Holistic Design, Inc. (HDI), is an American game company. [1]
It was founded in 1992 [2] as Several Dudes Holistic Gaming. The company has developed many computer games in its history, including Battles of Destiny , Hammer of the Gods , [3] Final Liberation , Merchant Prince series, [2] [3] Emperor of the Fading Suns , [4] and Mall Tycoon . [5] HDI also has a number of miniatures games in its inventory, including Noble Armada, Carnage and Combat Zone. Their most famous product is perhaps its role-playing game Fading Suns , [6] but they also have a number of other RPGs to their credit, such as Rapture: The Second Coming , and their Real-Life Roleplaying series covering Afghanistan, Colombia, Somalia, and the FBI. In 2011, the company entered into an arrangement with RedBrick to continue the creation and publication of Fading Suns as a tabletop RPG. The company also announced a tablet game called Noble Armada which has not yet been released. [7] In 2014, the company made arrangements for FASA Games to continue the same arrangement, which has produced a new core rulebook with plans for reprinting old ones. [8] Only one of the original partners is still with the company, Ken Lightner, though the other current partners bring a broad array of game design skills to the firm, most notably Bill Bridges, Andrew Greenberg and Chris Wiese.
FASA Corporation was an American publisher of role-playing games, wargames and board games between 1980 and 2001, after which they closed publishing operations for several years, becoming an IP holding company under the name FASA Inc. In 2012, a wholly owned subsidiary called FASA Games Inc. went into operation, using the name and logo under license from the parent company. FASA Games Inc. works alongside Ral Partha Europe, also a subsidiary of FASA Corporation, to bring out new editions of existing properties such as Earthdawn and Demonworld, and to develop new properties within the FASA cosmology.
Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the company's "Hasbro Gaming" division.
Fading Suns is a science fiction space opera role-playing game published by Holistic Design. The setting was also used for a PC game, a live action role-playing game, and for a space combat miniature game.
The Five Rings Publishing Group (FRPG) was formed as a spin-out of Alderac Entertainment Group and ISOMEDIA.
Andrew Greenberg is a game designer of tabletop role-playing games and role-playing video games.
Emperor of the Fading Suns is a turn-based strategy 4X video game developed by Holistic Design, based on their in-house role-playing game setting Fading Suns. It was released for Microsoft Windows in February 1997.
Bill Bridges is an American role-playing game developer and fantasy author. He designed the role-playing games Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, and Promethean: The Created. He additionally worked on a video game based on his Fading Suns role-playing game Emperor of the Fading Suns. He is currently a developer at Holistic Design.
Jordan Weisman is an American game designer, author, and serial entrepreneur who has founded five game design companies, each in a different game genre and segment of the industry.
Stieg Hedlund is a computer and video game designer, artist, and writer with over 25 years of experience who has worked on more than 30 games in the video game industry. Although he is probably best known for his work in action RPGs, he has also worked on games in each of the real-time strategy, tactical shooter, beat-'em-up and action-adventure genres on the PC and almost every dedicated game console. He has a professed interest in conlang and linguistics.
Allen Varney is an American writer and game designer. Varney has produced numerous books, role-playing game supplements, technical manuals, articles, reviews, columns, and stories, as well as the fantasy novel Cast of Fate. Since the 1990s, he has worked primarily in computer games.
Ken Lightner is a game designer with experience in multiple fields. His primary area of expertise is in computer games.
Chris Wiese is a role-playing game designer.
Biohazard Games is a company located in Columbia, Missouri that publishes role-playing games, most of them designed by Jeff Barber and Jim Heivilin. The company tends to work closely with Fantasy Flight Games.
Passion Play is a live action role-playing game created by Bill Bridges and Bill Maxwell and first published by Holistic Design in 1999. Passion Play is based on the 1996 table top role-playing game Fading Suns.
L. Ross Babcock III is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.
Shadowrun is a science fantasy tabletop role-playing game set in an alternate future in which cybernetics, magic and fantasy creatures co-exist. It combines genres of cyberpunk, urban fantasy and crime, with occasional elements of conspiracy, horror and detective fiction. From its inception in 1989, Shadowrun has remained among the most popular role-playing games. It has spawned a vast franchise that includes a series of novels, a collectible card game, two miniature-based tabletop wargames, and multiple video games.
RedBrick Limited was a New Zealand game company that produced role-playing games and game supplements. The company moved to the United States in 2010 and established business as RedBrick LLC. In 2018, RedBrick Publishing – the successor to RedBrick's earlier incarnations – started operations.
Sean Patrick Fannon is an American role-playing game designer and writer. He has been working in the gaming industry since 1988, and is best known for his work with the Savage Worlds game system, including his epic fantasy setting, Shaintar, and his conversion of the classic game Rifts. He has also worked as a designer in the video game industry and a consultant in the film industry.
Byzantium Secundus is a supplement published by Holistic Design in 1996 for the science fiction space opera role-playing game Fading Suns.