Daydream Software
Their first game was "Safecracker", a point and click adventure game published by DreamCatcher Interactive. The game had a tumultuous production, starting when GT Interactive bought initial publisher Warner Interactive Europe. Daydream Software went public in late 1996. The company's goal was to increase its economic and decision-making freedom, and to secure the ability to select a publisher at the end of each game's development rather than at the beginning. President Jans Phersson-Broburg argued that self-financing Daydream's future games with money from Swedish investors, instead of obtaining "funding linked to specific projects" from publishers, would offer the developer more stability, flexibility and room for growth. For Daydream's public launch, roughly 20 million kr worth of shares, or 45.5% of the company, were offered to investors in Sweden. The initial public offering was a success, and Daydream opened on the Stockholm Stock Exchange's Stockholm Börsinformation (SBI) list in January 1997. Daydream was eventually able to buy back the rights to "Safecracker".
Jim Ward (game designer)
Ward was one of the players in Gary Gygax's early Greyhawk games as Gygax developed the "Dungeons & Dragons" game. The "Dungeons & Dragons" character Drawmij was named after him; "Drawmij" is simply "Jim Ward" spelled backwards. Rob Kuntz and Ward's "Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes" (1976) expanded the original "D&D" game by introducing gods. Ward designed "Metamorphosis Alpha" (1976), which was the first science-fantasy role-playing game, and published as TSR's fourth role-playing game. Ward co-authored "Deities & Demigods" (1980) . In the early 1980s, Ward and Rose Estes formed an education department at TSR, intended to sell classroom modules to teachers. Ward ran Kuntz's adventure "The Maze of Xaene" as the "D&D" tournament module at EastCon in 1983, although the module never saw print at TSR. Ward wrote "Greyhawk Adventures" (1988), a hardcover volume that presented new rules for the Greyhawk setting. Ward, with David Cook, Steve Winter, and Mike Breault, co-wrote the adventure scenario that was adapted into the game "Pool of Radiance".