With the first sales came the realization that this could be a real business. �For my first ten years of programs,� he explains, �I wrote a giant variety of programs - some taking multiple years of development work - but I’d never actually released anything.� Sweeney released his first shareware game, ZZT. ![]() Sweeney, saying that programming, ultimately, satisfied his desire to build, �much more than designing physical things.� �I could write a program from beginning to end, and it could be something really complicated,� recalls Mr. He was disappointed to realize that an engineer would specialize - rather than building an entire car, he would only build a tiny part of the whole. Sweeney was comfortable enough with engineering to spend more time programming than studying. �I’ve always really looked at cash-flow as a key driver of being able to develop cool things.�ĭespite the full course load, he still had a few hours a day to program. He mowed lawns to buy computer equipment. Sweeney entered the University of Maryland, for the rigorous study of mechanical engineering. �That really informed me a lot about how to build a game that makes sense.� By age sixteen, he had built several games and several bulletin board services. He focus-tested early creations on neighborhood kids. �It’s always a puzzle to figure out what’s happening behind the screen, in the software.� ![]() He flourished as a programmer, and played games as a scientist, rather than a gamer. He figured out how to get graphics on the screen within weeks. To sit at a computer, to feed it instructions, to see the results instantly on the screen: �It was love at first sight.� Sweeney would spend the majority of his waking hours programming. �From that point on, I was really addicted to programming.�Īfter the family got an Apple II for Christmas, Mr. He still remembers seeing his first IBM computer at age eleven, sitting down, and getting his first chance to program the powerful machine. Sweeney, adding, ï¿❚nd from that, you can tell what a geek I am.� �I saw it as this glamorous lifestyle,� recalls Mr. ![]() His oldest brother Steve moved out to California to work in the early computer industry. The young Tim Sweeney built go-karts and dreamed of a career making complicated machines. He grew up in an idyllic part of rural Maryland, swallowed all-too-soon by urban sprawl from Washington, D.C. Sweeney was born to a father with a classified government job and a mother who raised three sons and worked in a flower shop. He pioneered technology, fostered talent, and guided his company through periodic reinvention, towards ever-greater success. Tim Sweeney will be remembered for starting a company called Epic, and crafting an engine called Unreal. Tim Sweeney, CEO and Technical Director, Epic Games, Inc.
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