Brett Sperry

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Brett Sperry
Brett Sperry Curating 2024 Exhibit.jpg
Brett Sperry Curating 2024 Exhibit
Born
Brett Wesley Sperry

Website www.brettsperry.com

Brett Sperry is an American video game designer, [1] a fine arts gallerist, [2] [3] [4] and a professional photographer. He is also a leading developer of the Las Vegas arts community where he's made significant investments in property and infrastructure, primarily in the Downtown Las Vegas area. [5]

Contents

In the world of video and computer games, Sperry was co-founder and President of Westwood Studios [6] where he created the Command and Conquer [7] series, among other titles. During this time, Sperry was named the sixth most influential person in the history of video games. [8] Westwood Studios would later receive the 2015 Industry Icon Award, [9] [10] presented by 2015 Game Awards host Kiefer Sutherland. [11]

Background and education

Brett Sperry moved from his native Connecticut to the Las Vegas Valley in 1979. He later spent a year at Arizona State University, where he studied Psychology and Architecture. [12] A self-taught programmer, he began his professional work with video and computer games in Las Vegas, Nevada where he performed for-hire contract work with Imagic and others.

Video and computer games

Westwood Studios

From a suburban Las Vegas garage in 1985, Brett Sperry and business partner Louis Castle created Brelous Software, with Sperry as president and Executive Producer. The pair changed the company name to Westwood Associates two months later, and in 1992 they again changed the name to Westwood Studios, reflecting their studio-like approach to the business. [13]


As the company became more successful, Sperry and Castle entertained full buyout offers from both Sierra Entertainment and the Richard Branson satellite Virgin Interactive (a division of Spelling Entertainment Group [14] ). In 1992, Sperry and Castle sold Westwood Studios to Virgin despite a higher offer from Sierra, citing issues of greater freedom and autonomy. [15] As Westwood evolved into one of the most successful video and computer game entities ever created, [16] Sperry remained President and Executive Producer. However, in 1997 he took a larger role within the companies as Virgin Interactive's President of Worldwide Development, an internal attempt to turn Virgin's otherwise struggling video games divisions into a profitable enterprise. [17] [18]

In 1998, the Westwood library and assets were purchased outright from Spelling/Virgin by Electronic Arts. [19] [20]

Jet Set Games

In early 2009, Brett Sperry announced the collaborative launch of Las Vegas-based software publisher "Jet Set Games", [21] a computer gaming company focused on mobile devices such as iPads and iPhones. The company's first successful release was the Highborn strategy game. [22] [23]

Las Vegas arts developer

Since 2007, Brett Sperry has been a central figure in the development of the Las Vegas arts community. [24]

Starting with a 2007 Downtown Las Vegas land purchase, Brett Sperry built and designed the award-winning [25] Brett Wesley Gallery, [26] becoming host to a succession of notable art installations, exhibits, and international artists. [27] In 2016, Brett Wesley Gallery was named the "Best of the City". [28]

Brett Wesley (Gallery) remains a cultural staple.

National Public Radio, Best of the City (2016): These Are the Champions

Sperry then acquired additional parcels nearby, and with development partner Trinity Schlotmann created the Artifice Lounge, a multi-use "art-inspired" bar and lounge that Sperry designed from what was formerly an empty 1950's warehouse. [29] [30] [31]

Art Square

Sperry made a sizable economic and architectural investment in the creation of adjacent Art Square, a 20,000 square-foot site with retail and professional spaces, desert gardens, a performance arts theatre, and a restaurant, all of which---apart from the restaurant---Sperry conceived and designed. [32] [33] [34] [35] [36]

The Art Square complex was sold to Las Vegas Arts District Development in 2015[ citation needed ].

The Modern Contemporary and Luminous Park

In 2009, Sperry became the spearhead and Chairman of a proposed $29-million international-class Las Vegas-based arts museum called "The Modern Contemporary". The museum and its grounds are part of a conceptual entity known as "Luminous Park". [37] [38] [39] [40] [41]

Sperry's tenure as Chairman was contractually completed in 2014. Since then he has been an active member of the board of directors. [42]

Related Research Articles

Westwood Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was founded by Brett Sperry and Louis Castle in 1985 as Brelous Software, but got changed after 2 months into Westwood Associates and was renamed to Westwood Studios when Virgin Games bought the company in 1992. The company was bought by Electronic Arts alongside Virgin Interactive's North American operations in 1998. In January 2003, it was announced that Westwood, alongside Westwood Pacific, would be merged into EA Los Angeles. The main studio location closed in March of that year.

The music in Nevada is often associated with the Rat Pack and lounge singers like Wayne Newton playing in Las Vegas, Reno, and Carson City. However, Nevada has launched many other notable artists and bands from a variety of genres.

