Catalyst Changes Everything

You have a great idea for a 3D action game, you have a staff of talented artists and programmers; the only thing you don't have is the US$150,000 it takes to license the Quake engine technology. Enter Newfire, a small start-up company addressing the needs of other start-up companies.

According to Harry Vitelli, VP of marketing, Newfire targets two tiers of program developers with pricing structures to accommodate both the major players and the as-yet unknowns. For just under $2,000 (single user license), Newfire's Catalyst 3D game development environment is economical and comes packaged with the Torch game engine, featuring affordable licensing considerations. For "low-run" titles (50,000 copies or less) such as educational or training multimedia titles, the Torch licensing fee has an advance fee of $7,500 (priced against a 5,000-copy run at $1.50 per copy).

For high-volume runs, the advance fee is $50,000 (priced against a 50,000-copy run at $1.00 per copy). By contrast, typical licensing fees - after the initial engine licensing fee - are based on percentages ranging as high as 20 percent per copy.

"Our pricing structure is designed to bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots," said Vitelli. The Catalyst game environment is Windows 95 and NT compatible and includes core capabilities such as scene composition, an interactivity editor, real-time playback and analysis, a performance optimizer and a project manager for quick and easy prototyping. The Torch engine includes drivers for OpenGL, Voodoo Graphics (3Dfx), and Newfire's own Software Rasterizer.