Gamers at Work: Stories Behind the Games People Play

Ted PriceFounder, Insomniac Games

In 1993, Princeton University graduate Ted Price left his uncle's concierge medicine business, driven by a need to be "artistically creative." He established Insomniac Games that year, aiming to build the company's first title, a first-person shooter called Disruptor. Soon, Price was joined by Al Hastings, a programmer who was also a Princeton graduate. They were introduced by their mothers.

Price and Hastings worked together to build a demo, and pitched the title to publishers up and down the West Coast. Unsuccessful, ...