Game Designers Remembered

Brian Wood is Still Remembered

9/3/2012

On September 3rd, 2010, Brian Wood, lead designer in the Company of Heroes franchise, was killed in a car accident. Since today is the 2 year anniversary of the incident, I wanted to commemorate his passing by reminding all of us the contributions he made in the video game world. Though he contributed to games such as Kohan II and Axis & Allies, the Company of Heroes line of games were his most notable (and most recent) achievements. In fact, just before his death, the online version of CoH went into beta. A few months later, it was shut down, never to be seen again. The cause for the shutdown was likely due to the fact that Relic had lost Brian's creative direction and input, and were not able to duplicate his work.

A true artist's work can not be duplicated. So thank you Brian for your contributions to the video game world. You've left your digital imprint, and though your time as a designer was way too short, your hard work will be seen and played for years to come.

See the full bio and list of Brian's games here

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14 Year Anniversary of Jim Nitchals Death

6/5/2012

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With the amount of spam that we get in our inboxes nowadays, I sure miss anti-spam pioneers like Jim Nitchals (see bio and game history here: Jim Nitchals Bio). He went face to face with the most notorious spammers, and came out unscathed.

June 5th, 1998 was the date of his passing. He contributed to the world in more ways than just programs on a computer. If you search his name, almost everyone had something nice to say about him.

Sometimes we are known for who we truly are only after we pass.
Would have been great to know you friend.

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Adam Adamowicz, Video Game Concept Artist, Dies

2/21/2012

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Daydreaming is usually a solitary activity. But Adam Adamowicz turned his daydreams into fantasy worlds that ensnared millions of video game enthusiasts.

Mr. Adamowicz, who died on Feb. 9 at 43, was a concept artist whose paintings of exotic landscapes, monsters and elaborately costumed heroes and villains formed the visual foundation for two of the most popular single-player role-playing video games of all time.

In Fallout 3, he envisioned a post-apocalyptic Washington; in the other, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, he co-created the look of a vast fantasy world. Together the games have sold more than 15 million copies and earned more than $900 million since they were released, Fallout in autumn 2008 and Skyrim in autumn 2011.

His death, at a hospital in Washington, of complications of lung cancer, was confirmed by Pete Hines, a vice president of Bethesda Softworks, the company that created both games.

Whether sketching out a mutant-riddled, atomically ravaged downtown Washington or a sprawling continent populated by wizards and trolls, Mr. Adamowicz was, in a sense, the costume designer, prop master and set designer for highly cinematic games. Other team members would render Mr. Adamowicz’s drawings on computers once the writers and art director approved them.

“All of the designs evolve through contributions from the whole team,” he wrote in an essay about conceptual design on the Fallout Web site. “I like to feel that it’s my job to instigate the process with a cool drawing that inspires everyone else here into making something really cool.”

Mr. Adamowicz (pronounced a-DOM-oh-wits) conceptualized virtually everything in Fallout 3: locations like a crumbling Washington Monument and coin-operated personal bomb shelters; items like the Pip-Boy 3000 — an electronic wrist computer that serves as a player’s conduit to menus, maps and other vital information — and the Fat Man, a weapon that launches miniature nuclear bombs; and monsters ranging from mutated naked mole rats to 30-foot-tall super mutant behemoths.

“He was one of the first people on Fallout 3 and he drew every concept image we had,” said Todd Howard, the game director for both Fallout 3 and Skyrim. “We’re talking over a thousand images, for years.”

Mr. Adamowicz worked with a fellow concept artist, Ray Lederer, on Skyrim, but came up with the look and feel of the game’s marquee monster, fearsome dragons that would intimidate Smaug, the venerable wyrm from “The Hobbit.” Skyrim is the first of the Elder Scrolls series to let players battle them.

Adam Carl Adamowicz was born on March 9, 1968, in Huntington, on Long Island. He received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1990. He studied oil painting, figure drawing and palette mixing at the Boulder Academy of Fine Arts in 2002 and 2003.

Mr. Adamowicz worked as a freelance illustrator for Dark Horse Comics and Malibu Graphics and held down odd jobs, like haunted house builder and erotic cake artisan, according to his blog, before landing his position at Bethesda in 2005.

He is survived by his mother, Moira Adamowicz.

Fallout 3 is suffused with humorous touches of nostalgia for the time before a nuclear war had ended the world as we know it. (For example, the Ink Spots’ 1941 song “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” plays on the radio as a player explores the radioactive rubble.)

Mr. Adamowicz actually had the wholesomeness of “Leave It to Beaver” in mind when he imagined a post-apocalyptic world. The game really begins when the protagonist escapes from a technologically advanced 1950s-style society that has survived for hundreds of years in a huge subterranean bomb shelter.

