Brian Fargo
Brian Fargo | |
---|---|
CEO of inXile Entertainment |
Frank Brian Fargo (born December 15, 1962) is an American
In 2009, he was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time.[2]
Biography
Early life
A descendant of the family that created the banking giants Wells Fargo and American Express, Fargo was born in Long Beach, California, and grew up in Whittier and Newport Beach. The only child of Frank Byron Fargo and Marie Curtis Fargo, he attended Corona del Mar High School, where he participated in track and field and developed a desire to create video games after his parents bought him an Apple II computer in 1977.[1]
Brian Fargo wrote his first video game, Labyrinth of Martagon, with his friend Michael Cranford while still in high school.[3] The team's first widely distributed game was the graphical text adventure The Demon's Forge, which Brian self-published and guerilla marketed in 1981 (and was later re-released by Boone Corporation).[1][3][4] In 1982,
Interplay
In 1983, Fargo founded Interplay Productions prior to landing his first contract in 1983 with Activision for Mindshadow,[6] a graphical text adventure game for the Apple II and Commodore 64. After the release of Mindshadow, Fargo hired an old high school friend and started work to create a role-playing game Bard's Tale for the Apple II and C64 for a then-new publisher Electronic Arts. Fargo subsequently co-designed Interplay's early RPGs, including the critically acclaimed Wasteland,[7] where a character named Faran Brygo is a play on his name.[8]
However, Interplay at the time was utilizing small development teams of one to three people to produce games for other companies to publish, which only allowed Interplay to break even at best. In 1988, Fargo decided to make the transition from a development house to a developer/publisher, adding the additional costs of production and marketing, with both the risk and possible reward of publishing successful games. The first title produced by Interplay in this era was the internally developed Battle Chess, followed by Quicksilver Software's Castles. The company was also experimenting at the time with new ideas and products such as Neuromancer, a video game version of the novel by William Gibson.
By 1992, Interplay contracted with an old friend of Fargo's,
Interplay continued to expand in the mid-1990s, adding licensed titles to its own
Interplay grew to over 600 employees at its zenith in the mid-1990s. One of the most successful groups within Interplay was formed during this period, Black Isle. Black Isle focused on role-playing games and eventually included the games of a new developer called BioWare, which was initially contracted by Interplay to make Shattered Steel. The next game they developed for Interplay, through the Black Isle division, was Baldur's Gate, which proved to be a big hit, followed by others, such as Icewind Dale and the critically acclaimed Planescape: Torment.
In 1996, the company expanded again, adding a division focusing on sports games called VR Sports and buying Shiny Entertainment. Fargo's goal in the acquisition of Shiny was to help Interplay transition into the console business, in addition to its successful PC game releases. That same year, Computer Gaming World ranked Fargo as the third most influential "industry player" of all time, as he "has shown both brilliant product vision and great business talents."[12]
In 1998, Interplay filed for an
In addition to his work at Interplay, Fargo also formed an online entertainment company Engage! with partner
InXile Entertainment
After leaving Interplay, Fargo looked to find outlets for his creative drive and founded inXile Entertainment in 2002, a video game developer and publisher that includes many former Interplay employees. The name inXile sprang from a joke for his post-Interplay career: initially, Fargo gave himself the title of "leader-in-exile" at the company.[13]
InXile Entertainment released a new
In 2012, inspired by the success of
On March 6, 2013, Fargo followed through on his promise to fund future projects through Kickstarter and launched Torment: Tides of Numenera, described as "a story-driven CRPG crafted in the tradition of Planescape: Torment and set in the world of Monte Cook's Numenera."[17] The project reached its goal of $900,000 in just six hours and went on to break the Kickstarter record for fastest project to reach $1 million. The previous record had been held by the Ouya video game console which reached $1 million in 8 hours 22 minutes; Torment reached this amount in less than seven hours.[18]
In May 2015 Fargo revealed The Bard's Tale IV and his intentions to launch a Kickstarter for it on June 2, 2015. It is a direct continuation of that story from the previous The Bard's Tale games.[19] The Kickstarter concluded on July 10, 2015 with a final pledge total of $1,519,681 USD and 33,741 backers.[20]
In March 2017, Fargo had announced his plans to retire from inXile following the release of Wasteland 3.
