Boffo Games

Boffo Games was a video game developer founded in 1994 by Steve Meretzky, Mike Dornbrook, and Leo DaCosta. The logo was designed by Gayle Syska, formerly of Infocom. Boffo produced two games, Hodj 'n' Podj and The Space Bar, before closing its doors in 1997. Hodj 'n' Podj was originally designed for Media Vision but it divested all of its multimedia interests following a securities-fraud scandal and the title was purchased by Virgin Interactive. The Space Bar was originally to be published by Rocket Science Games (RSG) but SegaSoft bought out RSG and became the game's publisher.

Boffo Games
TypeDefunct
IndustryVideo games
FoundedFebruary 1994[1]
DefunctFall 1997[1]
Key people
Steve Meretzky
Mike Dornbrook
Leo DaCosta
Websiteboffo.us

History

In late 1993,[1] designer Steve Meretzky began to consider founding an independent game development studio with his friends Mike Dornbrook and Leo DaCosta. The three of them had gone to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology together, and Meretzky had worked with Dornbrook at Infocom and with DaCosta during the 1990s.[2] Following the 1989 closure of Infocom, Meretzky worked on a contractual basis for companies such as Legend Entertainment.[1] However, Meretzky later called this period of remote work "creatively unsatisfying" and sometimes "frustrating".[3][2] He preferred to work on location with a team,[3] and he decided that he no longer wanted "to design games for someone else thousands of miles away." The involvement of Dornbrook, a business school graduate, made the idea of an independent company more viable. According to Meretzky, the final impetus for the project came when Dornbrook read an article about Media Vision's new game division,[2] founded in mid-1993 under record label executive Stan Cornyn.[4] As Cornyn was an acquaintance of Dornbrook's,[2][5] Dornbrook was able to secure a New York meeting with the executive's second-in-command, Linda Rich.[2]

List of games made by Boffo

References
  1. Shif, Gil Alexander (November 23, 2000). "Steve Meretzky". Computer Games Magazine. Archived from the original on March 24, 2005. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  2. Garneau, Brenda (August 1997). "Interview; Steve Meretzky: Der Urvater schenkel klopfender Adventures". Power Play: 158–163.
  3. Jong, Philip (May 3, 2001). "Steve Meretzky". Adventure Classic Gaming. Archived from the original on June 15, 2006. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  4. McGowan, Chris (June 12, 1993). "HomeVideo; CD-ROM Unit in Field of Media Vision". Billboard. Vol. 105, no. 24. pp. 59, 60.
  5. Dornbrook, Mike (May 1998). Look Before You Leap: The Rise and Fall of Boffo Games. Computer Game Developers Conference. Long Beach, California. Archived from the original on October 14, 2016.
  6. Meretzky, Steve (November 19, 2001). "Building Character: An Analysis of Character Creation". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on May 13, 2012.
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