Gamelab
 |
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 2000 |
| Founder | Eric Zimmerman Peter Seung-Taek Lee |
| Defunct | 2009 (assets acquired by Arkadium) |
Key people | Eric Zimmerman (co-founder, chief executive) Peter Seung-Taek Lee (co-founder, president) Frank Lantz (director of game design) Nicholas Fortugno (director of game design) Katie Salen |
Number of employees | 40[1] |
Gamelab was an independent game studio in New York City, New York founded by game designer Eric Zimmerman and Peter Seung-Taek Lee in 2000. It is best known for creating Diner Dash, one of the most downloaded games of all time (over half a billion times across multiple platforms in its first six years),[2] as well as its two spin-off companies, the non-profit Institute of Play and the online game and community site Gamestar Mechanic.
History
Zimmerman and Lee (with audio by Michael Sweet) created a game called BLiX, which was named a Finalist (and eventually won Best Audio) at the 2000 Independent Games Festival[3] at the Game Developers Conference, Zimmerman and Lee then incorporated gameLab and used an advance on BLiX royalties from their exclusivity deal with Shockwave.com to open an office in downtown Manhattan.[4] gameLab released 34 video games on multiple platforms between 2000 and 2009, published by companies like LEGO, HBO, PlayFirst, VH-1, and iWin, plus eight massively multiplayer social games created exclusively for and played at the yearly Game Developers Conference from 2001 to 2008.
In 2004, gameLab released the award-winning Diner Dash, a strategy and time management game published by PlayFirst,[5] then-director of game design Frank Lantz and students in his Big Games class (including gameLab employees Greg Trefry and Mattia Romeo) at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program created Pac-Manhattan, a real life version of Pac-Man played in the streets surrounding NYU, which was one of the earliest and most influential pervasive games, covered by the New York Times[6] and receiving worldwide press.[7] In 2005, gameLab employees Trefry, Romeo, Nicholas Fortugno, and Catherine Herdlick plus co-founder Lee co-founded Come Out & Play, an annual festival of new original big games played in the streets of New York City,[8] Lantz left to co-found the game studio area/code, which was acquired by Zynga in 2011 and became Zynga New York, and is now the director of New York University's Game Center.[9]
In 2007, gameLab spun off the non-profit Institute of Play to promote game design and play as educational tools for students. Within six months of its founding, Institute of Play received a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to develop Quest to Learn, a New York City public school designed around game design principles.[10] In 2009, supported by another grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, gameLab partnered with Katie Salen and released the award-winning game and community site Gamestar Mechanic. gameLab closed in 2009 and sold its assets to Arkadium.[11]
Video games
| Year | Title | Type | Publisher/Financer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | BLiX | web | gameLab |
| 2001 | FLUID | touchscreen installation | Swiss Re Center for Global Dialog |
| 2001 | Junkbot | web | LEGO |
| 2001 | LEGO Stack-It | web | LEGO |
| 2001 | LOOP | web | Shockwave.com |
| 2002 | BLiX Level Constructor Kit | web | gameLab |
| 2002 | Drome Racing Challenge | web | LEGO |
| 2002 | Junkbot Undercover | web | LEGO |
| 2002 | LEGO World Builder | web | LEGO |
| 2002 | Spybotics: The Nightfall Incident | web | LEGO |
| 2003 | Arcadia | PC/web | gameLab |
| 2003 | Crash | web | gameLab |
| 2003 | FATE: The Carnivale Game | web | HBO |
| 2003 | LEGO Inventor | web | LEGO |
| 2003 | LEGO World Builder 2 | web | LEGO |
| 2003 | Motobike Blast | web | LEGO |
| 2004 | LEGO X-Pod Playoff | board game | LEGO |
| 2004 | Mighty Beanz Trading Card Game | collectible card game | Genio |
| 2004 | Subway Scramble | PC/web | PlayFirst |
| 2005 | Arcadia Remix | PC/web | gameLab |
| 2005 | Diner Dash | PC/web | PlayFirst |
| 2005 | LEGO X-Pod Playoff 2 | board game | LEGO |
| 2005 | Shopmania | PC/web | iWin |
| 2006 | Ayiti: The Cost of Life | web | gameLab/Global Kids |
| 2006 | Downbeat | web | VH-1 |
| 2006 | Egg vs Chicken | PC/web | PlayFirst |
| 2006 | LEGO Fever | PC/web | LEGO |
| 2006 | Miss Management | PC/web | gameLab |
| 2006 | Plantasia | PC/web | PlayFirst |
| 2007 | Jojo's Fashion Show | PC/web | iWin |
| 2007 | Out of Your Mind | PC/web | gameLab/Curious Pictures |
| 2008 | Jojo's Fashion Show 2: Las Cruces | PC/web | iWin |
| 2008 | Top Chef | PC/web | Brighter Minds Media |
| 2009 | Gamestar Mechanic | web | gameLab |
Massively Multiplayer Social Games at GDC
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 2002 | Bite Me |
| 2002 | Leviathan |
| 2003 | Alphabet City |
| 2004 | Supercollider |
| 2005 | ConfQuest |
| 2006 | Pantheon |
| 2007 | Gangs of GDC |
| 2008 | Destroy All Developers |
References
- ^ "Creators".
- ^ "With Diner Dash, PlayFirst has a game that goes everywhere". 21 September 2010.
- ^ "The 12th Annual Independent Games Festival - 2000 Finalists & Winners". Archived from the original on 2010-02-10. Retrieved 2009-10-23.
- ^ "A Man for All Seasons: GameLab's Eric Zimmerman Talks Design, Trends". 16 June 2005.
- ^ Marriott, Michel (27 June 2005). "On Screens, but Not Store Shelves: Casual Games". The New York Times.
- ^ John, Warren St (9 May 2004). "Quick, After Him: Pac-Man Went Thataway". The New York Times.
- ^ "Pac Manhattan".
- ^ "Report: Come Out and Play -- Inside New York's Outdoor Game Festival".
- ^ "People".
- ^ "Institute of Play at the Connected Learning Alliance" (PDF).
- ^ https://venturebeat.com/2009/09/29/arkadium-acquires-gamelabcom-game-development-firm/