TECHNOLOGY HOBBY TURNS BUSINESS What began as a hobby for a couple of young developers morphed into Offworld Industries. Founded in 2014, the video game company is the brainchild of CEO Will Stahl and game producer Norbert Rothermel. The two young developers didn’t set out to become a leading video game company with more than 100,000 regular players worldwide. It happened by happenstance. “For fun, we made modifications to a game called Butterfield,” explains Stahl, who has a computer science degree. “We use to play the game ourselves, and we wanted to make it a more realistic one. After that, we decided we really enjoyed the process.” Their game, Squad, is a lifelike military game that pits 80 players from all over the world against each other in virtual battle. “Technology has allowed us to reach a wider audience,” says Rothermel. “The engines that exist now allow us to create our own technology, with more realistic graphics … even with a small team of us.” Recently, the studio moved from its Burnaby location to New West, into a much larger space to accommodate their growing company. “We are about to publish a new game based on World War 11, set to release soon,” adds Stahl.
FROM GAMES TO IT SOFTWARE CL Simplex is a company of web and technology specialists that help organizations, non-profits, public and private companies with any web and IT solutions. The IT company was created in 2015 by New Westminster native Levon Zadravec-Powell and business partner Charles Moolin. “We are a solutions organization, but we primarily use technology to achieve business objectives,” Zadravec-Powell explains, adding his focus is on building software, quality assurance and improving internal workflow. What makes CL Simplex different than other web designers is that they own their web servers, which means they don’t host web projects with third parties. “We are truly a one-stop shop for all web solutions,” says Zadravec-Powell. When a professional lacrosse player came to Cl Simplex for an event management project, the company created an integrated custom event and registration system. “We use a dispatch tool that enables our client to track ticket sales in real time,” says Zadravec-Powell. “It is like a GPS system.” The city’s open-access fibre optic network promises to be a real bonus for CL Simplex.
“We are very excited to have this kind of pipeline,” adds Zadravec-Powell. “It will really help us with our large-scale projects.” Another of the city’s longest running IT companies is Avocette. Launched in 1977, Avocette opened one of its headquarters on Sixth Street a decade ago. This information technology (IT) firm provides software and services to private and public sectors, including several provincial departments and Crown corporations, including transportation, labour, health services and Legal Services Society of B.C., ICBC, across Canada and the United States. “We specialize in tailored solutions for companies in product integration, consulting, managed services and IT staffing solutions,” says Scott Ross, CEO Avocette. “We support applications and enhance our clients’ existing software programs as companies grow or when they launch new business initiatives.” Avocette’s 50 employees include IT developers, business analysts, project managers and support staff. “What separates us from other IT firms is we offer software specialty and a full suite of services,” explains Ross. CONTINUED ON PAGE 15
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