Old News ‘96: BioWare Started For $US100,000

Before they were a part of Electronic Arts and bringing Dragon Age: Origins to the masses, BioWare was small and scrappy. And one of their founders walked around the office barefoot.

You are reading Kotaku’s once-weekly (sort of) journey back to yesteryear.

We’re back in 1996 and the Calgary Herald paid a visit to the 22-person development studio that was BioWare. The reporter meets company founders Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip.

The story was headlined: “BioWare prizes youth, energy, creativity: BioWare on the Web Three Edmonton doctors build up software company after-hours”

Here’s some stuff on the company’s founding and good news about Muzyka’s restraint during his physician days.

The three partners met while studying for their medical degrees at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Muzyka, Yip and Zeschuk, all 27, discovered they enjoyed computing as well as game-playing. The common bonds led them to form BioWare in 1995 with about $US100,000 in start-up capital.

However, even before they formalized the company, they had started development on their first piece of software in 1993. While they were still residents in family practice, they put together a computer tutorial for the U of A’s faculty of medicine.
…

Muzyka notes that BioWare is a showcase for the three doctors to express themselves creatively. “That’s a good part of why we do this, because in medicine to some extent, you have to stifle that (creative urge) quite a bit.”

Since then, BioWare’s made some big games. Baldur’s Gate. Knights of the Old Republic. Mass Effect. Now Dragon Age. I’m guessing the initial investment has been recovered.

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