Founder '96

Factsheet

Title

Founder '96

Umbrella brand

Founder

Developer

TIDSANDA

Studio founder

David J. Franco

Status

In development

Setting

1996, fictional Pacific Northwest

Genre

Atmospheric computer experience

Platforms

To be announced

Release date

To be announced

Format

Standalone experience

Players

Single player desktop, with selected games planned for two player online play

Languages

To be announced

Pricing

To be announced

Distribution

To be announced

Technical requirements

To be confirmed, including connectivity and AI requirements

Studio website

https://tidsanda.com/

Fictional town website

https://founder.tidsanda.com/

Press contact

To be announced

Short description

Founder '96 is a standalone computer experience set within Founder, a fictional world created by independent game studio TIDSANDA. Inspired by personal computing in the mid 1990s, it brings together recreated games, period software and five AI driven friends who inhabit a small town in the Pacific Northwest. Players can explore the desktop, invite one friend to play selected games online and become familiar with a community whose conversations reflect the culture, history and everyday life of 1996.

Standard description

Founder '96 recreates the experience of spending time at a computer in 1996, combining games, software and social interaction within a fictional world developed by TIDSANDA.

The project brings together a collection of games originally created by developer David J. Franco during his childhood, alongside material revisited from Founder VR, an earlier project funded by Meta. These games are being reconstructed and presented within a functioning desktop inspired by computers of the period, with selected titles being developed for two people to play together online.

The computer also includes a messenger populated by five AI driven characters living in the fictional Pacific Northwest town of Founder. Each has their own personality, interests, background and relationships with the others, with conversations informed by the town's history and a substantial collection of information available by 1996. Rather than presenting modern AI assistants through a nostalgic interface, the intention is to create a believable group of friends who have their own understanding of the world and the people around them.

Alongside the games and messenger, players can explore period inspired software and Ask Athena, an offline encyclopaedia containing historical and cultural information from the era. Together, these elements are intended to recreate the curiosity and companionship of personal computing, when discovering an unfamiliar programme, playing a game with a friend or having an unexpected conversation could occupy an entire evening.

Founder '96 is the first standalone experience set within Founder, an original fictional world that extends beyond the computer itself. The project is currently in development, with release details to be announced.

Overview

A computer from another time

There was something particularly exciting about sitting down at a computer in the 1990s without knowing exactly what you were going to do. You might open a game you'd been meaning to try, browse through an encyclopaedia, experiment with an unfamiliar programme or end up spending the evening talking to someone online. Computers were becoming increasingly connected, but there was still a sense that much of what they could offer was waiting to be discovered.

Founder '96 is being developed around that experience, bringing games, software, information and conversation together within a fictional computer set in 1996. Rather than presenting these elements as separate activities, the desktop acts as a shared environment in which everything belongs to the same world. The games exist alongside the messenger, the encyclopaedia and information about Founder, giving players the freedom to move between them as they would on a computer of the period.

The aim is to create an experience that players can spend time with rather than simply progress through. An evening might involve trying several unfamiliar games, inviting a friend to play something together or getting caught up in a conversation with one of Founder's inhabitants. The project draws as much from the everyday pleasures of personal computing as it does from conventional video game design.

Although the computer provides the player's immediate environment, it is also a window into Founder itself, a fictional place with its own history, inhabitants and identity.

Games that time forgot

The games featured in Founder '96 have a personal history. Some began as projects created by David J. Franco during his childhood, before 1996, when experimenting with game development was itself part of the excitement of owning a computer. Other material comes from Founder VR, an earlier project funded by Meta that was never completed.

These games are now being revisited, reconstructed and brought together within the fictional desktop. Where original source code or surviving development material is available, the intention is to preserve the character of the original games, including their mechanics, appearance and the details that made them interesting in the first place. The collection also includes fictional software developed specifically for the world of Founder.

There is a particular appeal to finding a game that seems to have been forgotten, especially one whose ideas reflect a period when developers often worked within considerable technical limitations. Founder '96 draws upon that feeling of discovery, presenting its games as software belonging to the computer rather than as a collection of activities selected from a conventional menu.

