Company Background

Sparkplay Media was founded in 2006 by the principals of Iron Realms Entertainment in order to take the knowledge and expertise we had accumulated while building a portfolio of niche MMOs at Iron Realms and duplicate that success in a much wider market. We've developed the Spark Platform to allow for the rapid deployment of low barrier-to-entry MMOs and we're working towards the launch of our first MMO on the platform - Earth Eternal.

Our Games

We're developing something that isn't really an MMO/virtual world, though those are part of the integrated portfolio of game-based products and services that we provide. Earth Eternal - our first game - will launch in 2009. In this 3d MMO, players will encounter an approachable and immersive world of cartoonish characters, high adventure, and social fun. Multiple products are in development but Earth Eternal is the only one we're being public about as of yet. Stay tuned for more info on the new type of experience we're creating. We believe it's the logical evolution of MMOs and virtual worlds.

Management Team

Matt Mihaly - CEO and Creative Director
Matt is a veteran of virtual worlds and MMOs, having gotten started in them in the early 90s. In 1996, he founded Iron Realms Entertainment and pioneered the virtual goods sales model with its first MMO - Achaea, Dreams of Divine Lands. As CEO, Matt led Iron Realms to become the most successful company of its kind in the last decade in the niche (MUDs) it is in. Under his leadership, Iron Realms released three more successful MMOs: Aetolia, the Midnight Age. Imperian: The Sundered Heavens. Lusternia, Age of Ascension. Matt is currently serving as lead designer and producer on Earth Eternal, Sparkplay's first MMO. He speaks about virtual world business models and independent game development at industry events like the Game Developer's Conference and DragonCon, and edited Dr. Richard Bartle's canonical book, "Designing Virtual Worlds." Matt earned a Bachelor's degree in government from Cornell University.

Chris Kohnert - Lead Architect
Chris spent 6 years serving as CTO of Iron Realms, and was the architect of its Rapture game engine. He is currently spending most of his time working on the Spark Platform, of which he is the architect. Chris earned a Master's degree from the University of Colorado.

Martin Best - VP of Production
Martin is a technical and business development consultant whose unique background and expertise has allowed him to help game developers reap the benefits of strategic planning and effective project management. Through his consulting practice, Martin's recent projects have included localizing Sulake's online game, Habbo Hotel, to the Canadian market, working for Xenophile as the Technical Director on the ReGenesis Extended Reality projects (a game tie-in to a cartoon), overseeing development of the casual games MLB: Play Ball! and one of the the top Sudoku games in North America and Europe - Ultimate Sudoku. Previously, Martin held the position of Vice President of Production at Poptronik Entertainment where he was responsible for directing all aspects of production undertaken by the Studio and Game Development Group, including 3D online game development, animation, and web site / new media production.