Almost everyone in the world recognizes “Call of Duty,” but far fewer know that Raven Software, a game development studio based right here in Madison, was an integral part of the franchise’s most recent releases. However, Raven’s history far predates “Call of Duty” as they have been developing acclaimed titles since their inception in the early 1990s.
Since 1986 when co-founders of Raven, Brian and Steve Raffel, decided they wanted to make games, they began the arduous journey toward opening their own studio. Brian Raffel recently spoke with The Daily Cardinal about his studio’s transformation from four men creating their first title, “Black Crypt,” into one of the pre-eminent developers in the entire industry.
The brothers began developing “Dungeon and Dragons” modules in the mid ’80s, but were quickly drawn to the power of the newly emerging PC.
“We started getting our own personal computers at the time, Amigas,” Brian Raffel said. “That sparked the idea where we said, ‘Why don’t we make a computer game?’ and that was kind of the genesis.”
As the studio began to take shape and expand, they decided to keep their base in Madison, where their families were anchored, and where there was minimal competition.
“We started to realize there was a great opportunity to be here in the Midwest where there’s not a lot of competition,” continued Raffel. “We could draw from those people who wanted to be in the Midwest which is a fair number of talented people.
Without the plethora of avenues available today to develop games, Raven struggled early on to establish themselves. At a time when the industry was still in its infancy, they were forced to forge their own path because there were not any clear directions on how to operate.
“It was really looked at as kind of a garage industry where a lot of people didn’t take it seriously,” Raffel said. “There wasn’t a roadmap for how to get into the industry, now you have so many avenues from Xbox Live to the iPhone.”
Raven received an early boost with the opportunity to develop in collaboration with id Software, the creators of “Doom,” and helped institute many first-person shooter conventions that are industry standards today.
“We put meeting id as one of the most critical parts of our history,” Raffel recalled. “ To be able to get that first ‘Doom’ engine and learn and work right with those guys was huge. It was a pretty big reason for our success early on.”
In 1994 Raven’s popularity received a well-deserved boon with the release of their first bona fide hit, “Heretic” and they continued to produce revolutionary titles like “Hexen” in the coming years. Their rapid success brought both exposure and revenue, but also added pressure to deliver on future titles.
In an industry where a company is only as good as its last game, Raffel sought financial stability for Raven and the opportunity to escape the rigors of handling your own business. He hoped to return to the original reason he fell in love with the industry: to make games.
“It was a lot of stress on me personally, I had a young family, I was doing all the contract negotiations, the hiring and firing, all the book work and it took me away from making the games,” Raffel said. “It’s difficult handling that part of any company, that was probably the biggest reason that led us to the next step of being acquired by Activision.”
Raffel’s company had the foresight to recognize the impending consolidation of the industry and sought a publisher that would afford them the opportunity to work on bigger titles while providing financial stability. Activision acquired Raven Software in 1997 and a few years later they began working on several licensed games, an opportunity Raffel relished despite the stigma that accompanies these properties in the modern video game industry.
“Back in that time those were the meat and potatoes, those were coveted in a lot of ways,” Raffel noted. “I think it kind of aligns to our saying, ‘We grew up loving “Star Wars” and “Star Trek”’ and so for them to say ‘You guys get to work on these,’ it was like nirvana.”
Raven took full advantage of these high-profile properties and went on to create some of the best licensed games in the industry with the release of “Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast” in 2001 and “X-men Legends” three years later. They approached each game with a firm philosophy that entailed appealing to the hardcore fans while creating a gameplay experience that could be enjoyed by everyone.
“We took the people in the studio who really had the passion, but we also balanced it with people who weren’t drinking the Kool-Aid,” Raffel explained. “You wanted to make sure you touched on the things that fans would find relevant and go, ‘Yes, that’s the “Star Wars” experience’ but we also didn’t want to be so nerdy and nichey that it would only be that section of the industry that would appreciate it.”
Despite Raven’s continued success since its inception, the studio was forced to face the harsh reality of financial failure in 2010 as “X-men Origins: Wolverine”, “Wolfenstein” and “Singularity” all sold far fewer copies than hoped.
“That was a really hard time for me personally because all three projects were going amazingly well but obviously they didn’t do as well as we wanted,” Raffel said. “We also came out at a really bad time when the whole economy collapsed. You kind of had this trifecta or perfect storm of things that hit at the wrong time and that was unfortunate because I think there was a lot of greatness in those games.”
Forced to make cuts due to the studio’s recent financial failings, Raven faced a difficult time in its prestigious history. However, as publishers began to invest enormous sums of money in their high-profile titles, Raven was called in to help out on the most popular game franchise in the world, “Call of Duty.”
“We had to change and instead of driving our own titles we collaborated with sister studios,” Raffel said. “That’s always a challenge but it was amazing and fun.
“Obviously it was driven by Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games, but we were there to really fill in and contribute.”
Although Raven won’t be using Kickstarter to reboot any of their older properties or creating original titles for awhile, after a successful release of “Modern Warfare 3” last fall Raffel and company couldn’t be happier working on “Call of Duty.”
“Just like any business we continue to reinvent ourselves as needed by the dictations of the industry,” Raffel said. “We’ve got other ideas in the back of our minds but right now we’re focused on ‘Call of Duty.’”
