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Rick Goodman | |
|---|---|
 Goodman at PeopleFun | |
| Born | October 28, 1955 United States |
| Occupation | Video game designer |
Rick Goodman is a video game designer and the founder and owner of the now-defunct Stainless Steel Studios. He is best known for the RTS games he designed, such as Age of Empires and Empire Earth.
In 1995 Goodman co-founded Ensemble Studios [1] together with his brother, Tony Goodman, and John Boog-Scott. Their first project was Age of Empires (AoE), in which Goodman worked as Lead Designer. After the game's release, it became an overnight sensation and Goodman became one of the most recognized game developers in the world. Because of the success of the game, some said that Goodman had invented in AoE "the most well recognized game interface for RTS games", because afterward many games like it began to use the AoE game interface: a mini map, unit and building controls, the name of your civilization and the age which you are currently in on top of the screen and others.
After Age of Empires, Goodman left Ensemble to form his own studio with Dara-Lynn Pelechatz: Stainless Steel Studios [1] in 1998. Pelechatz told GameSpy that Goodman couldn't decide what name to give for his studio, so he opened a catalog with the plan to baptise the studio with the very first thing he encountered. [2]
In 2001, Stainless Steel, under Goodman, created Empire Earth . The game, which was published by Sierra Entertainment, offered many new features, including a 3D view of the world, impressive zoom-in and zoom-out features, and a timeline that spanned from pre-history to the twenty-second century (over 500,000 years). The game won the GameSpy PC "Game-of-the-Year 2001" Award. According to some, Empire Earth was what Goodman wanted Age of Empires to be. PC Gamer said in an article about Empire Earth that it feels like it's the gold edition of the entire AoE-series (which is all the AoE games, including the unreal games such as an AoE IV and V).
Goodman would soon break up with Sierra and start working on a new game Empires: Dawn of the Modern World . The game is very similar to Goodman's previous successes, except the game spans only a millennium of entire history of humanity, from 950 to 1950, which is said to be the most pivotal years in human history. The game was released in 2003 and published by Activision. Ironically, although it wasn't much of a hit, the game was rated, in some reviews and websites, higher than Empire Earth.
After Empires, Goodman licensed the Empire Earth game engine to Tilted Mill Entertainment for its development of Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile which was published by Myelin Media in US and SEGA in Europe. It was first released in November 2004.
Goodman's last game was real time strategy game Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War published and partially developed by Midway Games and was released on July 12, 2006.
Goodman is currently a board member of 8D World, [3] which built a virtual world where Chinese children learn English. [4]
Goodman currently works at PeopleFun as an executive producer with his brother Tony. [5]
At the end of November 2005, with only weeks to go before release of "Rise and Fall", Stainless Steel Studios closed abruptly. He reportedly told Gamestar that after the PC strategy game's release was pushed from October to early 2006, Midway cut off advances to Stainless Steel, which in turn had to lay off its staff due to lack of funding. Midway had stated in a report that it would continue to work on the game and did eventually release it in June 2006.
Rick Goodman has taken part in developing many games:
Real-time strategy (RTS) is a subgenre of strategy video games that doesn't progress incrementally in turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in turn-based strategy (TBS) games, players take turns to play. The term "real-time strategy" was coined by Brett Sperry to market Dune II in the early 1990s.
Empire Earth is a real-time strategy video game developed by Stainless Steel Studios and released on November 13, 2001. It is the first game in the Empire Earth series.
Ensemble Studios was an American video game developer. It was founded by Tony Goodman in 1994 and incorporated the following year. It borrowed the name of Ensemble Corporation, a consulting firm founded by Goodman in 1990. It was acquired by Microsoft in 2001 and operated as an internal studio until 2009, when its development capabilities were officially disbanded. Ensemble developed many real-time strategy games, including the Age of Empires game series, Age of Mythology, and Halo Wars. In addition to game development, Ensemble Studios also made the Genie Game Engine used in Age of Empires, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. The studio sold 20 million games and was worth an estimated $500 million.
Rise of Nations is a real-time strategy video game developed by Big Huge Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios in May 2003. Designed as a fusion of concepts from turn-based strategy games with the real-time strategy genre, the game's development was led by Brian Reynolds, who founded Big Huge Games following his involvement in the development of the turn-based strategy games Civilization II and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. In contrast to previous historical real-time strategy games, Rise of Nations is based on the entirety of history, taking place from the ancient era to the modern age, and features eighteen civilizations, playable across eight ages of world history. The game features several innovations on the real-time strategy genre, introducing novel features such as territory and attrition influenced by the turn-based strategy genre.
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is a real-time strategy video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft. Released in 1999 for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh in 2001, it is the second game in the Age of Empires series. The Age of Kings is set in the Middle Ages and contains thirteen playable civilizations. Players aim to gather resources, which they use to build towns, create armies, and defeat their enemies. There are five historically based campaigns, which conscript the player to specialized and story-backed conditions, as well as three additional single-player game modes; multiplayer is also supported.
4X is a subgenre of strategy-based computer and board games, and includes both turn-based and real-time strategy titles. The gameplay generally involves building an empire. Emphasis is placed upon economic and technological development, as well as a range of military and non-military routes to supremacy.
