Erik Simon (game developer)

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Erik Simon (born December 17, 1963 in Hamburg ) is a German computer game developer and graphic artist . Simon was co-founder of the German development studio Thalion Software and later held leading positions at various German-speaking computer game manufacturers such as Blue Byte , Jowood and Sunflowers .

Career

Erik Simon completed an apprenticeship as a radio and television technician after secondary school before he began studying communications engineering with a technical diploma. After his military service, he began to turn to game development and was active in the demo group The Exceptions (TEX) . Together with his friend Udo Fischer, he began working on Dragonflight in 1986 , which, however, did not come onto the market until 1990 . Together with Holger Flöttmann , Jochen Hippel and Marc Rosocha, he founded the German game development studio Thalion Software in Gütersloh in 1988 . Thalion developed games mainly for the home computer systems Atari ST and Amiga . The most famous titles were the platform game Lionheart and the two role-playing games Amberstar and Ambermoon . Simon originally worked primarily as a graphic designer, but was also involved in game design and took on management tasks. Due to financial bottlenecks, the studio was sold to the publisher Ariolasoft , the software division of the Bertelsmann group . While Flöttmann left the company to found Ascaron , Simon stayed with the company. In 1993 he was development manager and the last remaining founding member at Thalion. Though Thalion's works were well received by critics, the sales figures fell short of expectations. Therefore the studio was closed in 1994.

When Thalion closed, Simon and some of the employees moved to the Mühlheim-based development studio Blue Byte . There he initially developed the role-playing game Albion, stylistically reminiscent of Ambermoon and Amberstar , as a graphic designer and project manager . At Blue Byte, he finally also became head of development and - after division of the tasks between himself and Hans-Jürgen Brändle - director of developer relations, ie person responsible for cooperation with external partners.

In 2001, Simon moved to the Austrian publisher Jowood as Head of Development . There he was responsible for coordinating the publisher's studios and overseeing external projects. Together with Development Director Johann Schilcher, he was also supposed to drive the strategic direction. In 2004, Simon became Head of Development at Sunflowers . In this role he briefly took over the management of the developer studio SEK Ost from 2007 to 2008 . From 2010 to 2013, Simon worked as development manager for the Axel Springer subsidiary Gamigo , where he worked on the MMORPG Black Prophecy, among other things .

In 2014 he founded his own company cView Studios in Malta, with which he works as a service provider for graphics work for other developer studios.

Games

Web links

  • Erik Simon at MobyGames (English)
  • Winnie Forster: Simon, Erik . In: Computer and Video Game Makers . S. 291 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Max Magenauer: Small Talk: An open conversation with Erik Simon . In: PC Joker . tape 3/95 , p. 61 ff .
  2. ↑ a b c New head of development at Sunflowers. Retrieved August 12, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Max Magenauer: What is Erik Simon doing? In: Amiga Joker . tape 11/1993 , p. 88 f .
  4. ↑ Gerald Müller-Bruhnke: Interview with Erik "ES" Simon. In: The Thalion Source. Retrieved August 12, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Blue Byte restructured. Retrieved August 12, 2020 .
  6. ↑ New Head of Development at JoWooD. Retrieved August 12, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Berlin District Court (Charlottenburg): HRB 79489, announcements in the commercial register on October 19, 2007 and February 25, 2008
personal data
SURNAME Simon, Erik
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German computer game developer and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH 17th December 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg