Hollywood's New Game

Once the script is done and the art is finished, GameWorks president and CEO Ron Bension asks, "Is it technically possible?" and "Does the engineering exist?" He also has to ask, "Is it financially viable?" At any given moment, GameWorks has eight projects at the idea stage, three at the "actively talking with potential vendors" stage, and one near production. It is precisely at this near-production stage that the company must walk a line: It has to be careful not to reinvent the wheel -- but it can't afford not to invent wheels that need inventing.

Snoddy says that the company tries "to use off-the-shelf stuff whenever we can, but this industry is pretty small, and we're one of the biggest players in the industry, so we tend to drive this innovation. We're the prototype creators. And that's what we sell: an experience that you can't have elsewhere."

GameWorks has another advantage: speed. Says one former employee, who used to work at Disney: "GameWorks, as a new company, is a little disorganized, but there's tons of individuality and possibility there. At Disney, everything is hyper-organized, but you'd wait three, four years for an attraction to be ready. At GameWorks, six to nine months, and you're up and running."

The "Indiana Jones" ride that Snoddy did for Disney may have cost $90 million, but Snoddy finds the attractions at GameWorks much more interesting. "When people come to GameWorks, they want to see new stuff," he says. "So we have to work very quickly to stay ahead, and I love that. I love the fact that by the time something is in GameWorks, we already have to be thinking about its replacement."

What is remarkable -- and clearly visible -- about GameWorks is its openness to ideas. Says Snoddy: "We're open to everything. I'm not an engineer. I have a degree in journalism, and I studied some engineering. My job is not to build the machine -- it is to define the experience and then get it created." Snoddy has carved out an area in the GameWorks offices for ideas, posters, designs, sketches, and words that people throw up so that others can critique them. "I like to have an open office where everything is out." He points at one sketch: "This is four hours old, and already it's out here. We have no 'idea department.' This company rewards creative ideas, so they come from everywhere and from everyone."