Jordan Weisman

Revision as of 14:17, 14 October 2012 by 79.2.51.33 (talk) (→‎Biography)

Jordan Weisman is an American computer game designer who has founded three major game design companies, each in a different game genre and segment of the industry.

Biography

Weisman graduated from Francis W. Parker High School, in Chicago, Illinois. He spent time in the Merchant Marines, and briefly attended University of Illinois at Chicago, before leaving school to persue his business interests.

In 1980 he founded role playing game publisher FASA (short for the Freedonian Aeronautics & Space Administration, named after Groucho Marx's mythical country in Duck Soup) with partner L. Ross Babcock. After starting out producing supplements for the RPG Traveller and later a popular Star Trek RPG, FASA produced the highly successful BattleTech series of games.

Eventually, they used money from FASA to start Virtual Worlds, Inc - a company that produced the BattleTech Centers. There, players sat in cockpits using multiple monitors and elaborate controls for networked battles with giant mecha.

In 1995, Weisman founded FASA Interactive to personally take over the development and production of the hit MechWarrior PC games. The franchise is one of the top-selling PC games of all time, with sales of over 9 million units worldwide. In 1999, Microsoft acquired FASA Interactive and moved the 40-person development team to Redmond, Washington. As part of the deal, Weisman became Creative Director for Microsoft's entertainment division.

In 2000, he founded WizKids, which produces the games Mage Knight, Heroclix, MechWarrior: Dark Age, and Pirates of the Spanish Main. The company focuses on miniatures games that are easy to learn for younger players.

In 2003 he founded 4orty 2wo Entertainment, a design company in the new field of the Alternate Reality Game. 4orty 2wo created the two best known AR games to date, The Beast, to promote the Steven Spielberg film A.I., and I Love Bees to promote the Xbox game Halo 2.

Jordan is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Interactive Media Division at the USC School of Cinema-Television.

Design credits

Weisman's design credits in paper RPG game design include:

He also served as production manager and/or graphic designer on a long series of titles.

References


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