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.
In 1980, Weisman founded role playing game publisher FASA Corporation (short for the Freedonia Aeronautics & Space Administration, named after the fictional country in the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup) with partner L. Ross Babcock.[1]:119 Weisman and Babcock made a few hundred photocopies of the early adventures that Weisman wrote for the pen and paper role-playing game, Traveller, and sold the adventures to a local store in Chicago before sending them to nationwide distributors.[1]:119 Weisman started his business working out of his basement, and when he and Babcock wanted outside talent they brought William H. Keith, Jr. and his brother J. Andrew Keith into the company from freelancing for Game Designers' Workshop.[1]:119 The first professional publication from the company was I.S.P.M.V Tethys (1980), a set of ship deckplans illustrated by Weisman.[1]:119 FASA agreed in August 1981 to publish the magazine High Passage, with Weisman and Babcock responsible for the layout and editing.[1]:119 Weisman wanted FASA to produce its own science-fiction roleplaying game, so he and Babcock secured the rights in 1982 to produce their own Star Trek: The Role Playing Game which was published in 1983.[1]:120 FASA published a game involving battling mechanoids called Combots (1983), by Weisman and Fawcett.[1]:121 FASA later produced the successful BattleTech and Shadowrun franchises.
In 1987, Weisman and his father Morton Weisman founded Environmental Simulations Project — later renamed Virtual Worlds Entertainment — the company that produced the BattleTech Centers.[1]:122 Working with Incredible Technologies, VWE created the world's first immersive networked location-based virtual reality gaming centers.[citation needed] VWE was a critical, though not a commercial success.[citation needed] As Weisman got more involved in VWE, Sam Lewis became FASA's president.[1]:122
In 1995, Weisman founded FASA Interactive with Denny Thorley and Morton Weisman to personally take over the development and production of the hit MechWarrior PC games; as part of this arrangement, the tabletop role-playing company FASA Corporation provided a license to the computer game company FASA Interactive for its game properties in exchange for stock in the company.[1]:125 The franchise is one of the top-selling PC games of all time, with sales of over 9 million units worldwide.[citation needed]
Microsoft acquired both Virtual World Entertainment Group and FASA Interactive on January 7, 1999; Microsoft sold Virtual World to some of its developers, while Microsoft rebranded FASA Interactive as FASA Studio.[1]:126 Babcock and Weisman went to work for Microsoft, with Weisman becoming the Creative Director of Microsoft games from 1999 to 2002.[1]:126 While working at Microsoft, Weisman and his unit created a new genre of interactive entertainment called alternative reality games, and developed the alternate reality game "The Beast", to promote the Steven Spielberg film A.I.[2][3]
Weisman had been developing a computer game design called Corsairs!, which took place in the United States of an alternate universe, and he arranged for FASA Corporation to publish the board game Crimson Skies (1998) with the intend of increasing the value of computer game.[1]:126
In 2000, he founded WizKids, with his miniatures games involving the "clix" style of miniature figure that contained a dial that can be turned to show the statistics for each figure.[1]:126 WizKids produced the games Mage Knight, HeroClix, and Pirates of the Spanish Main. WizKids grew rapidly and went from start-up to over $30M in annual sales in just two years. The company focused on miniature figure games that are easy to learn for younger players.[citation needed] Weisman sold WizKids to Topps in 2003.[1]:128
The same year Weisman co-founded the start-up Fyreball with Pete Parsons (formerly of Bungie and currently serves on the Board of Advisors along with Ed Fries).[6] The company is now operating under the name Meteor Solutions.[7]
On May 27, 2009 Weisman's Smith & Tinker announced their first game had been released to public beta.[8] This was Nanovor, an online battle game targeted to 7-12 year olds.[9] However, it was not a success, and was closed down in December 2010. Smith & Tinker closed down November 8, 2012.[citation needed]
On June 9, 2009 Weisman and J.C. Hutchins released Personal Effects: Dark Art (Griffin). On the same day Weisman along with Russ Bullock announced that the MechWarrior franchise would be seeing a relaunch.[10]
Jordan is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Interactive Media Division at the USC School of Cinema-Television. In 2012 he started to raise money, through Kickstarter, for Shadowrun Returns, a new video game adaptation of Shadowrun.[11] His new company is Harebrained Schemes and they released their 3rd game Shadowrun Returns on July 25, 2013.[12] Shortly after, on September 10, 2013, Jordan's company launched a Kickstarter for its first tabletop game, Golem Arcana.[13] After successfully funding, Golem Arcana released the following year on August 13, 2014.[14] On January 13, 2015, Harebrained Schemes launched another Kickstarter campaign to partially fund development their next Shadowrun game, Shadowrun: Hong Kong.[15] Shadowrun Returns was in many top 10 lists for 2014 and several No 1s for RPGs that year. Shadowrun Hong Kong was in many top 10s lists in 2015 and several No. 1 RPGs for 2015. In 2015 HBS did a kickstarter for Battletech/MechWarrior another property created by Jordan Weisman. They raised just short of 3 million and the game was released on April 24, 2018.[citation needed]
In June 2018, it was announced and completed Harebrained's acquisition by Paradox Interactive for a fixed purchase price of US$7,500,000.[16][17]
Awards and honors
Weisman has won more than 100 awards, including election to the Hall of Fame by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design.[3] In 2003 he was selected as the Pacific Northwest Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young.[3]
He also served as production manager and/or graphic designer on a long series of titles, and is co-author with Sean Stewart of Cathy's Book, a young-adult novel with ARG components.
