Mark Long and Joanna Alexander, founders of Seattle's Zombie Studios, plan to sell their computer game company to its employees and focus their attention on hatching an incubator for start-ups.

The incubator, called Fez.com, will be financed by Long and Alexander and may receive additional funding from at least two local investment firms that are evaluating the deal.

Negotiations with Zombie's 25 employees are under way and will likely be completed by Christmas, Long said.

He said the new incubator, housed in Zombie's 5,000-square-foot office in Pioneer Square, could be up and running as early as January.

"The gaming business in brutally competitive -- we live and die by the ability to deliver bulletproof software," Long said. "So we feel really strongly that our engineering and management skills will transfer nicely to Internet development"

Fez.com is also the title of a new Internet magazine the two have launched.

The new magazine is geared toward "Internet culture" by focusing on music, art, games and fashion, Long said.

The incubator will probably house two companies at a time. The first company likely to find space in Fez.com will be Long's own start-up, HQ.com, a vertical portal aimed at military personnel and their families.

Fez.com is one of several incubators starting in the area.

CMGI, an Andover, Mass-based Internet investment company, is setting up an incubator in a 30,000-square-foot space in the Manus Building, at 1130 Rainier Ave. S.

Curt Blake, former chief operating officer at Starwave Corp., is hoping to raise $20 million to finance GetGo, an incubator likely to be located on the Eastside.

The University of Washington is also looking for space to house its new Technology Enterprise Institute, an incubator for technology developed at the university.

The new incubators will join several similar operations already up and running in the area.

Seattle-based Polaris Venture Partners operates its 1-year-old incubator called, Polaris Greenhouse, out of its Columbia Tower offices. And the Washington Research Foundation, affiliated with the University of Washington, recently launched its own Venture Center located on Eastlake Avenue East.

Early this year, iStart Ventures opened for business in Pioneer Square. The incubator is backed by John Ballantine, founder of Online Interactive and us spin-off FreeShop.com.

Long and Alexander met in 1991 while designing virtual reality simulators for the military at the David Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton, N.J.

The Sarnoff Center is independent research facility that takes credit for developing color television, among other things.

Long and Alexander founded Zombie Studios six years ago and have since developed eight computer games. Their last game, called Spec Ops, generated $10 million in sales.

The duo will retain rights to Zombie Studios' Web design and development component, as well as its 3-D animation department.