About
We ignite fun.
Spark Plug Games is an independent studio in Cary, North Carolina. We started in 2008 making casual and family games, and today most of our work is immersive training and simulation for universities, researchers and industry.
Spark Plug Games was founded in January 2008 by people who had spent their careers making games — working on titles from the Civilization and X-COM series to Robotech: Battlecry, Dead Head Fred and Puzzle Quest. We've shipped on PC and Mac, PlayStation, iOS, Android and VR headsets, for our own titles and for publishers like Namco, Big Fish Games and Game Mill.
Almost from the beginning we also took on "serious games": an IBM business simulation, a Raytheon training simulator, virtual biotech labs for NC BioNetwork. That side of the studio grew into what we do most now — VR, AR and simulation projects like ECU Project I4, built with educators and researchers who want their learners to practice, not just read.
John O'Neill, President
John founded Spark Plug Games after serving as director of business development at Vicious Cycle Software, where he managed the Vicious Engine middleware. He began his games career at MicroProse in 1994 as a programmer on cross-platform projects including Civilization II and the X-COM brand, and later established and managed the consulting branch of InstallShield Software. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from NC State University.