Incentive Software Ltd. was a British

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a larg ...

and

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

founded by Ian Andrew in 1983. Programmers included Sean Ellis, Stephen Northcott and Ian's brother Chris Andrew. Later games were based on the company's

Freescape Freescape is a video game engine, an early 3D game engine used in video games such as 1987's '' Driller''. Graphics were composed mostly of solid geometry rendered without shading. History Developed in-house by Incentive Software, Freescape is c ...

rendering engine. Developed in-house, Freescape is considered to be one of the first proprietary 3D engines to be used in

computer games A personal computer game, also known as a PC game or computer game, is a type of video game played on a personal computer (PC) rather than a video game console or arcade machine. Its defining characteristics include: more diverse and user-d ...

, although the engine was not used commercially outside of Incentive's own titles. The project was originally thought to be so ambitious that according to Ian Andrew, the company struggled to recruit programmers for the project, with many believing that it could not be achieved. Paul Gregory (graphics artist for Major Developments, Incentive's in-house design team) mentions that Freescape was developed by Chris Andrew starting in September 1986 on an

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the S ...

, as it was the most suitable development system with 128K memory and had adequate power to run 3D environments. Due to the engine's success, it was later ported to all the dominant systems of the era: the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...

, the

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a tea ...

, the Commodore 64,

Commodore Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved grap ...

and Atari ST. Freescape development ended in 1992 with the release of

3D Construction Kit II ''3D Construction Kit II'' (released in North America as ''Virtual Reality Studio 2.0''), is a utility for creating 3D virtual worlds in Freescape. Developed by Incentive Software and published by Domark, it was released on November 10, 1992 ...

. The company was renamed ''Dimension International'' as it moved into the VR field in 1995 with its next-generation

Superscape VRT Superscape was a British developer and publisher of mobile games. The company has developed several mobile games, licensed from such companies as 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures and Global Wireless entertainment. Superscape ev ...

engine, then later changed name again to ''

Superscape Superscape was a British developer and publisher of mobile games. The company has developed several mobile games, licensed from such companies as 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures and Global Wireless entertainment. Superscape e ...

''.

List of titles

The following games were published and/or developed by Incentive Software:

References

External links

Incentive Software
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

Adventureland - Incentive Software Ltd
Companies based in Reading, Berkshire Video game companies established in 1983 Defunct companies of England Video game development companies Video game publishers Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom {{UK-videogame-company-stub

List of titles

See also

References

External links