Sometimes, the spark of something big gets ignited with a simple idea and a little willpower.

In 1989, high school art teacher Brian Raffel wanted to make a video game based on his passion for Dungeons and Dragons. He didn’t have any programming experience, and living in the small Madison, Wis. suburb of Middleton meant resources would be limited.

For most people, the dream would never have gotten off the ground. Family and friends dismissed Raffel as if he told them he wanted to be a rock star.

Despite having zero programming experience and living a world away from other game developers, Raffel persisted. He and his brother, Steve, another artist, already knew how to draw pictures on their Amiga computer systems - now it was time to make them move.

The brothers set up shop in Brian’s basement, where he paid his art students with pizza to input levels drafted on graph paper. Steve knew a programmer, who came on board with another friend, and together, the ragtag team eventually created the 1992 PC title, “Black Crypt.”

Raven Software was on its way.

The past and present

From those humble origins, Raven now employs 185 programmers, animators and artists in the spotless building it moved into five years ago, which includes one of the Midwest’s only motion capture studios.

Raven’s PC hits from the 1990s include titles like “Heretic” and  “HeXen.”

Once Raven signed with the publisher Activision in 1997 – in an agreement which stipulates it can’t be moved from Middleton – the studio began to branch out into the console realm and work with heavy hitters like id on “Quake IV,” LucasArts on “Jedi Knight” and Universal Studios on “Wolverine.”

Raven’s most recent job was to tighten the screws on the Treyarch-developed “Call of Duty: Black Ops,” which became the highest-grossing video game of all time at more than $1 billion.

Before that they released the “Bioshock” meets “Call of Duty” first-person shooter “Singularity,” an original IP that began from the ground up at Raven.

 Original concept art from ‘Singularity’ that shows off the Time Manipulation Device gameplay mechanic.

Going their own way

It took some subterfuge to get “Singularity” green lit a few years ago by Activision.

“We were rogue on it,” Raffel said. “Steve had the idea. We came up with the whole Soviet background because everyone was doing Middle Eastern or fantasy stuff. We came up with a demo and flew out there and demoed it to Activision. It was a scary thing because they were quiet.

“I was like ‘This isn’t going to work.’ And then all of sudden they said ‘This is amazing, this has potential, we could do all kinds of sequels.’”

Starting “Singularity” behind closed doors was Raven’s only shot at creating an original IP. It’s a chance they felt compelled to take.

“‘Singularity’ was all ours, but that was rare,” Raffel said. “In the early days, it was easier. It cost so much less to make a game, and they could do a shotgun approach to see what hit, and then they’d chase it. Now, to get an original IP is almost impossible. We were lucky, that was probably the last opportunity we’ll have. Unfortunately, it came out right at the worst time, almost exactly a year ago now when the whole market dropped.”

Brian Raffel, studio head of Raven Software and one of its founders.

Business decisions

When Raven released “Wolverine” and “Wolfenstein” in the summer of 2009, they didn’t perform to the level of blockbuster success Activision and its polarizing CEO Bobby Kotick expected. That meant job cuts. And when “Singularity” came out about a year later and didn’t fly off store shelves, even more came.

Raffel’s respects their choice as a business decision.

“I was the first studio (Activision) bought,” Raffel said. “I remember our first green light on our first project, it was me Bobby and Brian (Kelly) in a room saying ‘What do you want to make?’ It was pretty laid back. It’s been a unique experience to watch Activision grow from 15^th ranked publisher all the way to No. 1.”

Indeed, Raven has built up a lot of good will with the publisher over the years.

“I feel I made the best, smartest move ever,” Raffel said. “I know Bobby gets a lot of heat for saying this or that, but the guy is so smart. He’s taken a company that was bankrupt, bought it, and turned it into the No. 1 publisher in the world before he’s 40.”

The relationship between Kotick and Raffel goes beyond just business.

When Kotick flew to Wisconsin for Raffel’s 10-year wedding anniversary and found out the family needed help, he delivered.

“My father-in-law was dying of Alzheimer’s,” Raffel said. “My wife and I could not get the Veteran’s Affairs office to help us. He said, ‘I know some people at the VA, let me call them.’ One week later we had the check we needed to get him to the hospital. That’s somebody who cares, right? He didn’t have to do that.”

Location is the key

From its Middleton perch, the Raven Software building merely overlooks a messy suburban sprawl of fast food restaurants, office high rises and hotels.

Step inside, however, and you could not be farther away from the rest of the world.

There’s a quiet hum the moment you walk in the studio, as if the whole place runs on the energy of ideas rather than electricity.

Two stone ravens greet you emotionlessly in the airy foyer. Hanging on the walls are framed magazine covers of their games. Behind the back wall lies a studio of 150 people heading in a very lofty direction these days.

The cool professionalism that permeates the place can be seen in the work it produces – the efficiency of “Quake IV,” the originality of “Singularity” and the polish of “Black Ops.”

 Raven’s Madison-area location can be a blessing and a curse in an industry dominated by California addresses. Raven often lures top programmers who desire the high quality of life afforded by the Midwest, but it can also be tough to hire people away from their families to come to a colder, more isolated climate.

 The variety of talent in place means Raven can easily skip from one genre to the next, clearly evident from its history of games.

“When I started to figure out what they do, I was amazed and impressed, and I worked with aerospace engineers before this,” Director of Operations MaryAnn Knoke said.

 When Raffel does have a spot to fill, he frequently taps into the University of Wisconsin Madison and Madison Area Technical College for a steady supply of interns that often turn into full-time jobs. Raffel said he’s hired about 20 employees from MATC and continually finds programmers from the UW.

Motion capture actors block out a scene from ‘Singularity’ inside the Motion Capture Studio. (Photo illustration courtesy Raven Software)

That’s how animator Tim Uttech landed his job with the motion capture department.

 Despite growing up in Madison, it wasn’t until he played “Soldier of Fortune” at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh that he discovered the studio.

“Usually you have to move out of the Midwest if you want to get into movies or games, it’s just nice to have something here,” Uttech said.

The motion capture studio features a 30x30 foot space covered by 36 Motion Analysis cameras.   Uttech has worked on video games like “Wolverine” and “Black Ops,” where he dons a black, sensor-enabled motion-capture suit and acts out scenes with other actors. Their wire-frame movements are then covered by the in-game characters and then transported into the game.

Uttech and his team supply the memorable animation, and have interesting homework to get their job done.

“They design teams says, we need Wolverine’s fight moves, here’s your list,” Uttech said. “We try to say, is that Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is that the comic book Wolverine? We’ll grab movies, OK, how is Hugh moving? We’ll try to mimic it at least.”

 The motley collection of home-grown designers and those from the world over create an active culture within Raven’s walls.

“It’s alive, noisy and very collaborative,” Knoke said. “They’re often not in their own seats. They’re talking a lot. They’re very passionate about their work. The best thing you’ve got here is a group of people that are driven to succeed.”

The future

After splitting into three teams last year to work on three games, the smaller, leaner Raven staff is now hard at work on one game. They’re unable to say what game it is, all the Internet is abuzz with all sorts of rumors. No matter what it is, there’s no mistaking the hum of a studio trying to reach its peak, which has been the goal since “Black Crypt.”

 “I can say we’re loving it,” Raffel said. “It’s very exciting. We’re glad to be working; developers go away every day. We’re really happy right now.”

“We have a really high bar of success, and we don’t feel that we’ve hit it, to be perfectly honest. We’ve had some really great titles we’re really proud of, but we’ve never hit the one that’s been ‘Game of the Year.’”

Considering how far Raven has come, it’s only a matter of time.