David W. Bradley

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David W. Bradley is an American computer game designer and programmer . He is best known for the computer role-playing game series Wizardry , for which he developed the fifth part and was chief developer from Wizardry 6: Bane of the Cosmic Forge . He also developed the games Wizards & Warriors and Dungeon Lords with his own company Heuristic Park .

Career

From the mid-1970s, Bradley began role-playing in college . Bradley was studying musicology when he came across composition software . He learned to write programs for the university mainframe himself and eventually began programming games. This ultimately led to a job in the software industry as a game designer and programmer. One of his early works is the turn-based strategy game Parthian Kings for Avalon Hill . Around 1981 he started developing his own computer role-playing game. When he finished, he sent the game he called Dragon's Breath to a publisher. It wasn't until a year later, when the release of Wizardry 4 was delayed, that publisher Sir-Tech finally signed him to publish the game as part of the Wizardry series. After he had adapted the game with the help of Robert Woodhead until 1986, it was held back by Sir-Tech for another two years and only released in 1988 as Wizardry 5: Heart of the Maelstrom .

When Woodhead left Sir-Tech in 1988, Bradley became chief developer for the subsequent parts. With this new creative freedom he changed the old formula of the Wizardry games for the titles Wizardry 6: Bane of the Cosmic Forge (1990) and Wizardry 7: Crusaders of the Dark Savant (1992) and created a new RPG system. The two games were well received by critics and praised for their game design. During the development of Part 7, David Bradley was drawn into a lawsuit brought by Robert Woodhead and Andrew Greenberg against Sir-Tech. The lawsuit concerned royalties for the two developers. However, both Bradley and Sir-Tech stated that Bradley had no involvement in this. After a disagreement with Sir-Tech, Bradley left the company after Wizardry 7 was completed . He then developed the action game CyberMage (1995) for Origin Systems . After he founded the Heuristic Park development studio himself in 1995, he first realized the Wizardry- like game Wizards & Warriors for Windows PCs, which was published in 2000 by Activision . He then developed the action role-playing game Dungeon Lords with his company Heuristic Park, which was released in 2005 and which also includes a multiplayer mode. Dungeon Lords has been heavily criticized for its unfinished condition and numerous bugs and, according to the critics, was published far too early. The game was re-released several times after revisions by Bradley (Collector's Edition, Version MMXII, Steam Edition). The development of a successor entitled The Orb and the Oracle was announced in 2008 by JoWooD and Dreamcatcher Interactive . A release was announced for winter 2008/2009, but the game never appeared and publisher JoWooD was wound up in 2011 after bankruptcy.

Published titles

  • Gilbert: Escape from Drill (1989)
  • Wizardry 5: Heart of the Maelstrom (1988)
  • Wizardry 6: Bane of the Cosmic Forge (1990)
  • Wizardry 7: Crusaders of the Dark Savant (1992)
  • CyberMage: Darklight Awakening (1995)
  • Wizards & Warriors (2000)
  • Dungeon Lords (2005)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ More RPGs by David Bradley. In: GameStar . January 13, 2003, accessed July 14, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Peter Grubmair: New races and classes from Dungeon Lords. In: Game Zone. July 19, 2004, accessed July 14, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Tom Schaffer: GERMAN version of our interview. In: Rebell.at. June 20, 2004, accessed July 14, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b c d Wizards & Warriors Interview ( Memento from February 17, 2001 in the Internet Archive ) In: IGN . July 13, 2000, accessed July 14, 2019.
  5. ^ Wizardry: Bane of the Cosmic Forge . In: CU Amiga Magazine . No. 28, June 1992, p. 70. (English)
  6. ↑ Sam Derboo: Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom. In: Hardcore Gaming 101. October 30, 2014, accessed on July 14, 2019 .
  7. ^ Retrospective Interview: Robert Woodhead on Wizardry. In: RPG Codex. April 27, 2012, accessed July 14, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Jared Petty: Robert Woodhead (interview). In: Hardcore Gaming 101 November 1, 2014, accessed July 14, 2019 .
  9. ^ Matt Barton: Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games . CRC Press , 2008, ISBN 978-1-4398-6524-8 , pp. 185–187 (English, google.com [accessed July 14, 2019]).
  10. ↑ a b Sam Derboo: Wizardry: Stones of Arnhem. In: Hardcore Gaming 101 October 31, 2012, accessed July 14, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Curse of the Superheroes? ( Memento of July 29, 2017 in the Internet Archive ). In: IGN . August 25, 2000. Accessed July 14, 2019.
  12. ↑ Jörg Luibl: Test: Dungeon Lords. In: 4Players . June 27, 2005, accessed July 14, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Peter Steinlechner: MMXII: DW Bradley plans a new edition of Dungeon Lords. In: Golem.de . April 13, 2012, accessed July 14, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Markus Horn: RPG classic Dungeon Lords gets remake - Title: Dungeon Lords MMXII. In: PC Games Hardware . April 16, 2012, accessed July 14, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Jon Birnbaum: Dungeon Lords MMXII Interview, Part One. In: Gamebanshee. September 25, 2012, accessed July 15, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Jon Birnbaum: Dungeon Lords Steam Edition Released, Changelog Available. In: Gamebanshee. December 29, 2015, accessed July 15, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Nicolai Dircks: The Orb and the Oracle - JoWooD announces new part of Dungeon Lords. In: GameStar . June 26, 2008, accessed August 15, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Bradley, David W.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bradley, David; Bradley, Dave; Bradley, DW
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American computer game developer
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century