When Tom Crago joined the Melbourne-based Tantalus at the turn of the century, it was on the verge of collapse. With a small Game Boy Advance deal as its only means of revenue and a hefty figure owed to the tax department due to a “self-prescribed sabbatical” on payments, Crago was volunteering himself as CEO of a technology company that was basically insolvent. Very few would roll the dice on such a shaky gamble.
Crago, however, was driven and most importantly, young. He had come from Adelaide-based development studio Ratbag where he had worked primarily as director of development straight out of university, and was hungry - in that foolhardy, 25-years-old way - for opportunities to use his business smarts to leverage undiscovered talent.
When Tom Crago joined Tantalus... it was on the verge of collapse.
“I looked at the skills they had and what I thought I could bring to that partnership”, remembers Crago, “and so I went over there and I said, “guys, you should make me a shareholder and make me your CEO”.
It was an audacious proposal, but Crago is an audacious man. A nimble, witty speaker with a mischievous smile, he possesses that striking sense of invulnerability you see in those who are genuinely entrepreneurial. It’s no surprise that in 2001, he was hired to run the struggling Tantalus, the ‘no-name’ Australian studio that Nintendo eventually chose to port Zelda: Twilight Princess to the Wii U in 2016.
Founded by programmers Andrew Bailey and Trevor Nuridin in 1994, Tantalus was primarily a tech company whose modest revenue stream came from porting coin-op games to PC and console. Before Crago joined, it already had several games under its belt including Stargate on the SNES and Wipeout on Saturn.
Tantalus’ minor success to date had been carved out by its technological prowess. Crago remembers being particularly struck by Aussie industry stalwart Bailey (“one of the great technical minds in the Australian video game industry”) and his uncanny ability to push hardware to its limits. It was Bailey’s Game Boy Advance demo that eventually saved Tantalus from collapse during those early days.
“I think it was in my first week at Tantalus and Andrew showed me this demo for a car racing game”, says Crago. “It was the most impressive piece of technology that I’d ever seen”.
Tom Crago.
Bailey’s demo manipulated the ARM chip in the Game Boy Advance to do something it wasn’t built to do: make a game look properly 3D. Any fears Crago had over the future of the company dissipated as he realised the demo was so immediately impressive he could pitch it to a small Japanese publisher Tantalus worked with called Kemco, which held the rights to racing franchise Top Gear Rally. A deal was made, the project eventually came to Nintendo’s attention during development, and Top Gear Rally for the Game Boy Advance was released by Nintendo to critical acclaim globally in 2003.
Bailey’s demo manipulated the ARM chip in the Game Boy Advance to do something it wasn’t built to do: make a game look properly 3D.
“A lot of making games is about tricks and hacks and cheats”, says Crago, “and that engine on the GBA is a shining example of what it’s possible to do when you're playing around the edges of reasonableness”.
During development of Top Gear Rally, Tantalus continued porting. Its entries in the early 2000s were unremarkable - a mishmash of forgettable cartoon and movie licenses - but the company got an opportunity to prove its dexterity again when it was approached to port Unreal II from PC to console.
“Atari who were the publishers of that game were keen to have it brought from PC to Xbox”, says Crago. “[Unreal II developer] Legend didn’t think it was possible and Epic weren’t too sure about it either”.
Crago throws around the term ‘foolhardy’ a lot when talking about his early decisions at Tantalus. Free from the practical - and arguably, sensible - concerns of a programmer, he was able to say yes to things that would have sent other CEOs running for the hills. The ‘impossible’ Unreal II port went ahead.
Unreal!
“It was a very complex, long, challenging project”, remembers Crago. “Bringing a game that ran pretty slow on high end PCs to the Xbox, which was of course, in terms of specifications, a much less powerful machine than the PCs on which it had been designed to run”.
The team delivered a product that helped secure long-lasting relationships with its partners. Unreal II on the Xbox was a faithful adaptation of the glossy PC game, with the addition of online multiplayer.
“It’s rarely the case that a conversion is hands down better than the original”, says Crago, “but in many instances it can be a good approximation. What we try to do is add features, functionality, and generally look at where we can improve the experience”.
Crago throws around the term ‘foolhardy’ a lot when talking about his early decisions at Tantalus.
Around this time, the industry’s teeth were rattled by the thud of new hardware. With its GBA pedigree, Crago knew that Tantalus was in a good position to pitch development projects on the new - and very popular - Nintendo DS. With its cluster of licensed kids and movie-based titles, THQ was quick to put up its hand, and soon, Tantalus was working on The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius: Attack of the Twonkies and Spongebob Squarepants: The Yellow Avenger for Nintendo’s handheld.
These projects, though small and not particularly noteworthy in a larger body of work, helped further Tantalus’ reputation as one of the most reliable developers on Nintendo platforms. “We sought to do everything we could to be great partners with Nintendo”, says Crago, “and certainly third party publishers came to look at us as being experts on Nintendo platforms.
“When big publishers had something that they were thinking about bringing to the DS, it was very often the case that we’d get the opportunity to take a look and see if it was a fit for us”.
By 2007, Tantalus was sitting pretty. Its biggest hit to date was Pony Friends, a DS title so successful that it popularised an entire equestrian sub-genre on the platform. Millions of people were embracing the casual DS catalogue, and it helped that Tantalus had a sound partnership with THQ, which looked after much of Disney’s kid-friendly catalogue at the time.
But behind the curtain, the stress of having multiple shareholders was taking its toll. Several wanted to sell their shares, some wanted to stay, and weekly meetings were turning into scathing, teeth-gritted arguments around the direction of the business. Ultimately, Crago decided that he was going to step in and buy everyone out, but to do that, he needed a big bank loan.
“Something needed to happen”, says Crago, “and as the CEO I felt the need to drive that. Certainly there were days where if a publisher had rolled up and wanted to buy us, we would have sold in a heartbeat”.
The loan was three and a half million. It was the usual balls-in-a-vice kind of thing, explains Crago, with the pressure of personal guarantees. “But honestly I had confidence in the team and what we were doing and I felt it constituted a good risk”.
Fortunately, Nintendo was about to alleviate the “sickening magnitude” of Crago’s gamble. The arrival and immediate popularity of the Wii in 2007 was the perfect encapsulation of the serendipitous and highly uncertain nature of the video game industry: for Tantalus, whose reputation was built around its mastery of Nintendo hardware, it was heaven-sent.
And then, as these things tend to do in the video game world, it all came crashing down.
“It was a happy day”, remembers Crago. “Even though new hardware brings with it tumultitude, you really have to embrace that, it has to be part of your DNA as a developer. Those have to be exciting days when you hear about the next new thing, and you have to think, "well how am I going to be able to build on the tools and technology that we already have too capitalise on this thing, so then we can get out into that market?”
Crago was very quickly able to sign a three title deal with Eidos to develop Wii games built around the Pony Friends franchise. Interest in Tantalus from venture capitalist firms soon followed, and Crago was able to bring on technology investment company Netus as partner. He paid off his loan, opened a new office in Brisbane, and began investing in new IP development. In 2007, Tantalus was flying high, raking in the cash, the poster child for Aussie “hard work pays” values.
And then, as these things tend to do in the video game world, it all came crashing down.
Continues
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