Ensemble Draws a Crowd

Spotlights fanned the dark Dallas skies Friday night in front of the Hall of State (for college football fans, that's the building just west of Dallas' Cotton Bowl, and for fans of state fairs it's one of the buildings on the grounds where Texas' version takes place) to herald the arrival of Microsoft's Age of Empires.

Actually, Age of Empires won't officially hit stores until Halloween; it's being released simultaneously worldwide, and as one Ensemble employee put it "you need this much lag time to get all those languages ready." But the game was shipped to production on Sept. 17 and the all-nighters the 25-or-so Ensemble employees had been pulling for the past several weeks had come to an end. Many of them were still exhausted from the effort in hitting that ship date, but they weren't about to pass up the opportunity for a good party.

And the chance to talk up their game. Age of Empires is a real-time strategy game a la Warcraft. Players go through four "ages" - the stone age, the tool age, the bronze age, and the iron age - as they amass armies and attempt to defeat their opponents.

It was a night of exuberance. Exuberance on the part of Ensemble, now that its two and a half years of work on this title was done. Exuberance on the part of Microsoft, whose Ed Ventura pronounced Age of Empires "the best real-time strategy game ever." (Of course, he would say that, wouldn't he?) And exuberance on the part of all involved at the prospect of seeing how Age of Empires fares against all the other games of its ilk out there. Ensemble believes it is going to fare very well indeed. "I think the fact that most of us who worked on the game are still playing it is a good sign," said Ensemble graphics programmer Matt Pritchard.

This exuberance extended to Ensemble's Age of Empires fete as well. There was the obligatory wine, beer, and hors d'oeuvres. A band set up at one end of the hall provided the music. Three projection screens had been set up to show off the game, while tables of networked computers filled another part of the room. The party didn't fail to attract its share of luminaries, either. In fact, it was almost a who's who of Dallas - if not of northern Texas - computer game stars. Computer music mogul George "The Fat Man" Sanger held court in his spangled suit and cowboy hat. Movers and shakers from id and Ritual Entertainment were spotted in the crowd.

But it was ION Storm's John Romero, symbolizing as he did for so many of the wanna-be hit-makers in the room the ultimate fruits of computer game industry success (money! fame! glory!), that had perhaps the biggest crowd congregated around him. He was one of the featured guests of the evening, scheduled to take part in the Industry Legends Charity Tournament that was also set to feature Bruce Shelley, designer of Age of Empires and Civilization, and Digital Anvil's Chris Roberts - like Romero, sure to have been another symbol of money! fame! glory! to all the computer industry insiders that filled the hall. In this case however, he also symbolized absence! since he was supposed to be on hand for the tournament but was mysteriously missing from the proceedings. Computer Gaming World's Johnny Wilson took Roberts' place. Shelley made short work of both Romero and Wilson, who could perhaps console themselves that it was "all for a good cause" - Ensemble, ION Storm, and Digital Anvil contributed donations to the Children's Medical Center of Dallas as part of the festivities.

Shelley then took on Mike Peterson (winner of the Age of Empires beta testers' tournament, who was flown in from Minnesota for the party), and also Ensemble Studios' programmer Tim Deen in a later tournament. Deen walked off with the trophy in that competition.

Age of Empires isn't the last title that Microsoft and Ensemble will be working on together. In fact, other projects are already under development. All involved were keeping pretty quiet on that score, however. Besides, Friday's focus was supposed to fall on Age of Empires.

Pritchard did happen to mention some of the happy circumstances arising from a relationship with Microsoft. "The bull---- factor has been surprisingly low," he said. "And let's face it, you know Bill's checks aren't going to bounce."