At a time when most entrepreneurial-minded 30-somethings are just starting to dream of their first venture, Chris Klaus is embarking on his second.

The wunderkind co-founder of Atlanta's highly successful Internet Security Systems Inc. has quietly stepped away from operational roles there to start a new company he hopes will be the next major leap in the video game industry.

His new 20-person shop, Klaus Entertainment Inc., is developing a video game "engine" for massively multiplayer online game programmers. It's expected to be released in mid-2005. Such engines save game developers time and money, allowing them to adapt programs around a basic framework instead of starting anew.

"It's something I've always been interested in," said Klaus, 31, who dropped out of Georgia Tech when he was 20 to start ISS (Nasdaq: ISSX). "If I hadn't gotten involved with security, I would have gotten into video games."