Rubes (Mike Rubin) is the head of Orange River Studio, a small indie game development group working on creating a new genre of gaming: three-dimensional interactive fiction (3D/if).

3D/if attempts to combine the best features of two distinctly different genres: first-person shooters (FPS), with their beautiful visuals and complete freedom of movement and exploration; and text-based interactive fiction, with its emphasis on the development of storylines, characters, and interactivity. Rubes grew up playing "Colossal Cave" on his dad's hulking Northstar computer and believes this is one way to re-capture the magic of his childhood.

Our first pioneering project is Vespers3D, a 3D/if game based on Jason Devlin's award-winning text IF game, Vespers. Play the online Java version of Vespers here.

Rubes has created one other computer game in his life: "Missions of the Reliant," a space-based 2D arcade game for the Mac, which first appeared in 1994 and received Honorable Mention at the 1994 Mac Shareware Awards, sponsored by the old MacUser magazine. He mailed copies to registrants on 1.4MB floppies. Those were the days.