Rick Goodman is a video game designer and the founder and owner of the now-defunct Stainless Steel Studios.

PC Gamer said in an article about Empire Earth that it feels like it's the gold edition of the entire AoE series.

Goodman would soon break up with Sierra and start working on a new game, Empires: Dawn of the Modern World.

[5] At the end of November 2005, with only weeks to go before release of "Rise and Fall", Stainless Steel Studios closed abruptly.

He reportedly told Gamestar that after the PC strategy game's release was pushed from October to early 2006, Midway cut off advances to Stainless Steel, which in turn had to lay off its staff due to lack of funding.