When Saffire Corp. was in its infancy in 1993, the office in Pleasant Grove got flooded every time it rained. Today the only flooding at the company is the rush of telephone calls requesting the production of more home video games.
Leslie W. Pardew incorporated his company five years ago and started doing artwork for video games produced by other companies. When the flood-prone office in Pleasant Grove became too small, he moved the operation to 776 E. 930 South in the Utah Valley Business Park in 1995.Now with a complete studio for the production of video games, chief executive officer Pardew's goal is to increase the size of the company so it can own the videos it produces and also distribute them.
Charles Moore helped Pardew start the company, but in 1994 Pardew bought him out and Hal Rushton, former vice president of product development for Sculptured Software (which has been acquired by Acclaim) in Salt Lake City, became Pardew's partner. Rushton is the company president.
Over the years the two men have tried to form a group of talented musicians, artists, designers, writers, programmers and testers so they can produce the best home video games possible. The company now has 45 employees who produce videos for large distributors like Nintendo, Time Warner, Accolade, Activision and Midway.
Some of the company's previous products are "Hardball 95" for Accolade, "Gretzky Hockey" for Time Warner and "Nester's Funky Bowling" for Nintendo.
The company's current four biggest projects are "NFL Legends 97" for Accolade," "Cyberthug" for MGM Interactive, "Strange Golf" for Mind-scape and "Marvel: One Nation Under Doom" for Mind-scape.
As with most growing companies, the need for capital arose, and because banks couldn't offer the type of start-up money Saffire needed, Pardew turned to the Utah Technology Finance Corp.
In September 1996 Pardew borrowed $200,000 from UTFC and used the money to develop new video games Saffire could own. In March 1997 the company bor-rowed $125,000 to use for marketing and further development of home video games.
Sherm Wilkinson, loan portfolio manager for UTFC, said once banks learn that his agency is involved they will offer lines of credit and put up some of the money. He said it is also helpful for Saffire officials to go through the UTFC loan process because that will help prepare them for negotiations with banks in the future.
Without UTFC's help, Pardew said his company wouldn't have grown to what it is today.
Fifteen years ago, the video game business was just getting started, Pardew said, and once people figured out it was a booming business, plenty of companies were formed and started producing videos. Many of them were inferior, didn't have good graphics and weren't realistic, so Saffire has tried to overcome those problems.
Pardew said many of the production companies went out of business because of inferior products, but he has assembled a staff that he believes is producing outstanding video games. He hires local people, but because the industry is quite new he provides the training.
Asked if he is afraid someone on his staff will break away and form his own company, taking some of the company secrets with him, Pardew said each employee signs a nondisclosure agreement. He said the video game business is very competitive and without the agreement the confidentiality of the work would be jeopardized.
Pardew has a bachelor's degree in fine arts from Brigham Young University, and Rushton has a bachelor's in mathematics and chemistry from the same school.