“I have an interest in all things ’50s because I think there’s a certain charisma with the music, with the automobiles, with the clothing style,” Mr. Adamowicz said in an interview included as bonus content when Fallout 3 was released. “So designing any of these characters and then throwing them into the wasteland, the dark humor for me kicked in when I imagined Ward Cleaver being pushed out of his bunker and he’s looking for fresh tobacco for his pipe and then here comes a raider over the top of the horizon.”
Source: Daniel E. Slotnik with www.nytimes.com

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Steve Kordek, The Man Who Revolutionized Pinball, Dies At 100 Years Old

2/21/2012

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PARK RIDGE, IL -- Steve Kordek, widely regarded as the man who transformed the pinball machine from a simple arcade game into a great American pastime, died on Feb. 19. He was 100.

About 80 years ago, a young man who would become a coin-op legend wandered into a penny arcade machine company called Genco Manufacturing "just to get out of the rain," as he tells it. He stayed to revolutionize the pinball industry, and many of his designs, still used today, would elevate the game into a sophisticated entertainment form.

In 1947, Kordek's Triple Action (Genco) was the first pinball machine to incorporate only two flippers at the bottom of the playfield. These more powerful flippers were facilitated by the addition of a DC power supply. Also invented by Kordek were the first drop targets, unveiled with Vagabond (Williams-1962), and multi-ball play, featured on Beat the Clock (Williams-1963).

The player-controlled flippers at the bottom of the playfield, drop targets and multi-ball mode have been standard pinball game features ever since. These innovations were a few of many by Kordek.

On Dec. 26, 2011, Steve Kordek turned 100 years old. Admirers of the pinball superstar celebrated his remarkable life at a party in Niles, IL, on Jan. 20. During his six decades in the coin machine industry, he designed more than 100 pinball games for Genco, Williams and Bally.

David Silverman of the National Pinball Museum spoke to NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about Kordek's legacy. "Steve Kordek's big breakthrough was the design of a game with two flippers instead of a lot of flippers, and in the position they are in today," Silverman told NPR.

In pinball circles, Kordek became a legend, and well into his nineties he would get mobbed at pinball events. "Every year he would go to Pinball Expo in Chicago, no matter what, and everybody would want to hear him talk and listen to his history -- because it was the history of pinball," Silverman said.

Steve Kordek, along with such designers as Gottlieb's Wayne Neyens, were the men who made the pinball manufacturers of yesteryear great, Silverman told NPR, because they kept producing the games that the public continued to want to play.

Source: Nick Montano with www.vendingtimes.com

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World of Warcraft Could Not Have Existed If Not For Dani Berry

1/17/2012

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OK, so I exaggerate... but only a tiny bit.
Dani Bunten Berry's first commercial title was a real-time stock simulation game called Wheeler Dealers in 1978. It was the first game to be sold in a box, and not a Ziploc bag. It came with a 4-player controller (that Dani built!) so that she could actualize her vision of bringing people together, using the computer as the vehicle to do it.

Unfortunately, Wheeler Dealers was a bust. Though, it did prove that she could make, and get published, the kind of games she wanted (even though the technology hadn't caught up to her yet): Multiplayer.

Dani was paving the road to multi-player gaming goodness in the late 70s. She realized early on that characters possessing human intelligence were much more challenging and enjoyable to play against (and with) than AI opponents. Her portfolio lists a slew of multi-player games, and only two single-player-only games.

Ironically, one of those single-player games, Seven Cities of Gold, was the best seller of her career. I say it's ironic because, although it was her intent to create nothing but multiplayer games, it was a single-player game that achieved the most success. And here we are today,in the age ofMassively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games such as World of Warcraft. Sure, WoW may seem like a hover car compared to Dani's antique games, but you can't have a hover car before you invent the car. That's not to say 'If it wasn't for Dani, we wouldn't have WoW and other online games", but it does make you wonder how much her games influenced today's generation of computer programmers.

By the time Dani stopped creating games in 1992, AOL was letting to let the world know there was this thing called the internet (snide comment intended). As the internet rose in popularity for $24.95 a month (I jest!), previous LAN-only games were starting to tunnel their way into the online realm. Dani was way ahead of the pack when it came to creating the "online" experience, her games inspired many game designers. The technologies her and her team created didn't even exist before they created them. In fact, it was rare to find gamers who could play her multiplayer games because so few of them even owned modems! Yet, she persisted in her original pursuit of bringing people together to enjoy games, regardless of existing technology.

Dani Bunten may not have written the subroutines, or crafted the storylines, or rendered the 3D graphics of World of Warcraft, but she primed the pump for what would be the incredible success it is today. Would we have the WoW that we have today had it not been for her? Who knows! It's possible it would have been even more amazing had she been alive to help create it.

Read Dani's bio and gameography here

Image source: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/

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Jim Nitchals would have been 50 today

1/15/2012

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He's the guy who gave Apple II owners a taste of arcade games with clones such as Bug Attack and Star Thief. He's also the guy who figured out how to reverse engineer the Sega Genesis when Electronic Arts wanted to make cartridges for the system (Steve Hayes was the other guy). Sega wouldn't budge on a more accommodating licensing deal, so Trip Hawkins of EA decided to have two of his top engineers take a "crack" at reverse engineering the system.

