In 1998, an engineer invented a groundbreaking technology that changed media forever.
After an exec meeting, he decided to make it available to anyone - even his competitors.
Now he’s worth ~$9B, and even The Mandalorian uses his tech.
Here’s how that meeting went 🧶👇
1) While studying mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland, Tim Sweeney would regularly visit his parents who lived nearby a nearby city - Potomac.
As his first foray into entrepreneurship, Tim started Potomac Computer Systems in 1991.
2) The company started out as a IT consultancy but after toiling away for a few months, he decided stop and try something different.
Computer consulting wasn’t his passion. Something else was - video games.
3) “I used to play the early arcade games. You know, there's Pac-Man, Defender... there's this one I was addicted to for a while, Space Firebird”
He’d even started building his own games on his first computer, the Apple II.
4) So he decided Potomac Computer Systems would becoming a video gaming company.
Now what games to make?
That was a tough question.
He started a list of ideas, but quickly became distracted and frustrated with the quality of text-editing software that was on his computer.
5) He started building his own.
While building his own text editor he “got bored and decided to make the cursor into the smiley face character, and then make different characters you could type that would block the player or move around in different ways.”
6) He continued creating an insanely interactive text-editor, and eventually it evolved into his first “game”.
ZZT.
7) ZZT released and, to Tim’s surprise, did quite well.
He started taking the business seriously.
One of the first things he did? Rename the company.
Potomac Computer Systems became Epic MegaGames.
8) For his next two games, Jill of the Jungle and Unreal, Tim knew he wouldn’t be able to make these alone, so he gathered an all-star team.
Tim tasked the team with the gameplay and development, and spent the majority of his own time designing and building the architecture.
9) He was building “engine” of the game. It made everything that the artists, game designers, and developers were building come to life.
Tim didn’t just build this engine to work for his games - he built it so it could render *any* game.
10) In early 1998, Unreal, a first person shooter, was prepping for launch.
Amidst all the launch meetings, the “engine” Tim had built came up.
This tech would serve as the foundation for all of Epic’s games for years to come.
11) But it’d also be valuable to anyone else trying to create games.
Should Epic keep the technology to themselves?
They'd have a leg up on the competition, creating more beautiful, immersive games than anyone else.
Tim, however, already had other plans.
12) This was his baby. He’d personally written 90% of the code for it.
But he was giving it away.
He wanted his creation to benefit video games an industry.
By licensing his tech, he’d be advancing video game graphics into the next generation, for gamers everywhere.
13) With the release of Unreal, Epic also released the Unreal Engine.
Their secret sauce was now available to all.
Sound familiar?
Amazon and AWS have a similar founding story:
14) The Unreal Engine would become one of the most lucrative parts of Epic’s business, with devs using Tim’s engine for games across consoles and genres.
Epic themselves continued to utilize their own tech to put out smash hits like Gears of War, Fortnite, and Rocket League.
15) Even further, movie studios and TV shows have utilized Epic’s Unreal engine to create otherwordly experiences.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/20/21145671/mandalorian-sets-stagecraft-epic-games-ilm-fortnite-baby-yoda-digital
16) Epic Games was a name Tim chose “to make it look like we were a big company”
Now, after 30 years of leading the way, Tim’s created something bigger than he ever dreamed of.
