Tim Sweeney (game developer)

Tim Sweeney
Sweeney presenting at the 2016 Game Developers Conference
Born December 1970 (age 47)
Potomac, Maryland, United States
Occupation Video game programmer and developer
Known for Founding Epic Games
Awards AIAS Hall of Fame Award (2012)[1]

Timothy D. Sweeney (born December 1970)[2] is an American computer game programmer and the founder of Epic Games, being best known for his work on ZZT and the Unreal Engine.

Early life

Sweeney was raised in Potomac, Maryland, the youngest of three brothers. At a young age, he had become interested in tinkering with mechanical and electrical devices, and stated he had taken apart a lawnmower as early as 5 or 6, and later built his own go-kart.[3] He became interested in arcade games when they began to become popular in the late 1970s, knowing that like the mechanics devices he took apart and repaired, there were those that had programmed the games in the machines.[3] Though the family got an Atari 2600, Sweeney was not as interested in the games for that, outside of Adventure, and later said he had not played many video games in his life and very few to completion.[3]

When 11, Sweeney visited his older brother's new startup in California, where they had some of the first IBM Personal Computers. Sweeney spent the week there, learning BASIC and establishing his interest in programming; while he had had a Commodore 64 before, Sweeney was much more taken by how easy the IBM PC was to use.[3] When his family got an Apple II, Sweeney began in earnest learning how to program on that, trying to make Adventure 2 in the spirit of the Atari 2600 game.[3] Sweeney estimated that between the ages of 11 and 15, he spent over 10,000 hours teaching himself how to program using information on online bulletin boards, and completed several games, though never shared these with others.[3] He also learned from his brothers concepts of entrepreneurship, making a good deal of money as a teenager by mowing lawns for wealthy residents in the area for half the price of professional services but far better than he was making at a local hardware store job.[3]

Founding of Epic Games

Sweeney attended the University of Maryland in mechanical engineering starting around 1989,[2] though still was fascinated by computers.[3] Around this time his father gave him an IBM Personal Computer/AT.[3] Sweeney established a consulting business Potomac Computer Systems out of his parents' home to offer help with computers, but this never really took off and he shelved the company.[2] Later, Sweeney had the idea of creating games that could be sold, programming them at night or over weekends outside college work. This first required him to create a text editor based on the PASCAL language to be able to program the game, but this led to the idea of making a game out of the text editor itself. This became the basis of ZZT. He offered college friends and those around his neighborhood to try it and get feedback, and was aware it was something he could sell to other computer users. To distribute the game, Sweeney looked to the shareware model, and wrote to Scott Miller of Apogee Software, Ltd., a leading shareware producer at the time, for ideas for how to distribute ZZT. He revitalized Potomac Computer Systems for selling ZZT, fulfilling mail orders with help of his father. ZZT sold well enough, a few copies each day that came to about US$100 per day, that Sweeney decided to make developing games his career. Recognizing he needed a better name for a video game company, he renamed Potomac Computer Systems to Epic MegaGames.[2]

Following ZZT, Sweeney started working on his next title Jill of the Jungle, but found that he lacked the skills to complete this alone. He formed a team of four people to complete the game by mid-1992.[3] For continued development, Sweeney sought out a business partner for Epic MegaGames, eventually coming to Mark Rein, who had just been let go from id Software. Rein helped with growing and managing the company; due to the company's growth, Sweeney did not end up getting his degree, short by one credit.[2] Sweeney later worked on Epic's Unreal Engine, used in the Unreal series of first-person shooters and multiple other video games.[4][5]

With the success of Unreal, the company relocated to North Carolina in 1999, and changed its name to just Epic Games.[6]

Awards and recognition

Wired magazine awarded him a Rave Award in 2007 for his work on Unreal Engine 3.[7]

On February 9, 2012, Sweeney was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) Hall of Fame.[8]

Sweeney received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2017 Game Developers Choice Awards.[9]

References

  1. ↑ "D.I.C.E Special Awards". Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved January 22, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Edwards, Benj (May 25, 2009). "Features - From The Past To The Future: Tim Sweeney Talks". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on August 9, 2017. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Totilo, Stephen (July 12, 2011). "The Quiet Tinkerer Who Makes Games Beautiful Finally Gets His Due". Kotaku. Archived from the original on September 6, 2014. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  4. ↑ DeMaria, Rusel; Wilson, Johnny L. (2003). High score!: the illustrated history of electronic games. Computer Games. McGraw-Hill Professional. p. 300. ISBN 0-07-223172-6.
  5. ↑ "Twilight of the GPU: an epic interview with Tim Sweeney". Arstechnica.com. Archived from the original on May 3, 2012. Retrieved November 6, 2012.
  6. ↑ IGN Staff (February 3, 1999). "Epic Sets up Shop". IGN. Archived from the original on July 13, 2017. Retrieved July 13, 2017.
  7. ↑ Wired (April 24, 2007). "The 2007 Rave Awards". Wired. Archived from the original on August 24, 2017. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
  8. ↑ Epic Games (December 7, 2011). "Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Inducts Epic Games' Tim Sweeney to Its Hall of Fame". Epic Games. Archived from the original on September 5, 2014. Retrieved September 5, 2014.
  9. ↑ Takahasi, Dean (January 20, 2017). "Epic Games' Tim Sweeney to receive lifetime achievement award at GDC". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on January 26, 2017. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
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