Indie Built

Indie Built, Inc. was a Salt Lake City, Utah based video game developer founded in 1982 by Bruce Carver as Access Software.

History

After buying a Commodore 64 in 1982, Bruce Carver wrote a sprite editor called "Spritemaster" which became commercially successful. He next wrote an arcade game, Neutral Zone, and formed Access Software. The company developed the RealSound audio technology, the Links computer golf series, and the Tex Murphy detective games.

In 1987, Access announced The Robotic Workshop, a toy kit that allowed users to build and program robots using a home computer. The kit was a precursor to the much more popular Lego Mindstorms kits released in the late 1990s. The Robotic Workshop included over 50 Capsela parts, including two motors, gears, wheels, and sensors.

Access Software was acquired by Microsoft in 1999, became part of Microsoft Game Studios and was renamed to "Salt Lake Games Studio". In 2003 it was renamed again to "Indie Games".

In October 2004, Microsoft sold the development studio to Take-Two Interactive (T2) and it took on the name Indie Built. They became part of T2's 2K Games/2K Sports brand. Indie shipped Amped 3 for the launch of Xbox 360 and worked on Top Spin 2 for Xbox 360 developed by Power and Magic. Take 2 suddenly closed Indie Built on April 28, 2006 without publicly stating any reasons for the closure.