Robot Cache
Fargo announced the founding of Robot Cache, a new digital games storefront for personal computer games expected to go live in Q2 2018. Robot Cache will deliver games via blockchains which can be decrypted or re-encrypted through the service; this will effectively allow players to buy and sell digital games without publishers fearing that the original owner can retain a copy after selling. This allows the service to ensure a higher percentage of each game sale goes back to the publisher; publishers are set to receive 95% of original game sales, and 70% of used game sales.[23] While the site will accept normal forms of payment, it will also use a new cryptocurrency called Iron, which users will receive when reselling games and can be applied towards the purchase of new or used games.[24]
Others
Fargo was a founder member of the board of advisors for Fig, a mixed investment/crowdfunding platform, since its launch in December 2015.[25] As part of his involvement, he used Fig to crowdfund development of Wasteland 3. With inXile's purchase by Microsoft Studios, Fargo plans to remain on the board to help determine which games that Fig should support, but otherwise does not plan to use Fig for funding.[22]
Works
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
1981 | The Demon's Forge | Designer, programmer, writer |
1985 | Tales of the Unknown: Volume I - The Bard's Tale | Writer |
1985 | Borrowed Time | Writer |
1986 | The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight | Writer |
1986 | Tass Times in Tonetown | Director |
1988 | The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate | Director |
1988 | Battle Chess | Producer, director |
1988 | Wasteland | Director |
1989 | Dragon Wars | Producer |
1989 | Neuromancer | Designer, director |
1990 | The Adventures of Rad Gravity | Designer, programmer |
1990 | Total Recall | Programmer |
1990 | Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess | Producer |
1990 | Swords and Serpents | Producer |
1990 | J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I | Executive producer |
1991 | J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. II: The Two Towers | Executive producer |
1991 | Castles | Designer, producer |
1991 | Track Meet | Designer, producer |
1992 | Castles: The Northern Campaign | Executive producer |
1992 | The Bard's Tale Construction Set | Executive producer |
1992 | Battle Chess 4000 | Executive producer |
1992 | Star Trek: 25th Anniversary | Executive producer |
1992 | The Lost Vikings | Executive producer |
1992 | Mario Teaches Typing | Executive producer |
1992 | Castles II: Siege and Conquest | Executive producer |
1993 | ClayFighter | Executive producer |
1993 | Claymates | Executive producer |
1993 | Rags to Riches: The Financial Market Simulation | Executive producer |
1993 | RoboCop Versus The Terminator | Executive producer |
1993 | Rock 'n Roll Racing
|
Executive producer |
1993 | SimCity Enhanced CD-ROM | Executive producer |
1993 | Star Trek: Judgment Rites | Executive producer |
1993 | Interplay's 10 Year Anthology | Executive producer |
1993 | Buzz Aldrin's Race into Space
|
Executive producer |
1994 | ClayFighter 2: Judgment Clay | Executive producer |
1994 | Heart of the Alien | Executive producer |
1994 | Out of This World | Executive producer |
1995 | Mario's Game Gallery | Executive producer |
1995 | Stonekeep | Executive producer |
1996 | Blood & Magic | Executive producer |
1997 | Fallout | Executive producer |
1997 | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | Director (project leader) |
1998 | Of Light and Darkness: The Prophecy | Executive producer |
1998 | Fallout 2 | Executive producer |
2000 | Wild Wild Racing | Executive producer |
2004 | The Bard's Tale | Designer, executive producer, writer |
2007 | Line Rider | Executive producer |
2011 | Hunted: The Demon's Forge | Executive producer, writer |
2014 | Wasteland 2 | Executive producer |
2017 | Torment: Tides of Numenera | Executive producer |
2018 | The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep | Executive producer |
2020 | Wasteland 3 | Studio head |
References
- ^ a b c
American Pioneers: The Fargo Family History. ISBN 0-918329-33-7.
- ^ "IGN - 30. Brian Fargo". IGN. Archived from the original on 2014-04-20. Retrieved 2023-11-14.
- ^ Gamasutra. Retrieved 2016-10-17.
- ^ The Demon's Forge at MobyGames
- ^ Fargo, Brian (January 1982). "Packing Pictures, Saving Shapes". Softline (letter). p. 2. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
- ^ Mindshadow at MobyGames
- ^ McLaughlin, Rus (July 21, 2010). "IGN Presents The History of Fallout". IGN. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
- ^ "The Origin of Fallout". IGN. December 12, 2013. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
- ^ Gamasutra. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
- ^ a b Trey Walker (February 9, 2002). "GameSpot Interview with Brian Fargo". GameSpot. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
- ^ a b inXile entertainment Archived July 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ CGW 148: "The 15 Most Influential Industry Players of All Time".
- ^ "Brian Fargo dev chat log". October 15, 2003. Retrieved September 7, 2014.
- ^ Michael McWhertor (March 15, 2010). "Hunted: The Demon's Forge, A Dungeon Crawl For The Gears Age". Kotaku. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
- ^ a b "GameStar: Knights of the Roleplaying Table. Brian Fargo". May 5, 2012. Archived from the original on July 12, 2012. Retrieved May 14, 2012.
- ^ "Wasteland 2 Kickstarter Drive ends, $3.04M raised". Wasteland.inxile-entertainment.com. April 17, 2012. Archived from the original on July 23, 2012. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
- ^ inXile Entertainment (March 6, 2013). "Torment: Tides of Numenera". Retrieved March 7, 2013.
- ^ Chapple, Craig (March 6, 2013). "Record shattering Torment Kickstarter breaks $1m in six hours". develop. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
- ^ Brian Fargo On Bringing Back The Bard's Tale
- ^ "The Bard's Tale IV". Kickstarter. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
- ^ Yin-Poole, Wesley (March 23, 2017). "inXile boss Brian Fargo plans to retire after Wasteland 3 ships". Eurogamer. Retrieved November 19, 2018.
- ^ a b Purchese, Robert (19 November 2018). "InXile acquired by Microsoft: the interview". Eurogamer.
- ^ Chalk, Andy (January 16, 2018). "Robot Cache is an upcoming digital storefront that will let you buy and sell games online". PC Gamer. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
- Venture Beat. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
- GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved December 15, 2015.