Windward Studios

Windward Studios
Industry software development
Founded 1996
Headquarters Boulder, Colorado, United States
Key people
Shirley Clawson (CEO)
David Thielen (CTO)
Lawrence Goldman (Dir. Marketing)
Troy Williams (Dir. Sales)
Website www.windward.net

Windward Studios is a software development company based in Boulder, Colorado. The company began in 1996 with the release of Enemy Nations, a popular Real-Time strategy game, before focusing on its reporting software program Windward Reports.

1996-2003: Enemy Nations

Main article: Enemy Nations

Windward Studios was founded by David Thielen as a software gaming company. Enemy Nations is a real-time strategy game that received very high rankings in video game magazines.[1][2] The publisher went out of business shortly after the game's release, forcing developer Windward Studios to sell the game exclusively from its website. Since October 2005 the game is non-commercial Freeware[3] and the game and the source code was made available to download.

2003-Present: Windward Reports / Windward Studios

In 2003, the company realigned and focused on offering an enterprise-level suite of reporting and document generation tools for business teams called Windward Reports. Windward Reports is comparable to other reporting software such as Crystal Reports and Pentaho. Windward Reports’ customers include GE Industrial Equipment Services, Fidelity Investments and Pfizer Inc.[4]

Windward's solution includes a .NET or Java Engine, a set of code libraries for integrating reporting and document generation into both internal and commercial software applications, and AutoTag, a template design tool that allows technical and non-technical users create report and document templates in Microsoft Office. Windward's products have been positively reviewed in eWeek [5] and DevSource.[6]

2011-Present: Code Wars

Windward Studios sponsors the annual International Collegiate Programming Championship, aka "Code Wars," "a huge student hackathon where teams from top universities around the world have 8 hours to analyze a problem, create a solution, and test it against the entries of the other programming experts." [7]

Media coverage

Cubicle Wars, an early marketing video by the company, received an overwhelming response when it debuted in 2006.[8] With over 2 million views on YouTube and Digg.com the video became an internet phenomenon large enough to merit a response in BusinessWeek’s August 2007 SmallBiz publication.[8]

References

  1. "Enemy Nations Reviews". February 1996.
  2. "Enemy Nations". March 1997.
  3. "The End of an Era!". Windward. 2005-10-01. Archived from the original on 2005-11-24. Retrieved 2013-10-26. October 1, 2005: We just sold the last copy of Enemy Nations. [...] If you have a copy and want to give a copy to a friend - you have our permission to burn a CD with a copy of Enemy Nations - with one major caveat. You must give them the game. You cannot sell it to them. You cannot include it as part of anything you sell. It cannot be included with any product or magazine as a free extra. The person making the copy must even buy the blank CD. It must be a true free gift given totally separate of anything else.
  4. Hamilton, Lysa D. (05/11/2007). "Windward gives companies report-producing solutions". Boulder County Business Report. Retrieved 2009-06-18. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. Rapoza, Jim (2005-05-30). "Windward Aces Reports". eWeek.
  6. Mischel, Jim (2005-09-18). "Windward Reports Simplifies Your App's Reporting". DevSource.
  7. Moss, Caroline (2014-02-01). "Students From All Over The Country Are Competing In A 'Code War' Today". Business Insider.
  8. 1 2 King, Rachael (August–September 2007). "Make Some Noise". Business Week. Retrieved 2009-06-18.

External links

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