Over two decades ago, in the little Delaware town of Newark (new-WARK), Matt Toschlog, video game designer, first dated Victoria Green. Now, as I chat with Mr. Toschlog at a Caribou Coffee in Ann Arbor, MI, he tells me how he relishes a quiet evening at home with Mrs. Victoria Green. It is 8:30 on a Tuesday evening, and he has put his two children–a son 5 and a daughter 3–to bed, allowing him to get away for a little while.
Mr. Toschlog has lived in Ann Arbor many years. He moved there when Ms. Green attended the University of Michigan for her Masters in English Literature. In 1993, it was there that he and Mike Kulas founded Mr. Toschlog’s first company, Parallax Software. This year, he began another venture in Ann Arbor: Reactor Zero.
Reactor Zero is Mr. Toschlog’s latest foray into the world of gaming. Why start another company? Mr. Toschlog simply “likes making games” and he likes to control his environment. In his company, employees seldom work the long hours of the heady days during the dot-com boom. Most employees are out by 5:30 p.m. Many employees are “old guys like me,” said Mr. Toschlog, recently turned 40 years old. “They have families and homes where they’d rather be.”
Home life for Mr. Toschlog is a time to relax. He seldom watches TV. He has cable but only Basic. He can’t remember the last time he saw a theater movie, but he had “Children of Men” at home waiting to be watched. He especially likes to rent TV show DVDs, such as “Arrested Development.” He enjoys watching his son play with wooden trucks.
When asked “Wii, PS3, or XBox” at home, Mr. Toschlog said he’s still using a Sony PlayStation 2. He said that he’d played a Wii game with his children, and any game that lets you do that is “great.” He thinks that eventually, XBox and PS3 will pull even with each other. Whether the Wii model (simpler, active games) or the PS3 model (sophisticated graphics, expensive console) is superior, he declines to judge. Both have their place, and the PS3 can only get cheaper, he said.
The controversy about violence and nudity in games is a topic about, which Mr. Toschlog has strong opinions. Although he believes “games should feature adult themes. I found myself less interested in nasty things.” This is especially relevant because Reactor Zero is a division of and Mr. Toschlog is a director of Quantum Signal, a company that holds a contract with the U.S. Army to produce military games. “Politicians love to bash video games,” complains Mr. Toschlog. He also states that “youth violence has gone down, so it’s crazy to say the games have caused a problem.”
Even positive buzz for the video game industry doesn’t escape Mr. Toschlog’s criticism. One frequently hears that video games now earn more than movies. Mr. Toschlog called this “bullshit statistics.” He said game numbers include hardware, such as PS2 and XBox consoles. This would be like including DVD players in movie earnings. Moreover, the movie numbers only include U.S. box office. Movies tend to earn their largest portion from overseas box office, DVDs, and cable and broadcast TV showings.
In some ways, Mr. Toschlog is a throwback to simpler times in the computer industry. Like other successful IT entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates and Larry Ellison, Mr. Toschlog didn’t need more than a high school diploma to begin his career. At school, he programmed on Wangs and Apple IIs. His first home computer was a color Tandy. But the first “serious” computer he acquired was an Amiga in 1984 or 1985.
For several years, Mr. Toschlog used the Amiga to create software, which he sold on floppies by mail. Early programs included a terminal emulator and a programmer’s editor. The latter had such innovative features for an editor as regular expression searches and multiple buffers.
In the early 1990s came Mr. Toschlog’s breakout application. Through Parallax Software, he and Mike Kulas produced the hit game Descent, an early space battle game. According to Wikipedia, “[t]he series has a strong following due to its unique ’six degrees of freedom’ gameplay.” The game popularity encouraged two direct sequels: Descent II and Descent³. It was the full (and sometimes confusing) 3D environment that made Descent both popular and innovative, but also limited its appeal to serious gamers. Mr. Toschlog still gets emails from fans for Descent support.
After Descent II was released in 1996, the founders split Parallax Software in two. Mr. Kulas headed Volition Inc. in Champaign, IL and Mr. Toschlog ran Outrage Entertainment from Ann Arbor. Outrage hooked up with Livonia schools to encourage young people to get into the video game industry. High school students were given the opportunity to intern for a real video game company. In fact, a former intern from 2001 - 2003 went on to create Aegis Wing for Microsoft’s XBox. “I wish he were working for us,” lamented Mr. Toschlog, “but Microsoft gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse.”
Reactor Zero still gives college students opportunities and is open to hiring high school students. Mr. Toschlog admits, though, that it is more difficult to get into the IT business these days without a college degree. “Showing you can do the work is the most important thing,” he advises. Just having classes isn’t enough. Prospective game developers and programmers must demonstrate their skills.
“Art skills aren’t important for gaming programmers,” said Mr. Toschlog. Large corporations with huge video game teams have artists, but technical skills are best. To give students the chance to develop and show these skills, Reactor Zero is attempting to create contacts with local schools and colleges. The company, also, especially wants to encourage girls to pursue tech careers. Pay in the video game industry “may be less than some engineering and programming jobs, but it’s comparable,” Mr. Toschlog said.
In about 2002, California-based THQ Inc. purchased Outrage. Volition had been purchased by them a few years before. The purchase initially saved jobs at Outrage, where work had slowed. Once the project that THQ had for the newly acquired companies ended, though, Outrage was closed down.
This shows a major advantage that large game companies have over small ones. Large companies can keep employees working by shifting them between projects. A small company must struggle to keep a consistent flow of work or risk losing valuable talent. Mr. Toschlog muses whether the video game industry could use the movie industry business model. Movies contract work out. This relieves movie companies of maintaining large staffs and allows talents to more easily go where the work is.
Reactor Zero employees benefit from the relationship with Quantum Signal. As a division with a wing at Quantum Signal, Reactor Zero can provide skills and Quantum Signal can provide projects. Mr. Toschlog puts the division of labor between these two entities succinctly. “Reactor Zero focuses on fun games,” whereas Quantum Signal does “serious” projects. These include signal processing, robotics, and simulation.”
Mr. Toschlog’s involvement with Quantum Signal began with a phone call from Mitchell Rohde, a friend of an Outrage colleague. Mr. Rohde wanted Mr. Toschlog to help him start a company to develop military game software for the U.S. Army. A contract with the Army was signed last fall and a large project began this spring. Quantum Signal is developing military simulators for the U.S. Army’s Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) headquartered in Warren, MI.
Future financial plans for Reactor Zero and Quantum Signal are uncertain. Quantum Signal may go public, but Mr. Toschlog feels that having to worry about quarterly profits is not a good way to run a video game company. Reactor Zero is developing games for Sony. Current cash flow is good.
The modest income from Sony and the Army is allowing Reactor Zero to slowly expand. Mr. Toschlog said Reactor Zero needs a “fancier website, mostly to help recruiting.” The company needs programmers and designers. Sorry, no artists. Hopefully, Ann Arbor will be the home of yet another important force in the Information Technology world.