Once the Genesis was figured out, EA took action and made a bunch of games. In fact, if it wasn't for Jim, EA may not have entered the cartridge market at all! Nintendo's licensing deals were extremely one-sided, and Sega wanted to follow suit by offering EA a highly unfavorable deal.

It wasn't until the Consumer Electronics Show in 1990 that changed Sega's mind about allowing EA to create games for the system under a much more desirable agreement. Trip told Sega execs that EA had reverse engineered the Genesis, and were ready to come out with cartridges without Sega's blessing. After an all night meeting, Sega backed down on their original licensing demands and agreed to terms that would keep Sega in the loop of all new EA games for the Genesis. The deal allowed for EA to license as many games as they wanted for the system, yet still allow both companies to profit.

What both companies didn't realize however is that EA really wasn't holding all the cards. It turned out that Sega still could have locked out unlicensed EA cartridges, due to an oversight during the reverse engineering phase. It's true that Jim and Steve figured out how to run games on the Genesis, but there were still security measures Sega put in place that weren't found at the time. EA figured this out late in the game, after their CES meeting with Sega. And by then, if Sega didn't agree, EA would have been back-pedaling to get out of the muck and empty promises they made.

Fortunately, when Sega and EA came to an agreement, EA didn't have to worry about using a not-fully-reverse engineered system, and Sega provided them with all they needed to make games for their system. It worked out quite profitably for both companies in the end, but funny how what turned out to be a bluff by EA (in hindsight), helped both companies succeed.

Jim played a pivotal role at EA, helping them gain ground in the cartridge market (something EA initially thought would be a step backwards in video gaming). This was just a small chapter in his life, but one that shifted an entire segment of the gaming public. After all, ever heard of the John Madden football series of video games? It all started as an EA cartridge on the Sega Genesis.

See Jim Nitchal's bio and gameography here

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Just added Brian Wood of Relic Entertainment

1/14/2012

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Brian and his wife, Erin

Best known for his contributions in the Company of Heroes franchise, Brian R. Wood died on September 3rd, 2010 when a car hit him and his wife on Whidbey Island in Washington state. Relic and the gaming public lost a great designer that day.

My heart goes out to his wife and child, who I'm sure are still working through the loss. His Bio and Gameography can be found here.

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Welcome to Game Designers Remembered

11/26/2011

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Every time we read about the death of a game author, or someone else in the interactive entertainment industry, all of us are effected. Video games are part of our history and culture. Game designers have contributed to our personal histories as well. Almost everyone has picked up a controller at one point. And, even if they haven't, they've used a device that was likely inspired by an innovator in the video game industry .

We've played their games, or at least, played a game that was influenced by one of their games. These designers created products that engaged our minds sometimes for days, weeks, months, and nowadays, years! They've truly impacted our lives, even if indirectly. Their contributions to video games form the very fabric in which today's game industry is woven.

This site is dedicated to the men and women that gave us years of entertainment, happiness, and sometimes just some good old relief from stress. They are the sometimes forgotten folk heroes of the video game world. Each of them installed their essence into their games, and hence, the gaming universe as a whole. And we all get a little dose of their magic every time we pick up a controller or keyboard.

A long time ago, a friend of mine told me that she would sometimes walk around the cemetery just speaking the names she read on tombstones. She felt that somehow, by doing that, it was a way of saying "You are remembered."

Wow. Some of those gravestones were over a hundred years old. If it wasn't for someone here and now immortalizing them with only their words, they may have been forever lost in that stitch of time.

There's just something about not being remembered that's disheartening. Maybe it's because we all want to mean something to someone else. I guess that's where the inspiration for this website comes from: Our friends, relatives, and others we don't know, can live on through our remembrance of their legacy. What they've left behind, we bring forward.

"Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them" -George Eliot

For those fallen game designers who have contributed to my life:
You Are Remembered.
And, Thank You for the choices you made in your life that brought fulfillment to mine.

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Rediscover the games you remember while honoring the game designers that created them. While we strive for accuracy, please let us know if you find any errors!

Player 1

Do you miss the times sitting in front of your 4-color CGA monitor, or your 8-bit Apple II or Atari ST computer?

What about your Commodore 64? Everyone had one of those, right? Well... almost everyone.

As an early computer programmer, I've seen almost every iteration of interactive entertainment available. Though I never followed programming as a career, there's still a sense of connectedness I feel with many of the amazing game designers memorialized on this site.

Their personality lives on through their games, while their legacy is forever digitized online.

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Game Designers Remembered

Brian Wood is Still Remembered

14 Year Anniversary of Jim Nitchals Death

Adam Adamowicz, Video Game Concept Artist, Dies

Steve Kordek, The Man Who Revolutionized Pinball, Dies At 100 Years Old

World of Warcraft Could Not Have Existed If Not For Dani Berry

Jim Nitchals would have been 50 today

Just added Brian Wood of Relic Entertainment

Welcome to Game Designers Remembered

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