Creator / Gathering of Developers

Gathering of Developers (also known as GODGames or just Gathering) was an American video game publisher based in Texas, founded in 1998 by former id Software marketer Mike Wilson, alongside a few others. Its mission statement included letting indie developers retain complete control over their projects, IP, marketing and other decisions.

The company ended up getting acquired outright by Take-Two Interactive in May 2000, and the ownership has severly bungled their principles for treatment of developers and IP ownership. Take-Two would later close down the Dallas office in August 2001 and eventually fold the entire label into Global Star Software by 2004.

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Games and series published by Gathering of Developers include:

• Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (1998)
• Railroad Tycoon II (1998)
  • Railroad Tycoon 3 (2003)
• Darkstone (1999)
• Nocturne (1999)
• Age of Wonders (1999)
  • Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne (2002)
  • Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic (2003)
• KISS: Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child (2000)
• Heavy Metal F.A.K.K.² (2000)
• The Blair Witch Project (2000)
• Rune (2000)
• Oni (2001)
• Serious Sam^note The property and the developer now owned by Mike Wilson's current publishing company:
  • Serious Sam: The First Encounter (2001)
  • Serious Sam: The Second Encounter (2002)
• Tropico (2001)
  • Tropico 2: Pirate Cove (2003)
• Max Payne (2001)
• Stronghold (2001)
  • Stronghold: Crusader (2002)
• Myth III: The Wolf Age (2001)
• Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven (2002)
• Vietcong (2003)
• Chrome (2003) (European publisher) (2003)
• Space Colony (2003)
• Hidden & Dangerous 2 (2003)
• Drakengard (European publisher) (2004)

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Tropes exhibited by Gathering include:

• Creator-Driven Successor: Mike Wilson and co. attempted this twice:
  • Gamecock Media Group: keeping the hands-off approach to creative freedom and intellectual property, founded in 2007, dissolved just a year and half later. They got to publish Dementium: The Ward, Insecticide, and Legendary (2008).
  • A much more successful Devolver Digital: founded in 2009, still carrying on publishing games on developer-friendly terms, this time relying on Digital Distribution to ease themselves on operating costs. The label even got to publish Serious Sam games.

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