TROIKA DEFINED:

What is a Troika anyway?

troi-ka (troi'ku), --n. 1. a Russian carriage, wagon, or sleigh drawn by a team of three horses abreast.

2. a team of three horses driven abreast.

3. any group of three persons, nations, etc., acting equally in unison to exert influence, control, or the like.

What is Troika Games?

Troika Games is an up and coming computer game developing company which consists of a team of immaginative designers, artists and coders who are as dedicated to their work as they are to their fans. The company was founded on April 1, 1998 (yes, April Fools Day) by Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky and Jason Anderson. Also on the Troika team are Chris Jones, Mark Harrison, Yong Park, Jesse Reynolds, Sharon Shellman, Chad Moore Michael McCarthy and Steve Moret.

What is Troika Games current project?

Troika Games current project is tittled Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, which is slated for release on August 24, 2001. You can find out more about this ambitious new RPG tittle by clicking on the "CURRENT PROJECTS" link on the left side bar.

THE TROIKA GAMES FOUNDING FATHERS:

Tim Cain

For little known facts about and archived interviews with Tim Cain, click on his portrait. Go ahead, make his day!

Best known as the producer, lead programmer and designer of Fallout (the 1997 RPG of the Year), Tim Cain has worked in the game industry since 1982. He started as a programmer on Grand Slam Bridge, published by Electronic Arts in 1985. After attending college and receiving a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science, he worked at Interplay Productions from 1992 to 1998. In addition to Fallout, he was lead programmer on Bard’s Tale Construction Set and Rags to Riches, and he also designed and programmed GNW, a user interface and OS-abstraction library, which supports Fallout, Star Fleet Academy, M.A.X., Atomic Bomberman, and several other Interplay titles. He also wrote critical error handling code for Stonekeep and digital sound mixing code for Star Trek 25th Anniversary CD-ROM edition. After helping to complete the initial design for Fallout2, he left Interplay along with Leonard and Jason to form Troika Games.

Leonard Boyarsky

After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Art Center College of Design, Leonard Boyarsky entered the game world as a freelance artist in 1992. After various links he was hired as a cleanup artist at Interplay, where he quickly worked his way up to lead artist on Stonekeep. At the time Stonekeep ended, Leonard was given the opportunity to become lead artist/art director on the nebulous project that was to become Fallout. In addition to guiding the art on the project, he joined with Jason and Tim to oversee the complete direction and feel of the game, and helped come up with the original design. After helping to complete the initial design for Fallout2, he left Interplay along with Tim and Jason to form Troika Games.

Jason Anderson

Jason has worked in the computer game industry for the past 6 years. He started as a contract artist for Interplay working on USCF Chess. In September of 1994, He was hired at Interplay as the first artist to be assigned to the yet unnamed Fallout. Working closely with Tim Cain, he helped design the isometric engine, game world and interface used in Fallout. He also assisted in designing the box layout and artwork for Fallout. Earning the title of technical art director and designer, Jason worked on Fallout throughout its entire development cycle. In addition to Fallout, Jason assisted as an artist on Stonekeep and Light & Darkness. After helping to complete the initial design for Fallout2, he left Interplay along with Tim and Leonard to form Troika Games.

The rest of the brilliant Troika team:

