Gary Winnick | |
---|---|
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Game designer, writer, artist, animator |
Years active | 1974–present |
Gary Winnick is an American computer game designer, writer, artist, and animator who was the first artist hired by Lucasfilm Games. [1] He co-designed Maniac Mansion , alongside Ron Gilbert, [2] and created the comic book Bad Dreams . [3]
Gary Winnick founded Horizon Zero Graphiques with Frank Cirocco in 1974. There, he was the editor, artist, and writer for the comic magazine Venture, which ran until 1976. Horizon Zero Graphiques also published the comic magazine Mindworks by Brent Anderson, which included art by Gary. He began his video game career at LucasArts as the only artist and animator at the then-newly formed Lucasfilm Games Division in 1984. [4] He worked as an artist and animator on the early games by Lucasfilm Games, before he became co-designer of the 1987 adventure game, Maniac Mansion. [5] He continued working on art and animation at LucasArts, and became the art department supervisor on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure in 1989. In 1992, he was the designer, artist, and animator on Defenders of Dynatron City and co-wrote the comic based on the game, with Steve Purcell. [6] Before leaving LucasArts in 1993, he contributed dialog and story to the sequel to Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle. After leaving LucasArts, he joined Spectrum Holobyte as an art director. In 1995, he co-founded the video game company, Orbital Studios, where he served as executive producer. In 1996, he returned as a partner at Horizon Zero Graphiques, which was rebranded Lightsource Studios.
He also co-created the comic book Neomen with Frank Cirocco in 1987 and created the comic book Bad Dreams in 2014. The first issue of Bad Dreams was in the list of the top six new comics and sold out in its first week of release. [7]
Gary Winnick reunited with Ron Gilbert, with whom he co-created his early critically acclaimed point'n'click games for LucasArts, and both of them ran a Kickstarter campaign for a new point'n'click game called Thimbleweed Park . The campaign ended on December 18, 2014 and the game was released on March 30, 2017. [8]
Day of the Tentacle, also known as Maniac Mansion II: Day of the Tentacle, is a 1993 graphic adventure game developed and published by LucasArts. It is the sequel to the 1987 game Maniac Mansion. The plot follows Bernard Bernoulli and his friends Hoagie and Laverne as they attempt to stop the evil Purple Tentacle - a sentient, disembodied tentacle - from taking over the world. The player takes control of the trio and solves puzzles while using time travel to explore different periods of history.
Lucasfilm Games is an American video game licensor and a subsidiary of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as part of a larger 1990 reorganization of the Lucasfilm divisions, the video game development division was grouped and rebranded as part of LucasArts. LucasArts became known for its line of adventure games based on its SCUMM engine in the 1990s, including Maniac Mansion, the Monkey Island series, and several Indiana Jones titles. A number of influential game developers were alumni of LucasArts from this period, including Brian Moriarty, Tim Schafer, Ron Gilbert, and Dave Grossman. Later, as Lucasfilm regained control over its licensing over the Star Wars franchise, LucasArts produced numerous action-based Star Wars titles in the late 1990s and early 2000s, while dropping adventure game development due to waning interest in the genre.
Monkey Island is a series of adventure games. The first four games were produced and published by LucasArts, earlier known as Lucasfilm Games. The fifth was developed by Telltale Games with LucasArts, while the sixth was developed by Terrible Toybox with Lucasfilm Games and Devolver Digital.
Maniac Mansion is a 1987 graphic adventure video game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It follows teenage protagonist Dave Miller as he attempts to rescue his girlfriend Sandy Pantz from a mad scientist, whose mind has been enslaved by a sentient meteor. The player uses a point-and-click interface to guide Dave and two of his six playable friends through the scientist's mansion while solving puzzles and avoiding dangers. Gameplay is non-linear, and the game must be completed in different ways based on the player's choice of characters. Initially released for the Commodore 64 and Apple II, Maniac Mansion was Lucasfilm Games' first self-published product.
Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion (SCUMM) is a video game engine developed at Lucasfilm Games, later renamed LucasArts, to ease development on their graphic adventure game Maniac Mansion (1987). It was subsequently used as the engine for later LucasArts adventure games and Humongous Entertainment games.
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is a 1988 graphic adventure game by Lucasfilm Games. It was the second game to use the SCUMM engine, after Maniac Mansion. The project was led by David Fox, with Matthew Alan Kane as the co-designer and co-programmer.
The Secret of Monkey Island is a 1990 point-and-click graphic adventure game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It takes place in a fictional version of the Caribbean during the age of piracy. The player assumes the role of Guybrush Threepwood, a young man who dreams of becoming a pirate, and explores fictional islands while solving puzzles.
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge is an adventure game developed and published by LucasArts in 1991. Players control the pirate Guybrush Threepwood, who searches for the legendary treasure of Big Whoop and faces the zombie pirate LeChuck.
From the late 1980s to the early 2000s, LucasArts was well known for their point-and-click graphic adventure games, nearly all of which got high scoring reviews at the time of their release. Their style tended towards the humorous, often irreverent or slapstick humor, with the exceptions of Loom and The Dig. Their game design philosophy was that the player should never die or reach a complete dead-end, although there were exceptions.
Steven Ross Purcell is an American cartoonist, animator, game designer and voice actor. He is the creator of the media franchise Sam & Max, for which Purcell received an Eisner Award in 2007. The series has grown to incorporate an animated television series and several video games.
Ron Gilbert is an American video-game designer, programmer, and producer. His games are generally focused on interactive story-telling, and he is arguably best known for his work on several LucasArts adventure games, including Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games. In 2009, he was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time.
David Fox is an American multimedia producer who designed and programmed numerous early LucasArts games. He and his wife, Annie Fox, now work on educational software, web design, emotional intelligence content, online communities, emerging technologies, and writing books for children and teens.
Labyrinth: The Computer Game is a graphic adventure game developed by Lucasfilm Games and published in 1986 by Activision. Based on the fantasy film Labyrinth, it tasks the player with navigating a maze while solving puzzles and evading dangers. The player's goal is to find and defeat the main antagonist, Jareth, within 13 real-time hours. Unlike other adventure games of the period, Labyrinth does not feature a command-line interface. Instead, the player uses two scrolling "word wheel" menus on the screen to construct basic sentences.
Robert Frank Camp is an American animator, writer, cartoonist, comic book artist, storyboard artist, director, and producer. He is best known for his work for developing and serving as a showrunner for The Ren & Stimpy Show. He has been nominated for two Emmys, a CableACE Award, and an Annie Award for his work on The Ren & Stimpy Show.
Defenders of Dynatron City is a video game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System by JVC Musical Industries and Lucasfilm Games in August 1992. This was Gary Winnick's first project as sole designer after co-designing Maniac Mansion with Ron Gilbert. It was supported by a brief media franchise consisting of an animated TV pilot and a six-issue comic book series.
Maniac Mansion is a sitcom which aired concurrently on YTV in Canada and The Family Channel in the United States for three seasons from September 14, 1990, to April 4, 1993.
Henry Alan Gilroy is an American film and television screenwriter and producer. He is best known for co-writing the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Bad Dreams is a five issue comic series by Gary Winnick, the co-creator of Maniac Mansion. Funding was initially sought through a crowdfunding campaign in 2013, but the comic was ultimately published by Red 5 Comics. The first issue was in the list of the top six new comics and sold out in its first week of release. The five issues of Bad Dreams were released as a trade paperback on June 17, 2015.
Thimbleweed Park is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick for Linux, macOS, Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, iOS, Nintendo Switch, Android, and Amazon Luna. The game was revealed on November 18, 2014, along with a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign with a goal of US$375,000, and was released on March 30, 2017.
Frank Cirocco is an American comics artist and video game designer best known as the co-creator of Alien Legion with Carl Potts and Alan Zelenetz.