Related Research Articles
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.
BattleTech is a wargaming and military science fiction franchise launched by FASA Corporation in 1984, acquired by WizKids in 2001, which was in turn acquired by Topps in 2003; and published since 2007 by Catalyst Game Labs. The trademark is currently owned by Topps and, for videogames, Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios; Catalyst Game Studios licenses the franchise from Topps.
NECA/WizKids, LLC is an American company based in New Jersey that produces tabletop games. WizKids is best known for its collectible miniatures games (CMGs) Mage Knight, HeroClix, MechWarrior, and HorrorClix, all of which make use of the company's Clix system, in which the changing combat statistics and abilities of each figure were indicated by a turnable dial inside the base underneath the figure. The company was founded in 2000 by Jordan Weisman, a veteran of the game company FASA. It was purchased by sports-card manufacturer Topps, Inc. in 2003.
Crimson Skies is a tabletop and a video game media franchise created by Jordan Weisman and Dave McCoy, first released as a board game in 1998 and then as a PC game in 2000.
Fantasy Productions Medienvertriebsgesellschaft GmbH is a German publishing company based in Erkrath.
FASA Studio was an American video game developer that was founded in 1994 in Chicago, Illinois by the tabletop game company FASA Corporation. FASA is an acronym for "Freedonian Aeronautics and Space Administration".
BattleTech Centers are commercial virtual entertainment venues that feature multiplayer virtual combat in the fictional BattleTech universe. The games are played in fully enclosed cockpits with multiple screens, joysticks, and rudder pedals. Today, the gaming cockpits can now be found in various sites around the United States.
MechWarrior is a set of role-playing game rules published by FASA Corporation in 1986 that were designed to be used with FASA's previously published mecha wargame BattleTech.
Smith & Tinker was an American electronic entertainment company founded in February 2007 by Jordan Weisman, Jeremy Bornstein, Lenny Raymond, and Kev Ray. Weisman later brought in Tim Lebel and Joe Lawandus. On October 15, 2007, they announced that they had licensed from Microsoft the rights for Weisman's previous creations of MechWarrior, Shadowrun, Crimson Skies and other FASA titles and would be announcing their plans for these intellectual properties at a later date.
Formed in 1975, Ral Partha Enterprises, Inc. of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, is now known as Ral Partha Legacy Ltd. and produces miniature figures in 25 mm, 30 mm, 15 mm, and 54 mm scale. The company's products are made by spin-casting metal alloys which depict soldiers, adventurers and creatures that have been inspired by history and fiction. Their miniatures are sold at gaming conventions, in hobby shops, and by internet and mail order for use in role playing games, wargaming, dioramas, competitive painting, and collecting.
Jon Kimmich was a Lead Product Planner for Microsoft Games Studios during pivotal parts of the Xbox conception, launch and lifespan. Jon was instrumental in the acquisition of many titles for Microsoft Games Studios publishing for both the PC and Xbox platforms. Together with Ed Fries and Stuart Moulder, Jon was responsible for the acquisition of Bungie, FASA Interactive, and Digital Anvil. In addition to acquisitions, Jon secured publishing rights for Microsoft for externally developed games such as Dungeon Siege by Gas Powered Games, Rise of Nations from Big Huge Games, and MechAssault by Day 1 Studios as well as many internally developed games such as Crimson Skies, MechWarrior 4: Vengeance, Brute Force and Halo.
MechWarrior Online is a free-to-play vehicle simulation video game, officially launched during September 2013 by Piranha Games for Microsoft Windows. The game takes place within the larger BattleTech universe.
Clix is a miniatures wargaming system developed by WizKids. It is characterized by the use of a dial wheel in the base of miniature figurines. The dial can be turned to reveal hidden information, representing the changing statistics of the figurine as the game progresses. This has been rebranded into the Combat Dial System by WizKids.
Shadowrun Returns is a tactical role-playing game developed and published by Harebrained Schemes. It takes place in the science fantasy setting of the Shadowrun tabletop role-playing game. The game was crowd funded through Kickstarter and released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, and Android in 2013.
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, it has spawned a franchise that includes a series of novels, a collectible card game, two miniature-based tabletop wargames, and multiple video games.
Harebrained Schemes, LLC is an American video game developer based in Seattle, Washington. It was co-founded in 2011 by Jordan Weisman and Mitch Gitelman. Prior to founding Harebrained Schemes, Weisman and Gitelman worked together on the MechCommander and Crimson Skies franchises at FASA, another company founded by Weisman. As of mid-2015, the studio had under 60 employees. The studio was acquired by Paradox Interactive in June 2018.
Golem Arcana was a tabletop miniature wargaming game developed and published by Harebrained Schemes for iOS and Android devices. The game combines physical miniatures on a game board with a mobile app that much of the gameplay takes place in; the physical pieces and the app communicate through the use of a Bluetooth stylus. Several elements of the game, including special abilities and optional missions, exist only within the app.
BattleTech is a Mecha turn-based strategy video game developed by Harebrained Schemes and published by Paradox Interactive. It was released on macOS and Windows on April 24, 2018, with a Linux release on November 27, 2018. The developers set aside US$1 million to create the game, and turned to Kickstarter to secure funding for additional features, including a single player campaign, an expansion of that campaign, and a player versus player multiplayer mode.
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