Introduction

Just a block off the main street of Chicago’s Greektown is Day 1 Studios, where Gamasutra sat down for an in-depth chat with Denny Thorley, president of the company. Thorley touched on all the hot-button issues, from being an independent developer, working with publishers, the digital distribution experience, why IP isn’t as important as you might think, hopes for new hardware, and an interesting look at co-development.

Thorley has been in the business over twenty years – before that he was in the ski industry. “I’ve never had a job that wasn’t a hobby first," he told us. Though his preferences have always leaned toward the design and production sides of game development, he has also done work in marketing and sales. This well-rounded experience, he said, "allowed us to raise the money for FASA Interactive when we started that,” referring to the studio that would later be purchased by Microsoft.

Denny Thorley, President, Day 1 Studios

“When they took everyone to Redmond,” says Thorley, “[Microsoft] knew I had an idea for a Battletech game. And they were doing the Xbox, which hadn’t been announced at all. They said, ‘Well, if you can put a team together…’ and that became MechAssault. And that studio became Day 1 Studios.”