Thomas Hertzler

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Thomas Hertzler (born May 2, 1964 in Mülheim an der Ruhr ) is a German developer of computer games . Hertzler founded the German development studio Blue Byte .

Life

After completing secondary school, Hertzler completed an apprenticeship as a power plant electronics technician, before studying electrical engineering for two semesters after attending technical college and completing his military service.

Hertzler began his development career in 1986 as a programmer and one of the first full-time employees of the German developer studio Rainbow Arts , together with Manfred Trenz and Armin Gessert . In early 1987 he was appointed Head of Development and held this position until July 1988. The titles Sky Fighter and Street Cat , developed by Hertzler, were released via Rainbow Arts , and he also ported Gessert's The Great Giana Sisters to the Amiga and the Atari ST. In 1988 the studio, which had meanwhile grown in terms of staff, moved from Gütersloh to the parent company Rushware in Düsseldorf . As Hertzler was dissatisfied with the studio management, he decided against the move and initially remained a freelance worker for a few months before setting up the Blue Byte development studio with his colleague Lothar Schmitt in his hometown of Mülheim an der Ruhr in October .

The first game was the tennis simulation Great Courts jointly developed by Hertzler and Schmitt , which sold around 500,000 copies successfully and was named the best sports game in 1989 by the French magazine Tilt . The great success began with Battle Isle , which Blue Byte marketed itself for the first time, and Volker Wertich's Die Siedler . After Schmitt's departure, Hertzler continued to run Blue Byte on his own and, after Battle Isle and Great Courts 2, mainly acted as a producer. Among other things, he founded branches in Great Britain and the USA and tried, for example, to position the company broadly with an online shop (Blue Byte Direct), its own social community (Blue Byte Game Channel) or online games or games with online components. However, all attempts to gain a foothold on the international market failed. There were also sales flops such as crawl speed and incubation .

In February 2001, Hertzler finally sold Blue Byte for 26 million DM to the French publisher Ubisoft . After selling the studio, Hertzler moved to the USA. In 2013 he tried again to develop a new game with the brand name Battle Isle for smartphones via crowdfunding . However, funding was unsuccessful.

Games

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Michael Göckel: The professional programmer . In: Amiga magazine . tape 02/1989 , p. 18 .
  2. ^ Thomas Hertzler (Rainbow Arts) - Interview. March 30, 2016, accessed August 13, 2020 (UK English).
  3. ↑ The story of Blue Byte - From the top floor to Düsseldorf. August 18, 2013, accessed August 13, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Blue Byte review: How the settlers grew up - German construction tradition. February 11, 2017, accessed August 13, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Ubi Soft takes over German games company Blue Byte - Golem.de. Retrieved on August 13, 2020 (German).
  6. ↑ What is ... Blue Byte actually doing? August 5, 2002, accessed August 13, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Thomas Hertzler: Blue Byte founder is working on the new Battle Isle - Golem.de. Retrieved on August 13, 2020 (German).
  8. ↑ Threshold Run: Now Without "Battle Isle" // Battle Video - News | GamersGlobal.de. Retrieved August 13, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Hertzler, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German computer game developer
DATE OF BIRTH May 2, 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH Mülheim an der Ruhr