<i>Blade Runner</i> (1997 video game) 1997 video game

Blade Runner is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin Interactive for Microsoft Windows, released in November 1997. The game is not a direct adaptation of the 1982 Ridley Scott film Blade Runner but is instead a "sidequel", telling an original story, which runs parallel to the film's plot, occasionally intersecting with it.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Klepacki</span> American musician, video game music composer and sound director

Frank Klepacki is an American musician and video game composer, best known for his work on the Command & Conquer series. Having learned to play drums as a child, he joined Westwood Studios as a composer when he was 17 years old. He has scored several games there, including the Lands of Lore series, Westwood Studios' Dune games, The Legend of Kyrandia series, Blade Runner, and the Command & Conquer series. His work in Command & Conquer: Red Alert won two awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Castle</span> American video games designer

Louis Castle is an American video games designer. He is known for co-founding Westwood Studios, designing the PC game Blade Runner, and collaborating with Steven Spielberg on the Boom Blox and Boom Blox Bash Party video games for the Wii console based on Spielberg's design ideas.

"First Friday" is a name for various public events in some cities that occur on the first Friday of every month.

<i>Command & Conquer</i> (1995 video game) 1995 video game

Command & Conquer is a real-time strategy video game developed and published by Westwood Studios in 1995. Set in an alternate history, the game tells the story of a world war between two globalized factions: the Global Defense Initiative of the United Nations and a cult-like militant organization called the Brotherhood of Nod, led by the mysterious Kane. The groups compete for control of Tiberium, a mysterious substance that slowly spreads across the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Downtown Las Vegas</span> Human settlement in United States

Downtown Las Vegas is the central business district and historic center of Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. It is the original townsite, and the Downtown gaming area was the primary gambling district of Las Vegas prior to the Strip. As the urban core of the Las Vegas Valley, it features a variety of hotel and business highrises, cultural centers, historical buildings and government institutions, as well as residential and retail developments. Downtown is located in the center of the Las Vegas Valley and just north of the Las Vegas Strip, centered on Fremont Street, the Fremont Street Experience and Fremont East. The city defines the area as bounded by I-15 on the west, Washington Avenue on the north, Maryland Parkway on the east and Sahara Avenue on the south.

<i>Dune II</i> 1992 video game

Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty is a 1992 real-time strategy game developed by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin Games. It serves as the sequel to Dune, following a more traditional adventure strategy game format, that came out earlier the same year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Las Vegas Academy of the Arts</span> Magnet high school in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph D. Kucan</span> American actor and video game developer

Joseph David Kucan is an American video game developer, director, actor, screenwriter, and casting director for various gaming companies and films. He is a resident of Las Vegas, Nevada. He is well known for his role as Kane from the Command & Conquer series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Downtown Grand</span> Hotel and casino in Nevada, United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neonopolis</span> Entertainment complex in Las Vegas, Nevada

Neonopolis is a shopping center in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. Located on Fremont Street at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard, the 250,000 sq ft (23,000 m2) complex features a mix of restaurants, entertainment venues, and shops. In keeping with the complex's name, it contains three miles of neon lights.

<i>Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos</i> 1993 video game

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos is a 1993 role-playing video game developed by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin Games for MS-DOS, the NEC PC-9801, and FM Towns. It was the first installment of the Lands of Lore series. The player travels around various environments, collecting items and battling monsters in an attempt to save the kingdom from a witch named Scotia, who has acquired shape-shifting abilities.

EA Pacific was a developer formally owned by Virgin Interactive's North American operations, and was based in Irvine, California. Burst Studios was beset by production problems during its early years; Virgin Interactive's president of worldwide publishing, Brett W. Sperry, commented in 1997, "The way the Burst studio was structured made a lot of sense on paper, but for a variety of reasons, it wasn't delivering product at the end of the day." Burst Studios was acquired by Electronic Arts together with Westwood Studios and Virgin's North American publishing operations in August 1998. The company was later renamed to Westwood Pacific, under that name, the company developed or co-developed games like Nox and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">18b The Las Vegas Arts District</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Stanford</span> American artist and photographer

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12 Inches of Sin is a globally recognized annual art exhibition based in Las Vegas, which since its inception in 2010, has focused on exploring facets of human identity, sexuality, gender, and artistic expression. The exhibition accepts a wide range of art forms such as paintings, photographs, digital art, sculpture, illustration, mixed media and short films, all adhering to a specific rule: each piece should not exceed 12 inches in any dimension. Out of all submissions, 36 artists are selected by a panel of 12 esteemed judges. To date, artists from 26 countries have participated in this exhibition.

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