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Tom Kudirka

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Tom Kudirka
File:Tom wiki.png
Born (1962-10-17) October 17, 1962 (age 62)
Omaha, Nebraska
OccupationEntrepreneur
Known forMedal of Honor: Allied Assault
Men of Valor
SpouseWannette Kudirka

Tom Kudirka (born October 17, 1962) is an American Entrepreneur and founder of 2015, Inc. also known as 2015 and 2015 Games. 2015 is best known for developing the highly successful video game Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and for producing some of the world’s most talented video game developers.

Biography

Kudirka was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, and attended Bellevue West High School. After graduating he attended Metropolitan Community College earning an Associate Degree in Electronic Engineering Technology. After graduating in 1985 he worked for a startup computer company fixing Apple II series and building IBM PC compatible clone computers he sold to local businesses and through Computer Shopper (US magazine). It’s during this time that Kudirka first started playing video games he found on floppy discs in Computer Gaming World.

Kudirka was then hired by AT&T working as a Field Engineer on data communication equipment. He moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 1987 and then to Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1988. The division of AT&T Kudirka worked for became Lucent Technologies and then Avaya. During the 1990’s Kudirka started several businesses which he worked on part time while working full time and attending college. He invented several products ranging from the first FM Radio/TV tuner for the PC (RadioActive), a mail order catalog similar to The Sharper Image (Executive Toybox). One of the first e-commerce video game stores (Games, Etc.) and a speech recognition device for video games (Verbal Commander). In 1996 Harry Miller introduced Kudirka to the guys at Ritual Entertainment and Id Software. They were considered using Verbal Commander as an OEM package with their games. Although it was decided not to move forward with an OEM package. Kudirka was convinced his next company would make video games.

2015 Games

In 1997 Kudirka started 2015, Inc. with no money, no office, no employees, no contract, nothing. He assembled a team of developers by researching people who were participating in the FPS MOD community. After months of working online and mostly only communicating via ICQ instant messenger his team created a Quake Mod as a playable demo to show off his team’s talent. Kudirka sent the demo to Activision who was so impressed with their work they awarded 2015 a contract developing the expansion pack to their upcoming game entitled SiN, currently being developed by Ritual Entertainment. Kudirka moved all of his team members to Tulsa, Oklahoma to begin work on the expansion pack SiN: Wages of Sin. For the first time the seven developers who spent over six months online creating the demo met one another for the first time. Three of the seven developers lived in a house rented by Kudirka where the living room made up the development studio.

Wages of Sin was published by Activision and released for the Windows platform on February 26, 1999. The game was greeted with critical acclaim with many considering it better than the original game. The game ultimately sold more units than the original title, thus showing the amount of piracy at that time.

In May of 2000 Kudirka received a phone call from someone claiming to be from DreamWorks. They wanted to know if 2015 would be interested in developing a World War II first person shooter video game with a story-line created by Steven Spielberg. Kudirka immediately hung up the phone, clearly this was a friend of his playing a joke on him, right? When the phone rang again Kudirka listened. DreamWorks Interactive wanted to discuss the development of a PC version of new video game franchise called Medal of Honor. The first Medal of Honor game was released six months earlier for the PlayStation console. A week later Electronic Arts flew out to Tulsa. A deal was soon reached and development began on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (abbreviated MoHAA) was published by Electronic Arts and released for the Windows platform.[1][2] on January 22, 2002 in North America and on February 15, 2002 in Europe. The game was a critical and financial success with many considering MoHAA to have pioneered the cinematic first person shooter genre. The game provided a substantial push for Electronic Arts' Medal of Honor (series).

Following the release, a group of developers left 2015 to form Infinity Ward, a studio that would become known for the Call of Duty series based around the same concept.[3][4]

In 2002, 2015 began development on its own IP: Men of Valor (abbreviated MOV), a first person shooter simulating infantry combat during the Vietnam era. Men of Valor follows Dean Shepard and his squad of Marines from the 3rd Battalion of the 3rd Marine Division through 16 missions of the Vietnam War, including missions at the height of the Tet Offensive. In historically-based scenarios, the player assumes a variety of roles in which they man the door gun on a Huey helicopter, steer a riverboat along enemy-infested shores, battle their way through enemy tunnel complexes, and call down fire as a forward observer. Mission types include pilot rescues, recon patrols, POW rescue, and search-and-destroy ops.

Men of Valor was published by Vivendi Universal and released for Xbox on October 19, 2004 in North America and on November 5, 2004 in Europe. The game was released for Windows on October 29, 2004 in North America and November 12, 2004 in Europe.

Tornado Studios

In August 2008, Kudirka opened a new development company called Tornado Studios focused on casual games for the mass market.[5][6]

Games Developed

Year Game Publisher Genre Platform(s)
Windows Mac OS Xbox Nintendo DS
1999 SiN: Wages of Sin Activision First-person shooter Yes Yes No No
2000 Laser Arena (as Trainwreck Studios) ValuSoft First-person shooter Yes No No No
2001 CIA Operative: Solo Missions (as Trainwreck Studios) ValuSoft First-person shooter Yes No No No
2002 Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Electronic Arts First-person shooter Yes Yes No No
2004 Men of Valor Vivendi First-person shooter Yes No Yes No
2007 Time Ace (as Trainwreck Studios) Konami Combat flight simulator No No No Yes

References

  1. ^ Wolpaw, Erik (23 January 2002). "Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
  2. ^ Adams, Dan (28 January 2002). "Very few games leave you breathless and gaping in wide-eyed wonder. EA's latest is one of them". IGN. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
  3. ^ McWhertor, Michael (22 December 2010). "The Modern Warfare Fight: Your Guide to Activision Vs. Infinity Ward". Kotaku. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  4. ^ Dring, Christopher (1 November 2013). "The Medal of Honor killer: A Call of Duty story". Market for Home Computing and Video Games. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  5. ^ Lynn Thompson, Tara (July 2009). "Powering up with Tornado Studios. A Tulsa-based company creates video games to attract a different set of players". TulsaPeople. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  6. ^ Evatt, Robert (24 March 2009). "Tornado Studios looking past stereotypical Gamers". NewsOK. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
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