Sissie Chang	While attending the University of California, Irvine, Sissie enrolled in a computer game development class that was co-lectured by Tim Cain. Although her team's final project turned out to be a gut-wrenching disaster, she learned much about the game industry through Tim Cain's Story Hour™. A year later, Sissie found herself testing Arcanum as part of the temporary QA team while learning the true meaning of crunch time. Once Arcanum was complete, Sissie joined the Troika team as a junior designer.
Tiffany Chu	Tiffany graduated from Pomona College with an English degree and everyone agreed that she would be flipping burgers. That didn't happen, but testing Arcanum did! She is now working happily as a junior designer with the Troika team, which is a good thing since she pondered going in to law if she couldn't join the game industry. Whew!
Scott Jacobson	Scott started in the game industry at Troika, playtesting Arcanum, and was hired back on for the next Troika project. Before life in Arcanum, he was holding down several non game-related jobs, and working his way to an AA in BCIS.
Michael McCarthy	Michael has spent the last 4 years honing his game-making abilities to semi-sharp edge. He began working in the industry while finishing up his B.F.A. at Ringling School of Art and Design if Sarasota, FL.. After working with Interplay Productions for three years, he decided to expand his horizons at Troika Games. Mike has worked on a few titles including (in order of appearance): Riana Rouge, Atomic Bomberman, Starfleet Academy, Die by the Sword, and the yet to be completed Icewind Dale. Michael loves tennis, snowboarding, his family, his Cornish Rex Zoe, his cash, and of course the ladies....... JUST KIDDING SWEETIE!!!
Chad Moore For little known facts about and archived interviews with Chad Moore, click on his portrait. Go ahead, make his day!	Chad Moore is a five year veteran of the industry, with an impressive list of games under his belt. (Okay, so its really only one game, but he’s had a lot of good ideas for games, so that should count for something.) Graduating in 1993 with a degree in Economics, he shunned the corporate world (translation: couldn’t get a decent job) and entered the computer art arena, where his extensive knowledge of supply and demand is invaluable when solving art problems like how big a fighter’s sword should be. After a successful career with Interplay productions, Chad joined the Troika team where he employs his creative expertise and energy in all aspects of the development process (ie, sitting at his desk and doing what he’s told.) Chad also enjoys writing, and is a student of various techniques. For example, writing autobiographies in the third-person.
Steve Moret	While working on his bachelor's degree at the University of California, Irvine, Steve enrolled in a computer game development course that happened to be co-lectured by Tim Cain. Keeping his ear to the wall he found out that Troika Games was in need of a multiplayer programmer for their upcoming title Arcanum. After a year of contract work Steve was hired on as a full-time programmer. When he's not purposefully shooting Tim through the head in a game of Unreal Tournament you can find him hard at work finishing up his degree at UC Irvine. At least that is what he tells his parents.
Yong Park	Yong was born in Korea, and spent the first 20 years of his life there. After he studied "business management" at "Korea University" for 2 years, he realized he was not really interested in that major. Yong then moved to the US. He tried several different types of jobs over the next 5 years, and finally realized that he was bad at almost every "economic aspect " of life, so he became an artist. After 3 years of drawing and painting, he heard that there were groups of people who were paid good money for just day-dreaming for hours and making drawings about what they dreamed of. This unbelievable news didn’t make sense to him at all, but he also knew that in the US, a lot of things don’t make sense anyway. He studied (day-dreamed) one more year to get a degree, and luckily enough, found a group of people hiring day-dreamers (artists). These days, Yong is day-dreaming, making drawings and playing with computers all day, but nobody calls him a loser. He even gets paid for that. Yong loves his job.
Jesse Reynolds	Jesse Reynolds moved to California to join Interplay in the summer of 1994. His first project was StoneKeep, which kept him busy for quite a while. After StoneKeep shipped, Jesse joined programming forces with Tim and Chris to work on the award-winning Fallout. Jesse was promoted to Lead Programmer on Fallout 2, and once it was completed, left Interplay to join the Troika team. When Jesse's not busy coding, he can be found attempting to kill his co-workers in a game of Quake, or gaining new levels on EQ. In addition to computer gaming, Jesse enjoys reading science fiction and fantasy novels, as well as playing pencil & paper RPGs.
Sharon Shellman For little known facts about and archived interviews with Shellman, click on her portrait. Go ahead, make her day!	About 4 years ago, Sharon (or Shellman as she prefers to be known) decided the corporate world sucked, and she wanted to be an artist. So she taught herself some 3D packages, and got herself a job as a contract artist on Fallout. She did several exciting cut scenes for the game including the Exiting the Vault, Dipped in the Mutant Vats, and Blowing up the Mutant Vats, and several characters, including Dogmeat, the Death Claw, the Brahman and Mr. Handy. After completing Fallout, Shellman was stolen away by Blizzard. At Blizzard she helped make cut scenes for both StarCraft and Broodwar. She also spent many hours crushing all of her co-workers during playtest on StarCraft prior to it's shipping. (and loved every minute of it!) Shellman decided it was time to leave Blizzard when she went into labor (and, contrary to predictions.....Gwyn didn't turn out looking like a Zerg) After healing from her wounds of childbirth, and goofing off with her new daughter for a few months, she joined the troika team in the ever expanding role of Office Manager / Artist / Receptionist / Bookkeeper / Mom. When not running the company, making movies, or yelling down the halls, Shellman is busy shopping on Ebay and spending time with 13 month old Gwyn, and (when his schedule permits) Gwyn's daddy, Jason. And, now that WarCraft II Battle.net Edition has been released, she'll probably be kicking some human butt around the office too!
Mark Harrison "Here lies Mark - We'll miss your spark." With Troika: April 1, 1998 - June 8, 2001	Mark started playing with games and programming early in life. In junior high he wrote a pillbox artillery game for the TRS-80, and learned the value of comments when he couldn't understand his own code the day after writing it. Mark began his career in the industry at Interplay during his last summer vacation from college. He started testing Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space, and soon moved into design work on Stonekeep. After receiving his BS, he returned as a programmer. Mark worked on a handful of ports before he joined the Fallout team for the last eight months of its development, and worked on Stonekeep II after that. When not coding, Mark enjoys playing computer games, especially strategy titles, and watching Red Dwarf or anything by Hayao Miyazaki, and it seems he can never get enough sushi. Like Chris Jones, Mark is no longer with Troika. He is currently working for AOL. We will miss you and we wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors as well.
Chris Jones "Here lies Chris - You brought us bliss." With Troika: April 1, 1998 - June 8, 2001	Chris has worked in the game industry for more than seven years. He began his career at Interplay, where he was involved in the development of many products. While working there, Chris attended school in the evenings to earn a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science. The titles Chris helped create include Rags to Riches, Star Trek: Judgement Rites, Stonekeep, M.A.X., Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Fallout. Chris was Co-Lead Programmer, along with Tim, on the critically acclaimed Fallout. When not working on Arcanum, Chris is either satisfying his Quake habit (translation: slaughtering Jesse, Chad and Jason), or spending time with his wife, 19-month old daughter and his two dogs. Chris is no longer with Troika. He is currently back with Interplay working on their new RPG TORN. We will miss you big guy and we wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.

Below are pictures taken at E3 2001 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) in Los Angels, California by various sources:

Steve Moret (pictured here giving Shellman the "bunny ears" sign). Also pictured are Tiffany "Chubaka" Chu (center) and Shellman's sister, Cynthia (far right). This was taken by Nick "Flipz". Thank you for sending this, buddy.

A HANDFULL OF OUR HEROES IN LIVING COLOR (Taken by Jason MacIsaac of Gamesmania):


Steve Moret and Tiffany Chu. Such lovely smiles.	Leon Boyarsky. Flirting with the pretty blondes again, 'ey?

Leon Boyarsky and Jason Anderson. E3 Burnout takes it's toll on these two brave warriors. WAKE UP LEON! IT'S NOT OVER YET BUDDY!	Shellman's sister, Cynthia. A future Troikanite?...you never can tell. She's already cool enough for Troika.


(from left to right) Michael McCarthy, Jason Anderson, Leonard Boyarsky	Chad Moore


The Arcanum sign. OOOooo...PRETTY! This sure would look sweet in my bedroom. :-)	A smaller Arcanum sign which I stretched so you could read it easier. I would add a third line "The most imaginative RPG ever made"