PLEASANT GROVE -- Saffire Corp., in its new home in Pleasant Grove, has its own brand of a Star Trek-type of holodeck.
Programmers bring in a model, perhaps a martial arts star, hook him or her up to a bunch of leads and monitors and put him or her through the paces.The moves the model makes are projected onto a computer screen and the motion is "captured" so that programmers for Saffire can then write code to put the moves into a realistic video character or computer game sequence.
"This way we get all of the rotation of the hands, the wrists," said Mark Kendall, chairman of the board for Saffire. "It's very much like a holodeck."
The motion capture system is just one element that has helped put Saffire into the forefront as a game developer and designer in just five years of existence.
Other critical components include the talented staff who utilize expertise in physics, math and graphic design to create games such as "James Bond 007" and "Odd World Adventure" for Gameboy, "Animaniacs of Ten Pin Alley" and "Bio F.R.E.A.K.S." for PlayStation and Nintendo 64 and a redesigned "Rampage" for Nintendo 64.
The company is also working on a personal computer expansion version of "Starcraft: Brood Wars" and "Xena: Warrior Princess" for Titus games.
Saffire's first company release is under development.
"We're making a big splash in the dynamic world of video games," said Kendall, "an industry that is outselling the movie industry."
People don't realize how big the game industry is, Kendall said. "We kind of look at ourselves as a stealth growth industry, growing faster than any other industry."
Kendall said Saffire is trying to focus on the pure gaming that has the hidden levels and secret portals that sophisticated gamers seek when choosing a game that will sustain their interest.
After five years of sort of a quiet existence in American Fork after its founding by Orem resident Les Pardew, Saffire is now promoting itself to the public. Longtime game developer Hal Rushton is company president.
Saffire has been named by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of America's 50 hottest new small businesses. The company moved to its expanded facilities in Pleasant Grove on Jan. 15.
"We've decided to be more visible. We've developed some very large titles. We have a number of big projects under development including a television series in conjunction with Paramount and Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks company. We feel it's kind of a fun deal," Kendall said.
Saffire currently has 50 employees in five production teams in a new building in Pleasant Grove that will serve as the company's base station. The company intends to add a satellite office in Salt Lake City so it can better utilize the talent coming out of the University of Utah.
"We have a tremendous talent pool in the area, great artists and great education," he said. "Artists, programmers, scientists -- it takes all of them to do what we do here."