Tom Kudirka
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Tom Kudirka | |
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| File:Tom wiki.png | |
| Born | October 17, 1962 Omaha, Nebraska |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur |
| Known for | Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Men of Valor |
| Spouse | Wannette Kudirka |
Tom Kudirka (born October 17, 1962) is an American Entrepreneur and founder of 2015, Inc., the company that developed the video game Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.
Biography
Early Life
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 computers and building IBM PC compatible clone computers he sold to local businesses and through Computer Shopper.[citation needed]
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. 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). [1][2]
Career
In 1997 Kudirka started 2015, Inc.. 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. Kudirka sent the demo to Activision, who 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. It was published by Activision and released for the Windows platform on February 26, 1999.
In May 2000 Kudirka received a phone call from someone claiming to be Steven Spielberg's assistant. 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.[3] Development began on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault soon after. The game was published by Electronic Arts and released for the Windows platform.[4][5] 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 it to have pioneered the cinematic first person shooter genre.[citation needed] The game provided a substantial push for Electronic Arts' Medal of Honor series.[relevant?]
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. Tom Kudirka filed a lawsuit against Vince Zampella and Jason West due to conspiracy to breach contract.[6]
In 2002, 2015 began development on its own IP: Men of Valor, a first person shooter simulating infantry combat during the Vietnam era. 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.[relevant?]
Tornado Studios
In August 2008, Kudirka opened a new development company called Tornado Studios[7] to focus on casual games for the mass market.[8] The first game to be developed was Project Runway The Video Game. Based on the American reality television series Project Runway. The game was published by Atari and released for the Wii platform on March 2, 2010.[9]
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
- ^ Tiernan, Becky (December 1, 1996). "Fire! Fire! Fire!". Tulsa World. Retrieved June 26, 2015.
- ^ Kudirka, Tom (July 28, 1989). "Executive Toybox". Retrieved June 26, 2015.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Wolpaw, Erik (23 January 2002). "Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Chafkin, Max (June 11, 2013). "Inside the Lawsuit-Filled Breakup of Video-Game Publisher Activision and Call of Duty Designers Vincent Zampella and Jason West". Vanity Fair. Retrieved June 26, 2015.
- ^ "Tornado Studios". IGN. Retrieved June 26, 2015.
- ^ Evatt, Robert (24 March 2009). "Tornado Studios looking past stereotypical Gamers". NewsOK. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
- ^ "Project Runway". IGN. Retrieved June 26, 2015.