StarCitizen:InterDimension Software

InterDimension Software is a StarCitizen:Human entertainment software company best known for the StarCitizen:Star Marine franchise. InterDimension was founded in StarCitizen:2941 by level builder StarCitizen:James Romanov and tech designer StarCitizen:James Vandyke. The company has been responsible for several high-profile game releases, including the kid-friendly StarCitizen:Admiral Cool franchise and the Star Marine combat simulator. Its corporate headquarters is located on microTech (Stanton IV) in the StarCitizen:Stanton system, StarCitizen:United Empire of Earth (UEE).<ref name="galactapedia">Template:Cite RSI</ref>

History

Two Jims

The history of InterDimension Software centers on the "two Jims," level builder StarCitizen:James Romanov and tech designer StarCitizen:James Vandyke. The two began their game development careers in different ways, but after they were introduced they collaborated on a series of successful releases, from the kid-friendly Admiral Cool to the realistic Star Marine.

Vandyke was shy, quiet, and reserved. From early childhood he showed a strong affinity for machines and a level of understanding that allowed him to work with them effectively. He gravitated toward game development both as a player and because the industry pushed hardware and logical systems to their limits. Intent on advancing technology, Vandyke forwent a formal education in favor of a job offer to develop his own game technologies through indie-publisher StarCitizen:Perigree Press.

Oakhurst and Perigree

Template:See also Romanov was an outgoing young game designer whose confidence quickly attracted a following of fans interested in his career. He began building his own games at a young age, designing stylized versions of popular titles for release on the Spectrum. At age twenty, with a number of simple StarCitizen:mobiGlas games to his name, he took his first formal job at the industry powerhouse StarCitizen:Oakhurst Online. His first project was an aborted port of 3400 AD, followed by six months making dungeons, quests, and monsters for StarCitizen:Henry Garrity's ULTIMATE III. He clashed with his superiors over creative direction, and shortly before the release of ULTIMATE III, when Perigree approached him with an offer to become their Lead Designer, he accepted.

Vandyke and Romanov, the introvert and the self-promoter, formed a friendship that led directly to their first co-authored game, Admiral Cool versus the Karate Dogs from Mars, released by Perigree under a "try before you buy" license, which helped establish the pair's reputation. Admiral Cool's bright, colorful, kid-friendly presentation accompanied notable technical work. As he did with later projects, Vandyke treated the game as a technical challenge, seeking to recreate the experience of arcade machines and dedicated gaming rigs on the common mobiGlas. Drawing on a detailed knowledge of assembly language and machine logic, he created an interface unlike others available for wearable systems at the time.

Two additional Admiral Cool games followed, including a final title, Admiral Cool in Vegetable Panic, created solely to fulfill a publishing contract. Romanov built the levels for each game, turning colorful blocks, cartoon dogs, hamburgers, Opi-Ola bottles, and glittering candies into an immersive, fast-paced world.

After seeing a demo of Original's ULTIMATE spinoff series, ULTIMATE: Downbelow, Vandyke sought a greater technical challenge for their next project: to replicate and then surpass the total immersion interface being developed by high-end publishers, but in a faster-paced, action-oriented form suited to the design aesthetic of Romanov and his growing team. Romanov set aside the kid-friendly graphics that had defined Admiral Cool and instead turned to the history of the StarCitizen:Messer era, building an action title around the internecine warfare of that period. The result was named Tiger3D. Players praised the realistic environments and the speed of movement allowed by the engine, while others criticized what they saw as a tasteless appropriation of history. There is some basis for the claim that the team at Perigree intentionally courted controversy: the game's design, from levels covered in totalitarian banners to a final episode in which the player battles a titan-suited parody of StarCitizen:Ivar Messer, appeared intended to provoke.

InterDimension

Tiger3D was commercially successful and raised the pair's profile. In StarCitizen:2941, Romanov and Vandyke left Perigree and set up their own studio, founded on the idea of building innovative technology and pairing it with game design. InterDimension Software set out to be a different kind of game creator, with a small-scale approach aimed at dedicated players across the Empire. Their first title, announced well in advance through Romanov's frequent personal Comm-Link updates, was Star Marine. Building on the technology introduced in StarCitizen:Tiger3D, Star Marine was intended as a highly realistic ground combat simulator. Built around carefully constructed maps of a Gold Horizon station, Star Marine was designed to immerse the player in a life-or-death struggle.

After a series of publicized delays, Star Marine premiered to acclaim. Set in the present day and featuring realistic design, it became one of the most popular games of the year, generating large communities of competitive players and reports of lost workplace productivity. Asked at the launch event why they thought the title would be successful, Romanov, speaking for the pair, responded, "because it's pretty damn fun."<ref name="portfolio">Template:Cite RSI</ref>

Trivia

• The company is based upon the real life id Software.

References

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