Human Head Studios

GameSpy: Who started your company and in what year?

Tim Gerritsen -- Co-Owner: Human Head Studios was founded in October 1997 by Ben Gokey, Chris Rhinehart, Paul MacArthur, Ted Halsted, James Sumwalt and Shane Gurno. Tim Gerritsen joined as an owner in June of 1998.

GameSpy: How did you decide on your company name?

Tim Gerritsen: When the guys were thinking of leaving Raven Software, someone posted a message via e-mail that they had lost some money. This started people saying they had lost all sorts of things. One person posted that they had misplaced a bag of human heads and this gave the inspiration for the name.

GameSpy: How did you decide on the logo and are you still using the original? If it is not the original logo, what prompted you to change it?

Tim Gerritsen: We started with just the text that appears under the current logo, then Shane Gurno did the design of the present logo. Incidentally, he did the Raven logo as well.

2006 Update: Human Head Studios remains independent, and they're currently working on Prey, scheduled for release later this year.




Raven Software

GameSpy: Who started your company and in what year?

Kenn Hoekstra: Brothers Brian and Steve Raffel founded Raven Software in 1988.

GameSpy: How did you decide on your company name?

Kenn Hoekstra: The name Raven was a product of a Dungeons and Dragons character used in one of Brian and Steve's early gaming campaigns.

GameSpy: How did you decide on the logo and are you still using the original? If it is not the original logo, what prompted you to change it?

Kenn Hoekstra: The logo was designed by a former artist from Raven Software's early days. We still use the original logo, yes, but there have been variations of it used over the years.

2006 Update: Raven has maintained its exclusive publishing deal with Activision, and they've released many popular titles since 2000, including Quake 4 and X-men Legends.




Volition Software

GameSpy: Who started your company and in what year?

Mike Kulas -- Co-Founder: Volition was formed from Parallax Software in October, 1996. All the members of the Champaign, Illinois office of Parallax Software could be said to be founders. I think there were about twelve of us..

GameSpy: How did you decide on your company name?

Mike Kulas: I asked everyone in the company for name suggestions. We probably had at least fifty. I didn't like any of them. One night I was in my living room at home flipping through dictionaries and thesauruses, books on mythology and religious texts. I still hated every name I came up with. Then I remembered that I once thought that Volition would make a good name for a software company. I looked up the word and liked the definition. I don't recall whether I liked the name, but we had to have one and I liked the meaning, so we became Volition.

Volition's 2006 logo

GameSpy: How did you decide on the logo and are you still using the original? If it is not the original logo, what prompted you to change it?

Mike Kulas: I asked everyone for logo ideas. I wasn't especially moved by any of them. But everyone else liked one of them and that's our logo. I think it's scary, but everyone disagrees with me. We've never changed it.

2006 Update: Volition Inc. remains part of THQ and is currently working on their next-gen title, Saint's Row.



Next: Day 3 - The third day of our series peeks at Quicksilver, Stainless Steel Studios, Strategy First, Blizzard, Digital Anvil, Shiny, Apogee, Red Storm, and Cyberlore. Whew!