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Page 16: He's Left The Building
Soon after the TLC screenings, Landeros suggested that David Wheeler join the M7 management group at Trilobyte, which he did. Devine, who had long since decided not to exert influence on the proceedings at the company, did not object to Wheeler's involvement in the management, although he did stop attending management meetings whenever Wheeler was involved.
In early 1996 David Wheeler (right) was invited into the Trilobyte management group by Landeros (left). |
Devine retreated to set up his own small development team in early 1996 to work on an Internet-based 3D project that was the polar opposite of the large-asset CD-ROM games Trilobyte was known for producing. Commandeering his own room of the Trilobyte office building, Devine began to work with a handful of technicians on a concept for a huge online multiplayer game. "I thought the market was definitely changing," explains Devine, "and if Trilobyte was going to continue to survive, we needed to adapt to the change." Furthermore, Devine admits he was upset about the huge cost of TLC. "When I saw TLC and the cost associated with it, I said, 'OK, Rob got all that money to do his product, so now I want that much money to do my game.'"
The initial concept logo for Devine's Internet game Assault. |
For months, Devine worked with his team on a project code-named Millenium, which would later be renamed Assault. The concept was to create an online top-down perspective 3D tank game. To the investors, it seemed like a savvy move, since 3D action games like Doom and Quake were the hottest titles of the year. With Landeros working on TLC and Devine moving into Internet content, there was hope among the investors that the two founders would still be able to work under the Trilobyte roof, albeit on separate projects and perhaps with separate brand names.
Unfortunately, things came to a head one day in the early summer, when Devine walked into the Assault room visibly shaken and near tears. "I was sitting there playing Quake with a few of the guys in the office, and Graeme came in looking incredibly upset," recalls programmer Doug Marien. "We figured it was time to stop playing Quake." Before long, Devine explained to the team that "I couldn't take it anymore. I just asked myself, 'What am I doing here?'" Before long, Devine had sent a message to the two investors in the company that said, "You guys don't need me anymore. Trilobyte is going to do great. Bye."
Despite the fact that the Trilobyte building had ample room to house Devine's team, he moved him off site to a separate building two blocks down the road. |
According to Landeros, all this transpired while he was on vacation during the summer: "I came back and Graeme was ready to quit." The day Landeros returned to Medford, he had a chat with Devine in his office, and they "both agreed it was perhaps time to part," according to Devine. "I think we were both regretting what the company had turned into," explains Landeros. However, the board of directors, in a fleeting attempt to keep the company together, tried every available option to keep the two from splitting up. Although Devine originally wanted to seek outside financing for a new company and start fresh, the board offered to set up a new company for him as a subsidiary of Trilobyte. As a stipulation to this arrangement, Devine would lease a new office building two blocks down from the current Trilobyte office, despite the fact that the current building had more than ample space to house his team.
"To be honest, the second I left the Trilobyte building, it was the beginning of the end," says Devine. "From then on, both Rob and I were hearing things secondhand, and it got blown way out of proportion." Before long, Devine had set up his Assault team down the street, and Landeros kept control over the Trilobyte properties at the old office, including Tender Loving Care. "I was relatively happy with the arrangement," explains Landeros, "so long as Graeme had his autonomy and I had mine."
"The second I left the Trilobyte building, it was the beginning of the end."
- Graeme Devine
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Devine says that as soon as he left the Trilobyte building, "Rob asked me not to come into the office again. Then a few days later one of the IS guys brings over a computer from that office and he's accused of stealing it." All of a sudden, individuals were getting very territorial. Most of the employees, caught in the middle of this unfortunate situation, didn't know what to think. Although Graeme and Rob would never say anything negative about each other, "those around them were starting to be very negative," explains artist Ken Nash.
All of a sudden, Trilobyte was fractionalized into two vastly feudal fiefdoms. With all lines of communication cut off between the founders, the result seemed inevitable. Devine and Landeros were becoming Pied Pipers leading the company and its legacy into the river - everyone knew the writing was on the wall, but they didn't know how to put an end to the personal animus that was eating away at the very soul of the company.
On top of all this, Clandestiny was approaching its ship date, and Landeros was forced to handle last-minute issues. Clandestiny was meeting with a lukewarm response from buyers, no doubt scathed by the 11th Hour fiasco. "We had a meeting at Trilobyte about what kind of binding to put on the Clandestiny manual," recollects Landeros, "and 15 minutes later Graeme e-mailed me complaining he wasn't consulted on the binding issue." To Landeros, this was exactly what the separation of authority was supposed to avoid - Clandestiny was Trilobyte business and Graeme was only responsible for development at his subsidiary, Analog. According to Devine, "It was impossible for me not to be involved. Everyone from Trilobyte was e-mailing me and trying to keep me in the loop."
Although Landeros wanted to autonomously run Trilobyte and its games such as Clandestiny, Devine was still involved in some decisions. |
Landeros finally thought he had a solution. "I just decided we needed to put something in writing to clearly articulate what our responsibilities were," he says. "So I wrote up an agreement that we were both to sign and sent it over to Graeme."
The agreement was never signed.
Next: Two Rotting Halves 
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