Pie in the Sky

Pie in the Sky is a 2.5D and 3D first-person shooter engine most popular in the mid-to-late 1990s by Pie in the Sky Software, also known as Power 3D and the 3D Game Creation or 3D Game Creation System engine. The engine was used in two games by the company as well as many other independent games and amateur projects after it was turned into a commercial game creator, largely because it minimized the amount of computer programming knowledge needed to make 3D games in its editing tools, making it suitable even for beginners with no game-design experience. History The company, formed principally by programmer Kevin Stokes, first dabbled in 3D computer graphics by creating a modestly popular terminate-and-stay-resident 3D screen saver called InnerMission in 1987. When the market for 3D applications started to grow more popular, they developed a 3D flight simulator called Corncob 3D in 1992. The game was inspired by a similar flight simulator for the Apple II, but implemented a more advanced physics model and the possibility to jump off the plane and explore the environment on foot. Corncob 3D was first released as shareware and then later commercially as Corncob Deluxe by MVP Software. In late 1992, after seeing Wolfenstein 3D and having gained experience with Corncob 3D, Stokes decided to write a brand new 3D engine in C and then used it for the first-person shooter Lethal Tender in 1993. Based on that, they were hired by a German group to create a German-language first-person shooter. Pie in the Sky released Terminal Terror, the sequel to Lethal Tender, in 1994. The development of this game, to be published by Expert Software, had taken precedence over the German development and thus strained the relationship. The game was relatively successful, but the company sensed they were unable to keep up and stay ahead of other first-person shooter developers. In the summer of 1994 during the Shareware Industry Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, Kevin Stokes met a young indie developer named John Nagle, and they discussed the possibility of using Kevin's engine to create a game development system for non-programmers. Shortly thereafter, work began on the project, with John working on the game editor remotely from his home in West Virginia, and dropping builds via dial-up BBS to Kevin's home in New York.