Stainless Steel Studios (SSSI) was a video game developer, started in 1997 by Rick Goodman and Dara-Lynn Pelechatz. The company was based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and focused on the development of real-time strategy games.
Age of Empires III is a real-time strategy video game developed by Microsoft Corporation's Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The Mac version was ported over and developed and published by Destineer's MacSoft. The PC version was released on October 18, 2005, in North America and November 4, 2005, in Europe, while the Mac version was released on November 21, 2006, in North America and September 29, 2006, in Europe. An N-Gage version of the game developed by Glu Mobile was released on April 28, 2009. It is the third game of the Age of Empires series and the sequel to Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. A remaster titled Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition was released on October 15, 2020. Its successor, Age of Empires IV was released October 28, 2021, for Windows.
Empires: Dawn of the Modern World is a 2003 real-time strategy video game developed by Stainless Steel Studios and published by Activision. Set in a world-historical period that extends from the Middle Ages to World War II, the game tasks players with guiding one of nine rival great civilizations to victory. Customer surveys from Stainless Steel's previous game, Empire Earth, were used as a starting point for Empires: these inspired the team to take a more minimalist design approach, and to include civilizations without overlapping styles of play. Empires was positively received by critics, who enjoyed its multiplayer component. However, certain reviewers disliked its single-player mode, and opinion clashed on the game's level of uniqueness compared to competitors such as Rise of Nations. The sales of Empires, when combined with those of Empire Earth, totaled 2.5 million units by 2004.
Empire Earth II is a real-time strategy video game developed by Mad Doc Software and published by Vivendi Universal Games and their subsidiary Sierra Entertainment on April 26, 2005. It is a sequel to Empire Earth, which was developed by the now-defunct Stainless Steel Studios. The game features 15 epochs, 14 different civilizations and has three playable campaigns: a Korean, German, and American one, as well as several other playable scenarios. The game received a positive reaction, earning a 79% average rating on GameRankings.
Age of Empires is a series of historical real-time strategy video games, originally developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios. The first game was Age of Empires, released in 1997. Nine total games within the series have been released so far as of October 28, 2021.
Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War is a real-time strategy video game developed by both Stainless Steel Studios and Midway Games which was released on June 12, 2006. The game incorporates segments of both third-person and first-person shooter gameplay, by allowing the player to temporarily control a "hero". Rise and Fall is based in the first millennium BC, and features four playable civilizations: Persia, Greece, Egypt, and Rome. The game includes over eighty civilization-unique military units, as well as eight "hero" units—of which only one may be purchased during a game. In Rise and Fall, there are two campaigns: one follows the conquests of Alexander the Great; and the other, the fictional liberation of Egypt by Cleopatra.
Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest is the expansion pack for the real-time strategy game Empire Earth. Art of Conquest was published by Sierra Entertainment like with the original game, but was instead developed by Mad Doc Software. It was released on September 17, 2002, in the United States. The game was released in Europe later in the year, and the following year in Japan. The Gold Edition of Empire Earth, which features both the original and the expansion, was released on May 6, 2003.
Titan is a game engine developed by Stainless Steel Studios used in the real-time strategy genre. It was mainly used as a PC game engine in the early 2000s. The engine was used in Stainless Steel Studio's early games, such as Empire Earth and Empires: Dawn of the Modern World.
Empire Earth is a series of real-time strategy video games developed by Stainless Steel Studios and Mad Doc Software, and published by Sierra Entertainment. The games in the series are historical RTS games that are similar to Age of Empires. Rick Goodman, who designed Empire Earth and Empires: Dawn of the Modern World, was one of the lead designers of Age of Empires. The games use the Titan and Titan 2.0 engine, which was sold after Stainless Steel Studios closed.
The Genie Engine is a game engine developed by Ensemble Studios and used in several computer games, such as Age of Empires, Age of Empires II and its expansions and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. Some of those games have been ported to the Apple Mac.
Empire Earth III is a real-time strategy video game developed by Mad Doc Software and published by Sierra Entertainment, released on November 6, 2007. It is the latest installment of the Empire Earth series.
Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties is the second expansion pack for the real-time strategy video game Age of Empires III developed through a collaboration between Ensemble Studios and Big Huge Games, and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The Mac version was ported over, developed and published by Destineer's MacSoft. The game is the second expansion pack following The WarChiefs. The game introduces three new civilizations; China, Japan, and India. It also introduced minor people, campaigns, maps, and game modes.
Age of Empires (AoE) is a real-time strategy video game based on history, developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft, and the first game in the Age of Empires series. The game uses the Genie Engine, a 2D sprite-based game engine. The game allows the user to act as the leader of an ancient civilization by advancing it through four ages, gaining access to new and improved units with each advance.
Age of Empires Online is a multiplayer online real-time strategy game developed by Robot Entertainment and Gas Powered Games that was released on August 16, 2011. Based upon the gameplay of the Age of Empires series, it was originally developed by Robot Entertainment, but on February 24, 2011, Gas Powered Games, took over production. The game was published by Microsoft.