Between them, Al Alcorn and Roger Hector have 80 years of game development experience. And these former Atari engineers are still making games.
Their next project, called Seriously?!, is a trivia card game for iPhone and Android phones and tablets. Alcorn and Hector have taken to Kickstarter to fund the project, and are seeking $100,000.
Phones running the Seriously?! app will be able to scan physical trading cards, and present visual or audio clues to players. The game will be "hosted" by what Alcorn and Hector are calling a "Siri-like" character – a robotic, sarcastic woman's voice that sounds a lot like the iPhone's vocal helper software. Plans are in place to expand the game with celebrity hosts, like Atari founder Nolan Bushnell (who cameos in the Kickstarter pitch video).
Al Alcorn, who was employee number 3 at Atari, is the creator of Pong, the first hit product of the fledgling game industry. Hector also started at Atari in the 1970's and has had a long career in games spanning companies like Electronic Arts, Sega and Namco Bandai.
In recent years, both men have worked primarily in executive or consulting roles, but tell Wired that they're ready to try something new.
"As executives, you get to take all the grief and the bad stuff when things go wrong," Alcorn said via phone, "so once in a while it's fun to get in there and do a simple product yourself."
"Both Al and I have really been creative guys since the beginning," Hector said.
Hector says that Seriously?! is "between You Don't Know Jack and Cards Against Humanity," with a special emphasis on the funny.
Kickstarter backers of the project, which has so far raised only $3,000 in pledges, will also earn the ability to submit their own ideas for questions to be used in the final version of the game. Alcorn and Hector say that those whose suggestions get accepted will be credited as "game designers" in the released version.
