Emergent

[This article originally appeared at gamasutra.com. To see the original, click here.]

by Leigh Alexander

Gamebryo engine company Emergent is working with Big Red Button Entertainment, the studio founded by Naughty Dog vets Bob Rafei and Dan Arey, on a technology collaboration.

BRB becomes a "premier" licensee of Gamebryo's recently-announced LightSpeed development system, in a partnership orchestrated by Seahorn Capital founder Marc Jackson.

In turn, BRB will support Emergent by showcasing prototypes and refining tools and features for the new platform, while Emergent provides custom support services for the studio's first projects.

LightSpeed is itself the fruit of a $12.5 million venture capital investment, and promises rapid prototyping, real-time updates and a single pipeline from prototype to gold master.

Rafei and Arey founded BRB in March 2008, stating the intent to become a "United Artists of games," while focusing on games with player-scaled difficulty. "In choosing to develop this strategic relationship with BRB as part of our game technology initiative, we had to ensure that the intent for both parties was to create a true partnership, as opposed to us just selling a license," says Emergent CEO Geoffrey Selzer.

"Emergent will help us hone the effectiveness of our distributed development model -- which will ultimately serve both the game development community and gamers as we find new ways to launch AAA quality games," added Dan Arey, BRB’s chief creative officer.