The Origins of Alganon – Part I
David Allen and Alganon:
Author’s Note: David Allen is the individual who created Alganon, and the co-founder of Quest Online. David Allen ran the company, hired all team members, and managed the project from January 2006 to February 2010.
This article was written after a short one-on-one discussion with David Allen. I am currently working on researching the origins of the online gaming industry, and I found this information interesting and an important part of the overall story. I am not claiming David Allen created online gaming, but am sharing this article because it is a small piece of MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) history. In the future, I plan to compile all information I gather and share that with the gaming world.
The Origins of Alganon & Quest Online
How did Alganon begin? After working with Greg Wexler for nearly two years, David approached him in December 2005 about making a MMOG called Crusade (which would later become Alganon). Greg was new and unfamiliar with the MMOG industry so David brought him up to speed. David told him an “alternative to WoW and other fantasy-based MMOGs” would be a great first product. The company, Quest Online, was officially started in January 2006 with David and Greg as equal owners and Managing Members and Jason Blood as their first developer.
David adds “When we began, we first built a prototype in parallel with an in-depth business plan, projecting development needs and potential sales based on known industry numbers for that time. I worked on the overall design and direction, fleshing out the world, races, classes, and overall “feel” of the game to prepare for presentation to investors. This included working with Doug Shuler to create the artistic “vision” for the game while Jason wrote the core client and we hired an art team to build the visual assets. We also brought two talented developers on board to begin developing our world dev tool system. Greg continued to support the company and small team to accomplish this goal with additional financial support. We grew the Prototype into a functional Alpha of the game and Greg introduced some of his friends to me so we could approach them for additional investment in 2007. Those individuals brought their friends and family on board. I made multiple trips to Tarzana, CA, staying at Greg’s place, and giving presentations to these new investors.”
There were many challenges in 2007 to early 2008, one resulting in David taking no salary for nearly the whole year resulting in the loss of his house and selling his Demise IP to ensure the team was paid. It worked. In 2008 QOL brought on new investors which financially secured the company and really allowed them to grow, with a father and son team as the “lead investors” who had the capital to continue additional contributions. David also changed the name of the game to Alganon to establish original IP QOL would own outright.
According to David Allen, “It was exciting to see Alganon growing into a living breathing world as all of the core systems grew together in parallel; the client, server, world dev tools, Alganon website, and the beginning of MyAlganon. There was actually a point where we had the money to finally grow the team but couldn’t find the level of talent necessary to fill key positions at the company. Finding the right people became one of our biggest challenges and for months we had client and server positions vacant as I put all effort into finding the right matches.”
Click here for Part II of The Origin of Alganon
