Scott Miller (programmer)
Encyclopedia
Scott Miller is an American
entrepreneur
best known for founding Apogee Software
, Ltd. (dba
3D Realms
Entertainment) in 1987.
who worked on the Apollo and Gemini
programs.
, but now handles primary business duties of 3D Realms, as well as producing and co-designing all third-party games associated with the company, including Wolfenstein 3D
, Raptor: Call of the Shadows
, Terminal Velocity, Max Payne
and Prey
.
Miller also authors one of the industry's leading blog
s, www.GameMatters.com, where his views show him to be a strong proponent of studio
independence, and of studios and publishers
creating original brands rather than licensing brands from other media sources.
Miller is noted in the industry for his integration of marketing and gameplay hooks within a game's central concept and design
. He pioneered the shareware
method of game distribution where one episode of a game is released freely through digital distribution, and the follow-up episodes are sold through the company. In effect, the free episode is the carrot-on-a-stick; an advertisement to purchase the remaining, commercial episodes. Kingdom of Kroz
, in 1987, was the first game to use this method, which Miller refers to as the "Apogee Model."
Upon success with this model with the seven Kroz episodes, Miller left his full-time job in mid-1990 and devoted full efforts into growing Apogee. As a side note, it was at this time that Miller contacted key members at Softdisk
(a monthly software magazine delivered on floppy disks to subscribers) who later formed id Software
, and convinced them to make Commander Keen
as a shareware game to be released through Apogee, which proved to be an outstanding success, and led id Software to become an independent studio.
Miller began writing computer games in 1975 on a Wang 2000
while living in Australia
. He wrote several DOS
games that circulated widely on BBS
file bases:
Miller was also a professional industry writer in the '80s
, having co-authored a book on beating video games, Shootout: Zap the Video Games, and writing a weekly column for The Dallas Morning News for four years ('82-'85), titled "Video Vision", and later changed to "Computer Fun". He's also written for COMPUTE!
's PC & PCjr and other now defunct national game industry magazines.
Miller was later instrumental in the formation of Gathering of Developers
in 1998, a new publisher created with the aid of several leading game studios, and later sold to Take-Two Interactive
. He later helped found the Radar Group
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
best known for founding Apogee Software
3D Realms
3D Realms is a current video game publisher and former video game developer based in Garland, Texas, United States, established in 1987...
, Ltd. (dba
Doing business as
The phrase "doing business as" is a legal term used in the United States, meaning that the trade name, or fictitious business name, under which the business or operation is conducted and presented to the world is not the legal name of the legal person who actually own it and are responsible for it...
3D Realms
3D Realms
3D Realms is a current video game publisher and former video game developer based in Garland, Texas, United States, established in 1987...
Entertainment) in 1987.
Personal life
Growing up, Miller lived with his father, Boyd Miller, an engineer at NASANASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
who worked on the Apollo and Gemini
Project Gemini
Project Gemini was the second human spaceflight program of NASA, the civilian space agency of the United States government. Project Gemini was conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, with ten manned flights occurring in 1965 and 1966....
programs.
Career
Miller started as game programmerGame programmer
A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebase for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines all of which fall under the umbrella term of "game programmer"...
, but now handles primary business duties of 3D Realms, as well as producing and co-designing all third-party games associated with the company, including Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein 3D is a video game that is generally regarded by critics and gaming journalists as having both popularized the first-person shooter genre on the PC and created the basic archetype upon which all subsequent games of the same genre would be built. It was created by id Software and...
, Raptor: Call of the Shadows
Raptor: Call of the Shadows
Raptor: Call of the Shadows is a 2D raster graphics vertical scrolling shoot 'em up single player game for the x86 PC originally written for MS-DOS, by Cygnus Studios...
, Terminal Velocity, Max Payne
Max Payne
Max Payne is a BAFTA Award–winning third-person shooter video game developed by Finnish developers Remedy Entertainment and published by Gathering of Developers in July 2001 for Microsoft Windows. Ports created later in the year for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and the GameBoy Advance were published by...
and Prey
Prey (video game)
Prey is a first-person shooter video game developed by Human Head Studios , and published by 2K Games. The Xbox 360 version was ported by Venom Games. The game was initially released in North America and Europe on 11 July 2006...
.
Miller also authors one of the industry's leading blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s, www.GameMatters.com, where his views show him to be a strong proponent of studio
Video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...
independence, and of studios and publishers
Video game publisher
A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....
creating original brands rather than licensing brands from other media sources.
