Cavedog Entertainment, or Cavedog is a game developer based in Seattle, Washington. They are responsible for the release of the real-time strategy games Total Annihilation and Total Annihilation: Kingdoms.
Cavedog Entertainment is a division of Humongous Entertainment, a manufacturer of children's computer games. In 1995 Cavedog, lead by Ron Gilbert, branched from Humongous in order to pursue the creation of adult titles such as the strategy games that the company is now famed for. Cavedog, like its parent company, was affiliated with GT Interactive (later to become Infogrames and now Atari) who published all the Cavedog titles.
Cavedog shook the gaming industry with the 1997 release of Total Annihilation, winning many accolades such as multiple "game of the year"s. Despite the loss of TA's creator Chris Taylor, Cavedog released over the next two years two expansion packs for their debut game in quick succession as well as releasing many free enhancements and patches, building a strong community support.
Cavedog in 1999 released the eagerly anticipated next installment in the franchise: Total Annihilation: Kingdoms. Despite its initial success, Kingdoms faded into obscurity and Cavedog with it.
Cavedog tried to recover by turning their attention towards creating a first person shooter known as "Amen: the awakening". This project, despite promising development at the start fell far behind schedule and was abandoned in favor of a continuation of the Total Annihilation franchise. The continuation was to take the form of a sequel to the first game. However without Taylor the game had little momentum or potential and was eventually sold by the publisher, concluding Cavedog's short life as an active studio.
