Gamelab

Type| Private
Industry| Video games
Founded| 2000
Founder| Eric Zimmerman
Peter Seung-Taek Lee
Defunct| 2009 (assets acquired by Arkadium)

Key people

| Eric Zimmerman (co-founder, chief executive)
Peter Seung-Taek Lee (co-founder, president)
Frank Lantz (director of game design)
Nicholas Fortugno (director of game design)
Katie Salen

Number of employees

| 40[1]

Gamelab was an independent game studio in New York City, New York founded by game designer Eric Zimmerman and Peter Seung-Taek Lee in 2000. It is best known for creating Diner Dash, one of the most downloaded games of all time (over half a billion times across multiple platforms in its first six years),[2] as well as its two spin-off companies, the non-profit Institute of Play and the online game and community site Gamestar Mechanic.

## Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Video games
* 3 Massively Multiplayer Social Games at GDC
* 4 References

## History

Zimmerman and Lee (with audio by Michael Sweet) created a game called BLiX, which was named a Finalist (and eventually won Best Audio) at the 2000 Independent Games Festival[3] at the Game Developers Conference, Zimmerman and Lee then incorporated gameLab and used an advance on BLiX royalties from their exclusivity deal with Shockwave.com to open an office in downtown Manhattan.[4] gameLab released 34 video games on multiple platforms between 2000 and 2009, published by companies like LEGO, HBO, PlayFirst, VH-1, and iWin, plus eight massively multiplayer social games created exclusively for and played at the yearly Game Developers Conference from 2001 to 2008.

In 2004, gameLab released the award-winning Diner Dash, a strategy and time management game published by PlayFirst,[5] then-director of game design Frank Lantz and students in his Big Games class (including gameLab employees Greg Trefry and Mattia Romeo) at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program created Pac-Manhattan, a real life version of Pac-Man played in the streets surrounding NYU, which was one of the earliest and most influential pervasive games, covered by the New York Times[6] and receiving worldwide press.[7] In 2005, gameLab employees Trefry, Romeo, Nicholas Fortugno, and Catherine Herdlick plus co-founder Lee co-founded Come Out & Play, an annual festival of new original big games played in the streets of New York City,[8] Lantz left to co-found the game studio area/code, which was acquired by Zynga in 2011 and became Zynga New York, and is now the director of New York University's Game Center.[9]

In 2007, gameLab spun off the non-profit Institute of Play to promote game design and play as educational tools for students. Within six months of its founding, Institute of Play received a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to develop Quest to Learn, a New York City public school designed around game design principles.[10] In 2009, supported by another grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, gameLab partnered with Katie Salen and released the award-winning game and community site Gamestar Mechanic. gameLab closed in 2009 and sold its assets to Arkadium.[11]

## Video games

Year | Title | Type | Publisher/Financer

|
|
|

2000 | BLiX | web | gameLab
2001 | FLUID | touchscreen installation | Swiss Re Center for Global Dialog
2001 | Junkbot | web | LEGO
2001 | LEGO Stack-It | web | LEGO
2001 | LOOP | web | Shockwave.com
2002 | BLiX Level Constructor Kit | web | gameLab
2002 | Drome Racing Challenge | web | LEGO
2002 | Junkbot Undercover | web | LEGO
2002 | LEGO World Builder | web | LEGO
2002 | Spybotics: The Nightfall Incident | web | LEGO
2003 | Arcadia | PC/web | gameLab
2003 | Crash | web | gameLab
2003 | FATE: The Carnivale Game | web | HBO
2003 | LEGO Inventor | web | LEGO
2003 | LEGO World Builder 2 | web | LEGO
2003 | Motobike Blast | web | LEGO
2004 | LEGO X-Pod Playoff | board game | LEGO
2004 | Mighty Beanz Trading Card Game | collectible card game | Genio
2004 | Subway Scramble | PC/web | PlayFirst
2005 | Arcadia Remix | PC/web | gameLab
2005 | Diner Dash | PC/web | PlayFirst
2005 | LEGO X-Pod Playoff 2 | board game | LEGO
2005 | Shopmania | PC/web | iWin
2006 | Ayiti: The Cost of Life (fr) | web | gameLab/Global Kids
2006 | Downbeat | web | VH-1
2006 | Egg vs Chicken | PC/web | PlayFirst
2006 | LEGO Fever | PC/web | LEGO
2006 | Miss Management | PC/web | gameLab
2006 | Plantasia | PC/web | PlayFirst
2007 | Jojo's Fashion Show | PC/web | iWin
2007 | Out of Your Mind | PC/web | gameLab/Curious Pictures
2008 | Jojo's Fashion Show 2: Las Cruces | PC/web | iWin
2008 | Top Chef | PC/web | Brighter Minds Media
2009 | Gamestar Mechanic | web | gameLab

## Massively Multiplayer Social Games at GDC

Year | Title

|

2002 | Bite Me
2002 | Leviathan
2003 | Alphabet City
2004 | Supercollider
2005 | ConfQuest
2006 | Pantheon
2007 | Gangs of GDC
2008 | Destroy All Developers

## References

1. ↑ "Creators". http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/en_uk/creators/peter-lee.
2. ↑ "With Diner Dash, PlayFirst has a game that goes everywhere". 21 September 2010. https://venturebeat.com/2010/09/21/with-diner-dash-playfirst-has-a-game-that-goes-everywhere/.
3. ↑ "The 12th Annual Independent Games Festival - 2000 Finalists & Winners". http://www.igf.com/2000finalistswinners.html.
4. ↑ "A Man for All Seasons: GameLab's Eric Zimmerman Talks Design, Trends". 16 June 2005. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130740/a_man_for_all_seasons_gamelabs_.php.
5. ↑ Marriott, Michel (27 June 2005). "On Screens, but Not Store Shelves: Casual Games". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/technology/27casual.html.
6. ↑ John, Warren St (9 May 2004). "Quick, After Him: Pac-Man Went Thataway". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/09/fashion/09GAME.html.
7. ↑ "Pac Manhattan". http://www.pacmanhattan.com/press.php.
8. ↑ "Report: Come Out and Play -- Inside New York's Outdoor Game Festival". http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24037.
9. ↑ "People". http://gamecenter.nyu.edu/people.
10. ↑ "Institute of Play at the Connected Learning Alliance". http://www.instituteofplay.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/MACARTHUR+NYC+School+Press+Release.pdf.
11. ↑ "Arkadium acquires Gamelab.com game web site". September 29, 2009. https://venturebeat.com/2009/09/29/arkadium-acquires-gamelabcom-game-development-firm/.

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