Former type Defunct Defunct 2000 Founder Ron Gilbert Ceased operations 2000 | Industry Video games Number of employees approx. 20 (1997) Founded 1996 | |
 | ||
Key people Ron Gilbert
Chris Taylor Products Total Annihilation series Headquarters Bothell, Washington, United States Parent organizations GT Interactive, Humongous Entertainment Video games Total Annihilation, Total Annihilation: The Core, Total Annihilation: Kingdoms, Total Annihilation: Battle Tac, Amen: The Awakening | ||
Cavedog Entertainment, or Cavedog, was a video game developer based in Bothell, Washington. Cavedog gained the attention of gamers and the gaming press alike with the 1997 release of Total Annihilation (TA), winning many accolades such as multiple Game of the Year honors or being one of The Greatest Games of All Time.
History
Cavedog Entertainment was a label created in 1996 by Humongous Entertainment, a developer of children's computer games founded by Ron Gilbert and Shelley Day, to pursue the creation of mainstream games. Humongous Entertainment was originally independent, but was purchased in 1996 by GT Interactive, a video game publisher later acquired by Infogrames in 1999 (later renamed to Atari).
In the same year Squaresoft closed its office in Redmond, so many of their former developers were hired for Cavedog, notably game music composer Jeremy Soule and graphics designer Clayton Kauzlaric, who created the logo for Cavedog. After two years of development on Cavedog's first product, Total Annihilation, it was presented at the E3 at Atlanta 1997 and published on September 30, 1997.
The game's creator, Chris Taylor, left the company shortly before the release of the Total Annihilation: Core Contingency expansion pack to found his own development house, Gas Powered Games. Despite this loss, Cavedog released one more expansion pack, Total Annihilation: Battle Tactics, as well as many freely downloadable enhancements and patches, and built strong community support with their own online service Boneyards (now shut down) that matched opponents and provided a continuing game campaign.
In 1999, Cavedog released the eagerly anticipated Total Annihilation: Kingdoms. TA:Kingdoms largely reused the TA game engine, replacing the science fiction theme with one of fantasy. TA:Kingdoms did not resonate as well with critics or fans of the original title. One expansion pack was released, The Iron Plague.
The closure of Cavedog came as the game industry began to experience a downturn in sales, to which parent company GT Interactive was no exception. Besides the TA franchise, Cavedog had three ambitious games in development, but only Total Annihilation and TA:Kingdoms made it to store shelves and their sales were much smaller than their user base.
The unfinished projects were Amen: The Awakening, a first-person shooter; Elysium, a fantasy adventure title, and Good & Evil, an adventure title from Ron Gilbert. With GT Interactive spiraling into debt and no ship dates in sight, all three were discontinued by the Fall of 1999. GT Interactive was purchased by Infogrames and the Cavedog label was discarded by Humongous Entertainment in 2000, which renewed its focus on children's games. Cavedog declared bankruptcy in 2000. Humongous Entertainment was shut down in 2005 by Infogrames (now called Atari). Cavedog's developers have played significant roles at Gas Powered Games and Beep Industries.