Former Mainframe Ent. ceo Rick Mischel announced today (May 29, 2007) that he has launched Reach Games a new games company specializing in supplying art, design, modeling, animation and localization services to the videogame industry. Based in Vancouver, Reach plans to service other developers and publishers from around the world. Reach also plans to co-develop casual games and handheld games with other developers.
Joining Reach as gm is Ali Kojori, who created and headed Mainframeâs Game Division, bringing in such clients as Electronic Arts, Rockstar and Radical Ent. With a long history in the games industry, Kojori, was senior producer for Ubisoft on console titles like HEROES OF THE PACIFIC, 187 RIDE OR DIE and the PSP handheld title STREET RIDERS. Kojori began his career a decade ago at Electronic Arts. âAfter a decade at major publishers, I know their need for cost effective, high quality work," said Kojori. "We plan to meet that need with a best practices, flexible project management approach at Reach.â
Ivan Allan and Michael Douglas round out Reachâs initial creative team. Allan, Reachâs senior producer, has 18 years of experience in the software development and publishing industry, including 12 years at Electronic Arts on the NBA LIVE and NEED FOR SPEED franchises. At Nokia, Allan built its publishing business to support the N-Gage mobile game platform. Allan will concentrate on Reachâs handheld and mobile content development.
Douglas, Reachâs art director, most recently headed up Mainframeâs creative services division, creating pitch materials, graphic design work, branding, motion graphics, titling and interactive design for a wide variety of clients, including MTV (2006 MTV MOVIE AWARDS), Hothead Games, Sony Pictures Television and Mattel.
âThis group has proven their ability to manage an aggressive game production pipeline, ensuring clients meet their release dates, while providing the highest quality work,â said Mischel. Reach Games has already successfully delivered a number of individual projects encompassing a wide range of services-from game front-end design, intro cinematics, in-game modeling and design and animation services. âWe want other game developers to know thereâs a reliable and cost-effective solution to their outsourcing needs right here in Vancouver,â adds Mischel.
Mischel, with a history of proven start-ups, most recently restored Mainframe Ent. to financial health and engineered the companyâs sale to Rainmaker Ent. He also was president/coo of The Harvey Ent. Co., owner of the Harvey Comics brands like Casper the Friendly Ghost, and successfully led that company to a financial turnaround and eventual sale.
As chairman of the board of New Media BC, Mischel has been intimately involved in the gaming community in British Columbia.
With an experienced team of project managers, a flexible project management model and talent that has contributed to some of the best-selling and critically-acclaimed games of the last decade, Reach Games provides clients the highest quality work on a reliable, cost-efficient basis. While based in Vancouver, Reach Games (www.reachgames.com) has relationships with studios worldwide.
