"Creating Worlds of Adventure, Conflict, and Companionship that Inspire You to Become the Hero of Your Story."
BioWare was founded by Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, alongside Trent Oster,
his brother Brent, Zeschuk's cousin Marcel, and Augustine Yip. Of the founding
team, Muzyka, Zeschuk and Yip had recently graduated from medical school at the
University of Alberta, and had a background in programming for use in school.
Together with Yip, they had created a medical simulation programme. The three
also played video games for recreation, eventually deciding to develop their
own. Their success in the medical field provided them with the funding they
needed to launch a video game company. To make their first game, they pooled
their resources, which resulted in capital of $100,000.
The company was incorporated on 1 February 1995, though formally launched on
22 May 1995. Their first game, Shattered Steel, began its life as a proof-of-concept
demo, similar to the MechWarrior games. This demo was submitted to ten publishers,
seven of whom returned to the company with an offer. A publishing deal for Shattered
Steel was eventually signed with Interplay Entertainment. Brent Oster and Trent Oster
left BioWare at that time to form Pyrotek Studios, which continued developing
Shattered Steel but broke up a year later, with Trent returning to BioWare to
finish the game. BioWare's first game was released the following year.
Shattered Steel's release was described by IGN as a "modest success" with
"decent sales". Two noteworthy points were the deformable terrain (player weapon
damage caused craters in the environment) and zone damage (well-aimed gunfire
could shoot mounted weapons off enemies). A sequel to Shattered Steel was planned
for 1998 but never realized.
BioWare's founders and staff were keenly interested in both computerized and
pen-and-paper variants of role-playing games. Their next development project,
therefore, was determined to be a role-playing game. When Interplay financed
"exploratory development", BioWare presented the publishers with a demo called
Battleground: Infinity. Interplay suggested that the demonstrated gameplay engine
would be well-suited to the Dungeons & Dragons licence which it had acquired
from Strategic Simulations. Accordingly, Infinity was reworked in line with the
Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. The result was Baldur's Gate, with a development
cycle of three years. During this time, the three doctors continued to practice
medicine. The demands of development later prompted Muzyka and Zeschuck to leave
medicine and move into full-time development. Augustine Yip decided to continue
with his medical practice. Baldur's Gate sold more than two million copies after
its release, nearly matching the sales of Diablo. Following the success of
Baldur's Gate, the Infinity Engine was used for the games Planescape: Torment
and the Icewind Dale series. The success of Baldur's Gate was followed by an
expansion pack for the game: Tales of the Sword Coast.