Some games are designed for individual play, while selected titles are being developed to support two people playing together online. Details about the individual games, their development histories and their available modes will be published as the collection takes shape.

Playing together

Multiplayer in Founder '96 is deliberately limited to two people. Rather than attempting to recreate the scale of modern online gaming, the intention is to capture something more personal about playing games with a friend.

For many people growing up with computers, some of their strongest gaming memories came from sharing a game with one other person, whether taking turns at the keyboard, playing against each other or working together to understand something unfamiliar. It was often as much about the conversation and companionship as the game itself.

Selected games in Founder '96 are being designed around that kind of shared experience, allowing a player to invite one friend to join them online. The desktop itself remains primarily a single player experience, so there is no requirement to find another person in order to explore the computer, meet its inhabitants or enjoy the rest of the software.

Five friends in Founder

One of the central features of Founder '96 is its messenger, which introduces five AI driven characters living in the fictional town of Founder, including Katie Brennan. These characters are being developed with individual personalities, backgrounds, interests and relationships, with the intention that conversations feel like interactions with people who belong to the same social world.

Each character has their own way of speaking and understanding the people around them. They may share memories of an event while remembering it differently, disagree about something that matters to them or reveal aspects of their personalities through the way they describe their friends. Their interests and experiences influence what they know, what they choose to discuss and how they respond to the player.

The ambition is to create a circle of friends who feel connected to one another rather than five independent conversational assistants. As players become familiar with the characters, they should begin to recognise differences in their personalities and understand the relationships that exist between them.

The characters are intended to develop familiarity with the player through conversation, although the precise behaviour of the memory systems and other conversational features will be confirmed as development progresses.

Living in 1996

Although the messenger uses contemporary AI technology, its characters inhabit a fictional world set firmly in 1996. Their conversations are designed to reflect the knowledge, culture and everyday experiences of that period rather than allowing them to behave like modern assistants with access to information from the present day.

The project incorporates a substantial collection of historical and cultural reference material covering subjects such as music, television, film, computer games, technology, popular culture and significant events. Particular attention is given to the years leading up to 1996, helping establish the context in which the characters have grown up and developed their interests.

This information is combined with the fictional history of Founder and the personal backgrounds of its inhabitants. A character who enjoys music might have strong opinions about contemporary bands, while someone interested in computers might be more familiar with particular games or software. They are not intended to know everything simply because the underlying technology is capable of answering a question.

The same approach extends to their understanding of Founder itself. The characters have relationships with other inhabitants, memories of local events and different perspectives on the town's history, allowing conversations to reveal details about the place naturally.

The aim is not simply to reproduce facts from 1996, but to use them as the foundation for believable characters whose personalities and knowledge reflect the world in which they live.

Ask Athena

Alongside the messenger, Founder '96 includes Ask Athena, a fictional offline encyclopaedia designed around information that would have been available by 1996.

Personal computers of the period often contained encyclopaedias, reference collections and educational software that made it possible to explore a remarkable range of subjects without connecting to the internet. For many people, these programmes were an important part of discovering what a computer could do beyond playing games or completing schoolwork.

Ask Athena draws upon that tradition, offering a separate way to explore historical events, technology, entertainment and the wider world as it was understood at the time. Its content is deliberately limited to information available within the game's period, making it both a useful fictional resource and another part of the computer's historical identity.

The encyclopaedia and the messenger draw upon related period material, although the characters' knowledge is also shaped by their individual interests and experiences. Asking Athena about a subject is therefore intended to feel different from discussing it with a friend.

The world of Founder

Founder is a fictional town in the Pacific Northwest, surrounded by woodland and the landscape of Founder National Park. It has its own local newspaper, historical records, community events and a history stretching back generations, providing a setting that exists beyond the immediate experience of using the computer.

The town is an important part of the characters' identities. They have grown up with its places, people and stories, and their conversations are informed by the everyday experiences of living there. As players spend time with the messenger and explore the available information, they can gradually develop a picture of the community and the relationships within it.

Founder is also the overarching identity of the fictional world being developed by TIDSANDA. Founder '96 is the first standalone experience within that world, introducing its setting through the computer, its software and the people who live there.

