Jon Van Caneghem

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Jon Van Caneghem (2011)

Jon Van Caneghem (* 1962/1963) is an American computer game - developer and founder of the development studio New World Computing , which many successful role-playing game published title. Van Caneghem's greatest successes include the Might and Magic and Heroes of Might and Magic game series , which have sold over 20 million times to date. The two game series were inducted into the Computer Gaming World Hall of Fame and translated into over fifteen languages.

Career

New World Computing - Founded 1983 (or 84)

In 1983 or 1984 he founded the company "New World Computing" with Marc Caldwell (now husband of the former gymnast Carly Patterson ), which he ran from his small apartment in Hollywood .

His first game was the role-playing game Might and Magic Book 1: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum for the Apple II , which was inspired by Ultima , Wizardry and his Dungeons & Dragons experiences, and was released in 1986 after three years of development. Van Caneghem did almost all of the work (programming, graphics, story development) himself. At first he couldn't find a publisher and so he sold the game himself by mail. The game became a hit and Van Caneghem sold over 5,000 copies by the time Activision approached him and took over professional distribution.

The sequel Might and Magic 2: Gates to Another World (1988) and Nuclear War (1989) followed. Also in 1989, together with a Japanese development team, he developed the role-playing game Tunnels & Trolls - Crusaders of Khazan (based on the early role-playing system Tunnels & Trolls ) for the Japanese market and the then popular NEC PC systems. In Japan , this game became a role model for PC role-playing games in the 1990s .

After the turn-based fantasy strategy game King's Bounty (1990) and the science fiction strategy role-playing game Planet's Edge (1991), the next three parts of the Might and Magic series followed. He first worked with other programmers to develop Might and Magic 3 (1992), his first title for the PC .

In 1995 the first part of his series Heroes of Might and Magic , a turn-based strategy game , which is still popular today , was released, which set new standards in this genre. The game was a continuation of his game Kings Bounty , but was renamed during development to benefit from the success of the role-playing game series Might and Magic .

In 1996 Van Caneghem decided to sell New World Computing to 3DO . The game industry had changed, development costs soared and new development studios with huge budgets and a new financing model had emerged. He decided to sell the company so that he could concentrate fully on development and leave all business decisions and risks to others. From this sale he received 135,000 3DO shares (at that time about 12.5% ​​of all 3DO shares).

Another reason for Van Caneghem to join 3DO, the view was a Might and Magic - Online Game to develop. In the online area, Van Caneghem saw the future of computer games and 3DO already had all the necessary infrastructure through the MMORPG Meridian 59 . Ultimately, however, the project was never implemented, as the costs of such a project amounted to several times that of a PlayStation 2 game and several individual titles promised more sales for 3DO. The new owner 3DO was also a big influence on Van Caneghem's next games. To drive sales growth even further, 3DO required its development team to complete a new M&M game or Heroes product every year - some even in ten months or less. Because of this imposed urgency - games of this genre typically take around 2 to 3 years to develop - Van Caneghem was forced to compromise in development and forego overly great innovations. He protested against this business policy, but achieved little with the management, who only paid attention to sales figures. Finally he gave up.

At Heroes of Might and Magic 4 , he was only involved in the first design phases. When the development of the game got out of hand, however, he had to help with the completion of the game in order to put it into a state in which it could be published. In the last part of the M&M series , part 9, he was hardly involved at all. Van Caneghem later said in interviews that if it had been up to him, the game would never have gone on sale.

In the summer of 2003, 3DO declared bankruptcy. The rights to Might and Magic and Heroes of Might and Magic were acquired from Ubisoft . From June 2004, he worked briefly as an executive producer for the US department of the publisher NCsoft , where they specialized in the development of MMOGs . There he worked under the direction of designer legend Richard Garriott on the development of an unannounced online game. That same year, Van Caneghem and NCsoft quietly parted ways again.

Trion World Network - since 2006

In September 2006, Van Caneghem and Lars Buttler (formerly Vice President of Global Online at Electronic Arts ) founded Trion World Network, based in Redwood City , California. The company specializes in the development and distribution of cross-platform online and episode games. There he led the development of Trion's first game, the MMORPG Heroes of Telara . In April 2009, Van Caneghem surprisingly left the company before the game was released.

In February 2011 Van Caneghem took over the management of Victory Games, a newly founded studio for strategy games at Electronic Arts. As Game Manager he will be responsible for the development of a new part of the Command & Conquer series. The company has been operating under the name “BioWare Victory” since December and is formally under the management of the BioWare Group .

When it comes to developing new games, Van Caneghem says it focuses first on the technologies the game will use. Only then does he deal with the gameplay and then with the plot.

Van Caneghem is married and his wife Debbie helped develop many of his games. Van Caneghem's sister Michaela was also involved in the development of the first two Might and Magic parts.

Game history

literature

  • Rusel DeMaria, Johnny Lee Wilson: High Score! , McGraw-Hill / Osborne Media, 2003, pp. 212-215, ISBN 0-07-223172-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Yardena Arar: AN EDUCATION IN GAME MARKET \ 33-year-old's magical touch has transformed passion for role playing \ adventures into a lucrative reality (March 11, 1996), Los Angeles Daily News
  2. ↑ http://www.trionworld.com/team.php
  3. ↑ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1995_April_3/ai_16748836 ( Memento from July 8, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  4. ↑ Surrette, Tim. " Game vets found Trion World Network ", GameSpot , September 25, 2006. Accessed January 10, 2008.
  5. ↑ Gamasutra : Q&A: Trion On Platform, Von Caneghem MMO, Sci-Fi Channel Deal . June 2, 2008. Accessed July 9, 2008.
  6. ↑ PC Games .de: Heroes of Telara: New MMORPG from Trion . May 7, 2009.
  7. ↑ Joystiq.com: Trion asks president and CCO to try on new career . April 22, 2009.
  8. ↑ commandandconquer.com: [1] . February 24, 2011.
  9. ^ Brendan Sinclair, Tom Magrino: BioWare story invades Command & Conquer . In: GameSpot . CNET . December 10, 2011. Retrieved December 11, 2011.
personal data
SURNAME Van Caneghem, Jon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American computer game developer
DATE OF BIRTH 1962 or 1963