Jim Sachs of Burbank-based Prolific Publishing
Incorporated feels strongly about realism, and that attention to
detail has made the company's screen savers, utilities, and DVDs top
sellers. Sachs recently talked about the company's mission and
goals.
How did digital entertainment software get
started at Prolific?
In 1999, I had already established
myself in 3D computer graphics. I had implemented Defender the Crown,
arguably the turning point in computer graphic implementation. It had
made a boatload of money for the publisher, but a measly $8,000 for me.
I was making a decent living, but others were making a killing.
At
this same time, I was observing that other products with 3D
implementations, especially those with aquariums, were presenting
decidedly disappointing results. Although the state of the art at the
time allowed realism, the products on the market were not reaching this
state of realistic presentation.
I began a marine aquarium
software project with the goals of showing the 3-D community what could
really be done. Each fish, each piece of coral, each plant was built
from a single pixel on up. After SereneScreen Marine Aquarium was
released in early 2000, 3Dfiles.com was receiving about 100,000 hits per
day requesting it.
When the sales became too big for me to handle
alone, I approached my longtime friend, Baron R.K. Von Wolfsheild, owner
and CTO of Prolific Publishing, to help him manage the sales, and grow
the distribution of the product from a downloadable to including a
retail presence.
What got you personally interested in
doing this work?
I'm a self-taught computer programmer. My
college training is in the area of architecture, and his 6-year Air
Force duty was flying C-141 Starlifters. The artistic side of computers
has always captured my imagination and fueled my creative needs.
Where do you want to build the company from here? What are
your main goals for the year ahead?
We have several other
like products in the works--not necessarily undersea. That's all we can
say right now. We want to continue to bring products to market that show
advanced technology implementation at its finest, and frankly, there's
nothing like watching someone experience these products for the first
time.
We have been building technology and wowing our audience
for a long time, longer than people would realize. What is really
interesting is that the team that brought you Marine Aquarium, Goldfish,
and Sharks have all worked together on all sorts of different projects
for almost two decades. It's a little like musicians who get the chance
to play together from time to time.
What do you like
best about what you do?
The best thing about bringing these
types of products to market is getting the feedback from those who own
them. People use these products for a large variety of reasons, aside
from screen saving, everything from cats trying to climb into the
monitor to war veterans using the products as a stress
reducer.
One of our team was in a Fry's Electronics, and overheard
two people arguing whether what they were looking at was real or fake.
That is a great feeling--we created the illusion of like.
What all
of us love best is that it is the art that people think about first.
This turns to wonderment as they realize they're not quite sure what
they're looking at. Then curiosity sets in and they are determined to
study it to try and figure it out, which brings them back to
appreciating the art of it again.
And then, there are the
children, the most honest critics, and our happiest customers.
Do you know a Southern California company we should
cover? Let us know about it. Send your local profile candidates to
dan@computeruser.com.
