Steven Gary Blank founded Rocket Science Games in 1993, receiving $12 million in funding from Sega Enterprises and the Bertelsmann Music Group in May 1994[1]. Staffed with some of the brightest rising stars of the computer, comics and movie industries, RSG created a huge buzz even before the release of their first titles and claimed to be an on the verge of revolutionizing the video game industry. Founded at the height of the FMV video game craze of the '90s, their first three games utilized the technology heavily; but as a backlash grew and their fortunes suffered due to poor sales, they shifted away from consoles and FMV to concentrate only on more traditional PC games.
After the disappointing sales of their early games they received much needed funds from SegaSoft, who then became the sole publisher for their titles, then in development. Unfortunately, while some of their SegaSoft games were critically acclaimed, (Computer Gaming World, May 1997)[2], (''GameSpot'', "Obsidian," review included.)[3], (PC Gamer, May 1997)[4], (Four Fat Chicks, "Obsidian" review, June 2002)[5], ( Just Adventure, "Obsidian review, undated)[6] none of them did particularly well financially, and unable to secure additional funding, RSG was forced to close down in 1997.
The Space Bar was the last game released that involved RSG. Darwin Pondhttp://www.ventrella.com/Darwin/darwin.html was an unreleased title that was completed before the fall of RSG but was never commercially released; later its creator Jeffrey Ventrella released it for free over the Internet.
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