Scott Orr is an American

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games 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 gener ...

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

best known as the lead designer on the first

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to ...

versions of ''

Madden NFL Football ''Madden NFL Football'' (sometimes mislabeled as ''Madden NFL 3D'') is a sports video game for the Nintendo 3DS which was developed by EA Sports. The game was developed by EA Sports from North Carolina in Raleigh. First images of the game were ...

''. In 2001 ''

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fran ...

'' magazine named Orr on its list of "gamemaking gods." Orr‘s career in

sports games A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with a game, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize actually playing the sport (s ...

spans over 20 years.

Gamestar

In 1982 Orr founded Gamestar, a game publisher specializing in home computer sports games, where Orr was credited as either a designer or producer for: * ''

Starbowl Football ''Starbowl Football'' is a 1982 sports video game published by Gamestar for the Atari 8-bit family. An earlier version of the game was sold by Arcade Plus as ''Arcade Pro Football''. Gameplay ''Starbowl Football'' is a game in which four pass p ...

'' (1982) * ''

Star League Baseball A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ...

'' (1983) * ''

On Court Tennis ''On-Court Tennis'' is a computer game developed by Activision's Gamestar division and published in 1984 for the Commodore 64. Gameplay ''On-Court Tennis'' is a tennis simulation in which the player can challenge either the computer or another ...

'' (1984) * ''

Championship Baseball ''Championship Baseball'' is a sports video game developed by Activision's Gamestar division in 1986. Gameplay ''Championship Baseball'' is a baseball simulation with a split-screen to give the player a first-person view for both pitching and ...

'' (1986) * ''

GFL Championship Football ''GFL Championship Football'' is a 1986 video game published by Activision. Gameplay ''GFL Championship Football'' is a game in which the player receives a view from inside the helmet. Reception Wyatt Lee reviewed the game for ''Computer Gaming ...

'' (1985) * '' Star Rank Boxing'' (1985) * ''

Gamestar Basketball Association (GBA) Championship Basketball - Two-on-Two ''GameStar'' is a monthly-released PC gaming magazine in Germany. It is the best-selling German-language magazine focused on PC gaming and it also hosts the largest video gaming-related portal in the German-speaking internet. Content The pri ...

'' (1986) * '' Star Rank Boxing II'' (1987) * '' Top Fuel Eliminator'' (1987) * '' Face Off!'' (1987) * '' Gamestar Championship Sports Pack'' (1987) Orr sold the company to

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one ...

in 1986. He spent the late 1980s working for Activision, and then consulting for various games companies.

''Madden NFL Football''

In 1990 EA producer

Richard Hilleman Richard Hilleman is an American computer game and video game producer best known for his work creating the original Madden Football game for video game consoles for Electronic Arts. Apart from ''Madden'', Hilleman was a key figure in building the ...

hired Orr to re-design ''John Madden Football'', then a disappointing

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-mold ...

game, for the

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

. Orr and Hilleman developed the game that became ''Madden NFL Football''. Orr joined EA full-time in 1991 after the success of Madden on the Genesis, and supervised the production of Madden Football for the next ten years. He and his team also created the following

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...

titles, each of which was updated annually: * '' NHLPA Hockey'' * ''

NCAA Football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most o ...

'' * ''

Andretti Racing ''Andretti Racing'' is a video game developed by American studios High Score Productions and Stormfront Studios and published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn in 1996, and for Windows in 1997. The game's title refers to le ...

'' * ''

NASCAR Racing ''NASCAR Racing'' is a series of car racing video games originally developed by Papyrus Design Group in the 1990s. The series started in 1994 and ended with the release of '' NASCAR Racing 2003 Season'' in 2003. Later NASCAR games were released ...

'' (later called ''

NASCAR Thunder ''EA Sports NASCAR'', alternately known as ''NASCAR Thunder'', is a series of NASCAR video games published by EA Sports. The series began with ''NASCAR 98'' and '' NASCAR 99'' in 1997 and 1998. EA Sports released ''NASCAR Thunder 2002'' in 2001, ...

'') * ''

Knockout Kings ''Knockout Kings'' is a series of boxing video games produced by EA Sports for various platforms yearly between 1998 and 2003. Before releasing the first ''Knockout Kings'', Electronic Arts released its first 3D boxing game, '' Foes of Ali'', fo ...

'' He continued to work with Hilleman during much of this period, and both were promoted to corporate VP and senior management roles in EA product development. During this time Orr produced two educational titles for EA Kids: * ''

Eagle Eye Mysteries ''Eagle Eye Mysteries'' is a two-part series of educational computer games developed by Stormfront Studios and published by EA*Kids. The in-game protagonists are twins Jake and Jennifer Eagle who form the Eagle Eye Detective Agency. The character ...

'', by

Stormfront Studios Stormfront Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer based in San Rafael, California. In 2007, the company had over 50 developers working on two teams, and owned all its proprietary engines, tools, and technology. As of the end of 2007, ...

* ''Eagle Eye Mysteries in London''

Mobile games

In 2001 Orr resigned from EA and founded cell phone game design company Sorrent, an abbreviation of ''Scott Orr Entertainment''. In 2004 Orr (and his brother Keith) were ejected from Sorrent by the board, and founded Bigdog Games to develop next-gen console and handheld games. Sorrent's name was changed to

Glu Mobile Glu Mobile LLC is an American Video game developer, developer and Video game publisher, publisher of video games for mobile phones and tablet computers. Founded in San Francisco, California, in 2004, Glu offers products to multiple platforms inc ...

in 2005, and the company went public with an

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

in 2007. In 2006 Bigdog Games expanded its charter into digital publishing and changed its name to D2C Games.

References

External links

Big Dog GamesOrr's rap sheet at MobyGames''Wired'' article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orr, Scott Year of birth missing (living people) American video game designers American businesspeople Living people Place of birth missing (living people)