26] Men of Valor follows Dean Shepard and his squad of Marines from the 3rd Battalion of the 3rd Marine Division through 13 missions of the Vietnam War, including missions at the height of the Tet Offensive.[27] [28] In historically-based scenarios, the player assumes a variety of roles in which they man the door gun on a Huey helicopter, steer a riverboat along enemy-infested shores, battle their way through enemy tunnel complexes, and call down fire as a forward observer. Mission types include pilot rescues, recon patrols, POW rescue, and search-and-destroy ops.
Men of Valor was published by Vivendi Universal and released for Xbox on October 19, 2004, in North America and on November 5, 2004, in Europe. The game was released for Windows on October 29, 2004, in North America and November 12, 2004, in Europe.
On April 14, 2015, it was announced that Nordic Games had closed an asset purchase agreement with 2015 to acquire the Men of Valor IP.[29] [30]
In late 1999, Kudirka created a separate development division of 2015 called Trainwreck Studios, a subsidiary specializing in mid-price to budget games. Under that name, a few titles were created: Laser Arena in 2000, CIA Operative: Solo Missions in 2001, and then Time Ace in 2007 for the Nintendo DS.[31]
Tornado Studios is a video game company that is located in Tulsa, Oklahoma.[32] [33] Founded by Kudirka, it was staffed by veteran game designers from video game companies that include Square Enix, Ubisoft and Electronic Arts.
The first video game Tornado Studios released was Project Runway. Based on the reality television series of the same name, the game was published by Atari and released for the Wii on March 2, 2010. In the last years, Tornado Studios has been focusing on developing photorealistic 3D models for games, movies, presentations, architectural visualizations and designs. They are a team of 3D artists.[34]
| Year | Game | Publisher | Genre | Platform(s) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows | Mac OS | Xbox | Nintendo DS | |||||
| 1999 | Activision | First-person shooter | ||||||
| 2000 | Laser Arena (as Trainwreck Studios) | ValuSoft | ||||||
| 2001 | CIA Operative: Solo Missions (as Trainwreck Studios) | |||||||
| 2002 | Electronic Arts | |||||||
| 2004 | Men of Valor | Vivendi | ||||||
| 2007 | Time Ace (as Trainwreck Studios) | Konami | Combat flight simulator | |||||