Miller is noted in the industry for his integration of marketing and gameplay hooks within a game's central concept and design
Game design
Game design, a subset of game development, is the process of designing the content and rules of a game in the pre-production stage and design of gameplay, environment, storyline, and characters during production stage. The term is also used to describe both the game design embodied in a game as...
. He pioneered the shareware
Shareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
method of game distribution where one episode of a game is released freely through digital distribution, and the follow-up episodes are sold through the company. In effect, the free episode is the carrot-on-a-stick; an advertisement to purchase the remaining, commercial episodes. Kingdom of Kroz
Kingdom of Kroz
Not to be confused with Zork.The Kroz series is a series of video games created by Scott Miller. The first episode in the series, Kingdom of Kroz, was released in 1987 as Apogee Software's first game. It was also published on Big Blue Disk #20...
, in 1987, was the first game to use this method, which Miller refers to as the "Apogee Model."
Upon success with this model with the seven Kroz episodes, Miller left his full-time job in mid-1990 and devoted full efforts into growing Apogee. As a side note, it was at this time that Miller contacted key members at Softdisk
Softdisk
Softdisk is a software and Internet company based in Shreveport, Louisiana. Founded in 1981, its original products were disk magazines...
(a monthly software magazine delivered on floppy disks to subscribers) who later formed id Software
Id Software
Id Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...
, and convinced them to make Commander Keen
Commander Keen
Commander Keen is a series of video games developed by id Software in the early 1990s. The series focuses on the adventures of Billy Blaze, an 8-year old boy who travels through space and assumes the identity "Commander Keen". The series was successful at replicating the side-scrolling action of...
as a shareware game to be released through Apogee, which proved to be an outstanding success, and led id Software to become an independent studio.
Miller began writing computer games in 1975 on a Wang 2000
Wang Laboratories
Wang Laboratories was a computer company founded in 1951 by Dr. An Wang and Dr. G. Y. Chu. The company was successively headquartered in Cambridge , Tewksbury , and finally in Lowell, Massachusetts . At its peak in the 1980s, Wang Laboratories had annual revenues of $3 billion and employed over...
while living in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. He wrote several DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
games that circulated widely on BBS
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
file bases:
- Computer Quiz
- Astronomy Quiz
- BASIC Quiz
- Beyond the Titanic
- Supernova
- Kingdom of KrozKingdom of KrozNot to be confused with Zork.The Kroz series is a series of video games created by Scott Miller. The first episode in the series, Kingdom of Kroz, was released in 1987 as Apogee Software's first game. It was also published on Big Blue Disk #20...
- Word Whiz
- Trek Trivia
Miller was also a professional industry writer in the '80s
1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
, having co-authored a book on beating video games, Shootout: Zap the Video Games, and writing a weekly column for The Dallas Morning News for four years ('82-'85), titled "Video Vision", and later changed to "Computer Fun". He's also written for COMPUTE!
COMPUTE!
Compute! was an American computer magazine that was published from 1979 to 1994, though it can trace its origin to 1978 in Len Lindsay's PET Gazette, one of the first magazines for the Commodore PET computer. In its 1980s heyday Compute! covered all major platforms, and several single-platform...
's PC & PCjr and other now defunct national game industry magazines.
Miller was later instrumental in the formation of Gathering of Developers
Gathering of Developers
Gathering of Developers was a Texas-based PC and video games publishing company, founded in January 1998 with the mission to bridge the gap between publishers and independent game developers, allowing independent developers creative control over their projects, ownership of their IP, and...
in 1998, a new publisher created with the aid of several leading game studios, and later sold to Take-Two Interactive
Take-Two Interactive
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is a major American publisher, developer, and distributor of video games and video game peripherals. Take-Two wholly owns 2K Games and Rockstar Games. The company's headquarters are in New York City, with international headquarters in Windsor, United Kingdom...
. He later helped found the Radar Group
Radar Group
Radar Group is a video and computer game company. It is neither a publisher nor a development studio, but rather a brand creation and portfolio management company. It co-creates original intellectual property , designed from the ground up, working with independent developer studios and funding its...
.
External links
- Scott Miller's profile at LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a business-related social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. , LinkedIn reports more than 120 million registered users in more than 200 countries and territories. The site is available in English, French,...
- Game Matters, Miller's blog
- Scott Miller's biography at 3D Realms3D Realms3D Realms is a current video game publisher and former video game developer based in Garland, Texas, United States, established in 1987...