Joseph Ybarra (born ~1954) is an American producer and designer of

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

s. He left

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Co ...

in 1982 to work at the new

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

that was founded by his fellow ex-employee

Trip Hawkins William Murray "Trip" Hawkins III (born December 28, 1953) is an American entrepreneur and founder of Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company, and Digital Chocolate. Career A fan of the Strat-O-Matic Football pen and paper games, Hawkins started his ...

. He was the original producer of the first

Madden NFL ''Madden NFL'' (known as ''John Madden Football'' until 1993) is an American football sports video game series developed by EA Orlando for EA Sports. The franchise, named after Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and commentator John Madden, has ...

. As one of the original game producers at EA, Ybarra worked on acclaimed games such as M.U.L.E., Seven Cities of Gold, Starflight, and the first version of Madden NFL. Ybarra later served as the president of Infocom and produced MMORPGs for Sierra Online and Monolith Productions. He also held a position at Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, which eventually filed for bankruptcy. In 2013, Ybarra launched a Kickstarter for a simulation game called Shackleton Crater, which ultimately did not meet its funding goals.

Professional biography

Joe Ybarra worked at

before leaving in 1982 to work at

, a

startup company A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses tha ...

founded by his fellow ex-Apple employee,

. There he became one of the original

game producer A video game producer is the top person in charge of overseeing development of a video game. History The earliest documented use of the term ''producer'' in games was by Trip Hawkins, who established the position when he founded Electronic Ar ...

s and game designers at

in 1982 (along with Stewart Bonn, Dave Evans (Apple), Susan Lee-Merrow and Pat Marriott), where the concept of a game producer was created by

. During this time he was the producer for

s including '' M.U.L.E.'' by Dani Bunten and Ozark Softscape, ''

Seven Cities of Gold The myth of the Seven Cities of Gold, also known as the Seven Cities of Cíbola (), was popular in the 16th century and later featured in several works of popular culture. According to legend, the seven cities of gold referred to Aztec mythology ...

'' (also by Bunten), '' Starflight'', and '' Dr. J. and Larry Bird Go One on One'' by Eric Hammond. Ybarra was also the original producer on the first version of ''

''. He later became president of game publisher

Infocom Infocom, Inc., was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called ''Cornerstone (software), Cornerston ...

and produced

MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

s for Sierra Online and

Monolith Productions Monolith Productions, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Kirkland, Washington. The company was a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Games from August 2004 until its shutdown in 2025. It formerly published third-party games in the 199 ...

. He had been working with Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment and its subsidiary FireSky on the

Stargate Worlds ''Stargate Worlds'' (abbreviated as ''SGW'') was to be a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) video game, but it was put on hold and never released. It was developed by Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment (CME) in association with M ...

MMO as Senior Vice President of Strategic Operations. However, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment filed for bankruptcy on February 12, 2010 and no longer sells or operates Stargate: Resistance. On March 11, 2013, Joe Ybarra announced a Kickstarter project for a simulation game called Shackleton Crater, billed as "the lunar colonization strategy game based on today's science and tomorrow's dream." It did not achieve its funding goals.

Video games produced or designed by Joe Ybarra

* '' Alien Legacy'' * '' Earth Orbit Stations'' * '' M.U.L.E.'' * '' John Madden Football'' * '' Dr. J. and Larry Bird Go One on One'' * '' Shadowbane'' * '' Spellcraft: Aspects of Valor'' * '' Starflight'' * ''

'' * ''

The Bard's Tale ''The Bard's Tale'' is a fantasy role-playing video game franchise created by Michael Cranford and developed by Brian Fargo's Interplay Productions (1985–1992) and inXile Entertainment (2004–present). The initial title of the series was ...

'' * '' The Matrix Online'' * ''

'' * '' The Shadow of Yserbius''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ybarra, Joe Electronic Arts employees Infocom Living people Madden NFL American video game producers American video game designers Year of birth missing (living people)