We've finally received a response from Brett Patterson, CEO and Lead Programmer, Firelight Technologies / FMOD, in regards to our There's something about Torus Games article which I'm very pleased with since it completes the article with all the Ceo's and founders of companies that are linked to Torus Games. If you're interested in a bit of local industry history, you're in for a treat! Check it out!
Brett Patterson, CEO and Lead Programmer, Firelight Technologies / FMOD
When did you start at Torus Games, what kind of work did you do there, and what year did you leave?
Torus was my first job, I started there 1995. I remember I came in wearing a suit, brought my whole 486 PC with a demo on it, and played a demo I wrote that had oldschool plasma graphics, a starfield and my own mod playback engine :). I was hired as the lead programmer on an Australian published car game which didn't do very well, and I left after that. I think it was 1997.
Did you have plans before Torus to start up a company of your own, or was Torus a big part of your decision?
No, never wanted to start a company at Torus, after them I worked at Tantalus, then Bullfrog in the UK (which is now EA UK), and Criterion games on Renderware Audio. Firelight Technologies and fmod really got going when I got back from that stage, which was 2002.
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's basically like a family tree. In those days the original ancestor was Beam software. From that there was Torus (Bill McIntosh) and Tantalus (Arthur/Trevor/Andrew) that split from Beam. You then get the companies you see now coming from those companies. Granted a lot came from people working from Torus, but you can see roots from Tantalus in Bluetongue as well, and it was almost a flip of the coin if I started at Torus/Tantalus because I had offers from both at the time :)
Be sure to read the rest of our Torus article at the following link!