FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR Contact for Digini:
Susan Lusty
206-331-4659
slusty@earthlink.net

GDC 2008, San Francisco, CA (February 19, 2008) – Digini, Inc., today announced that it will be demonstrating the “Industry Preview” release of its Blade3D game development tool set this week at the Game Developers Conference 2008 being held in San Francisco, CA. Digini was founded to democratize the development of games by simplifying the development process and provide high-caliber tools at an affordable price for every level of developer. To that end, Digini’s Blade3D offers users a robust, stable, and professional platform that’s easy to use and scales up or down depending on the needs of each customer. The “Industry Preview” release will be available on March 15, 2008, with priority access being offered to existing beta users and those who sign-up at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. The commercial version is expected to go live in Spring 2008.
Built on the Microsoft XNA platform, the Blade3D game development tool set is the first product to offer a truly integrated development platform designed to remove traditional barriers in the production pipeline. By leveraging and extending the platform, Blade3D games can be deployed with no modifications on Microsoft XP, Microsoft Vista, Xbox 360 and any other platform that XNA supports. The initial beta release is available now as a free download from the Digini website (www.digini.com), and already has more than 8,000 users around the world. After commercial release, Blade3D will feature a low, monthly subscription-based pricing model that scales for a broad range of users – from students studying game development to independent developers to professional development studios.

Artists and designers will find Blade3D easy to work with (without programmer intervention), while programmers will be able to develop full-blown scenes on their own. Re-defining the creative art of building games, Blade3D can be used for complete development of games, as well as serving as a compelling “rapid prototyping” platform for testing game mechanics. It also features runtime components that together allow rapid creation of games.

Blade3D is structured to encourage the first-time game developer, providing an easy-to-use creative environment. By logically organizing features into specific functional areas, first-time artists, developers and designers can easily learn their way around the system and start making games in the first half hour of using Blade3D. The product’s object-based system gives users the flexibility to create new systems and components that hook directly into the framework without the need to recompile the entire product and without affecting other systems already in place. By treating various components in the system as separate objects, an artist or designer (who does not know how to program) can simply drag them onto the workspace and see a visual representation of that component. Much like a simple chart or graph, artists can drag connecting lines from one object to the next to provide straightforward and easy to understand interfaces between game assets and logic. A full feature set is detailed at http://www.blade3d.com.

"Blade3D lets studios and indies quickly and easily create and deliver both casual and rich 3D games while others are still prototyping. We saw a gap in the tools available to the game development community. It is our aim to take the years of experience we have in tools development and apply this to reduce the turnaround time in game production. By building our system on top of XNA, Digini’s Blade3D is the first product to target multiple platforms from a single easy-to-use environment," said Christian Beaumont, founder and CTO of Digini, Inc.

The pricing strategy for Blade3D makes it ideal for all levels of game developers by ensuring no financial barrier to entry for any user. The product will be offered with a monthly subscription model that offers a variety of price points based on the sets of feature and services the individual user wants. The company is also working on an educational program to provide Blade3D to students, both directly and through a broad range of educational institutions.

Company Executives and Background
Digini is run by a team of game industry veterans that have expertise in all facets of game development, production and studio management. Combined, Digini’s principals have shipped more than 100 titles across most major platforms. The company was founded by Christian (CTO) and Behnaz Beaumont (VP of Product Development), a husband and wife team who spent the last twenty years creating leading edge development tools for companies such as Microsoft and Motorola. In his 25+ years of experience, Christian created the phenomenally successful library ATL and worked as Distinguished Engineer at Motorola. Behnaz, with 15+ years of experience, was a key member of the Visual Studio team at Microsoft, helping create many of the tools and features in the product and acquiring multiple patents. As senior developer for Motorola, she also created advanced 3D consumer products.

CEO Tony Garcia has been in the video game business for more than 25 years and has held many senior positions. Tony created the games division at Microsoft in 1991 and propelled them to be a major player in the videogames industry. At Electronic Arts, Tony was the General Manager of Electronic Arts Seattle, where he oversaw leading franchises such as “Need for Speed” and “FIFA Soccer”. Prior to his time at Microsoft, he was also the director of development at LucasFilm, where he worked on such titles, as “Indiana Jones”, “Fate of Atlantis”, and “Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe”.

Jon Grande, who serves as President and COO, joined Digini after serving as Vice President at Sigil Games Online, prior to its acquisition by Sony Online Entertainment. During his 17-year tenure at Microsoft, Jon created the group that became the hugely popular MSN Gaming Zone. He also served as executive producer on several “Game of the Year” titles for PC, Xbox, and Xbox 360 and managed relationships with several of Microsoft’s top development partners, including BioWare and Gas Powered Games.

Dmitry Shtainer, Digini’s Vice President of Technology, has been involved with some of the most highly acclaimed video games in the last 10 years. In his role as R&D manager at Crytek, he was responsible for raising the bar in terms of technical excellence and visual realism in next-generation video games and pioneered many of the advanced techniques that made “FarCry”, “Crysis”, and “Inferno” award-winning, top-selling titles.

About Digini, Inc
Founded in 2004 and based in Issaquah, Washington, Digini, Inc., is the creator of Blade3D, a powerful yet easy to use all-in-one game development system for developers of all skill levels. The company also provides a community hub and development environment for independent developers to build rich, visually stunning games and 3D interactive projects for the PC and Xbox 360 platform.