The town is represented through a fictional tourism website, which introduces the park and its surroundings as though they were real places in 1996. This material forms part of the wider world surrounding the computer, offering another perspective on the setting and its history.

The tourism website can be explored at https://founder.tidsanda.com/

Founder '96 as a standalone experience

Founder '96 is being developed as the first standalone experience within the Founder world. It is intended to be something players can enjoy independently, with its own games, characters, software and opportunities for exploration.

Players will be able to become familiar with the desktop, discover available games, explore period information and spend time getting to know the five characters. Selected games are planned to support online play with one invited friend, while the messenger offers opportunities for individual conversations with the fictional inhabitants of Founder.

Rather than presenting a conventional tutorial or a short demonstration of another game, the intention is to create a computer experience worth returning to. The different activities are connected through the fictional setting, allowing players to develop their own familiarity with its inhabitants and history.

Founder '96 is currently in development. Details about availability, distribution, pricing, technical requirements and release timing will be announced as development progresses.

About the characters

Founder '96 features a planned cast of five AI driven characters, including Katie Brennan, each designed as an individual inhabitant of the fictional town rather than a general purpose conversational assistant.

Their dialogue draws upon three interconnected areas of information. The first is the historical and cultural context of 1996, including the music, films, television, games, technology and events that would have been familiar to people living at the time. The second is the town of Founder, with its own locations, history, community and local stories. The third is the characters' personal backgrounds, including their personalities, interests, memories and relationships with one another.

These sources are intended to work together so that each character responds from an individual perspective. Two friends might know the same historical event or share an experience in Founder, but their understanding of it may be quite different.

The messenger is being developed with the aim of making these differences apparent through ordinary conversation. Players should be able to become familiar with the characters' personalities and relationships over time, rather than being presented with information about them through conventional character biographies.

The extent of persistent player memory, conversation history and other AI features will be confirmed as the system is developed and tested.

About TIDSANDA

TIDSANDA is an independent game studio founded by David J. Franco, an experienced game developer and audio director with more than 20 years working in the video game industry.

David has contributed to more than 25 physically published games, working on projects associated with publishers including Warner Bros., THQ, Square Enix and Aspyr. His experience spans game audio, design, development and interactive storytelling across a range of platforms.

Founder brings together several aspects of that background, combining original childhood game projects, material developed for the earlier Meta funded Founder VR project and an interest in the culture and everyday experiences of personal computing during the 1990s.

The studio's name comes from the Swedish word tidsanda, meaning the spirit of the times, or the culture, ideas and character that define a particular period.

This idea is central to Founder, which explores how software, games, places and the people we associate with them can shape our memories of an era.

Studio website: https://tidsanda.com/

Developer website: https://www.davidjfranco.com/

Key features

A computer from another time

Founder '96 brings games, software, information and social interaction together within a fictional desktop inspired by the personal computers of 1996. Players are free to explore its applications and move between activities at their own pace.

Forgotten games brought back to life

The developing collection includes games originally created by the developer during childhood, material revisited from the unfinished Founder VR project and fictional software created for Founder '96. Each contributes to the feeling of discovering an unfamiliar collection of games from another era.

Five AI driven personalities

The messenger introduces five fictional friends, including Katie Brennan, who share a home in the town of Founder. Their individual personalities, backgrounds and relationships are intended to make conversations feel like part of a wider social world.

A shared history and understanding of 1996

Characters draw upon period reference material, the fictional history of Founder and their own personal experiences, allowing their conversations to reflect different interests and perspectives.

Two player online games

Selected games are being developed for two people to play together online, allowing players to invite one friend into the experience while retaining the option to explore the desktop alone.

Ask Athena

An offline encyclopaedia provides access to historical and cultural information available by 1996, recreating an important part of the personal computing experience of the period.

A fictional town with its own history

The people on the messenger belong to Founder, a town with its own local records, landmarks, relationships and stories. Players can discover more about the community through conversations and information found on the computer.

Frequently asked questions

Media and press contact

Official studio website: https://tidsanda.com/

Explore the fictional town: https://founder.tidsanda.com/

Developer website: https://www.davidjfranco.com/

Press enquiries: Contact information to be announced.

Media assets, screenshots, trailers, download links and additional technical information will be added as they become available.