
Steve Cartwright is an American
video game designer
Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...
. He is best known as one of the original
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 ...
game designers, credited with such games as ''
Barnstorming
Barnstorming was a form of entertainment in which stunt pilots performed tricks individually or in groups that were called flying circuses. Devised to "impress people with the skill of pilots and the sturdiness of planes," it became popular in ...
'', ''
Megamania'', ''
Seaquest
''SeaQuest DSV'' (stylized as ''seaQuest DSV'' and also promoted as simply ''seaQuest'') is an American science fiction television series created by Rockne S. O'Bannon. It originally aired on NBC between 1993 and 1996. In its final season, i ...
'' and ''
Hacker
A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...
''.
Activision
In 1982, Cartwright joined college classmate
David Crane as the fifth game designer/programmer at
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 ...
where he developed the following games:
* ''
Barnstorming
Barnstorming was a form of entertainment in which stunt pilots performed tricks individually or in groups that were called flying circuses. Devised to "impress people with the skill of pilots and the sturdiness of planes," it became popular in ...
''
* ''
Megamania''
* ''
Seaquest
''SeaQuest DSV'' (stylized as ''seaQuest DSV'' and also promoted as simply ''seaQuest'') is an American science fiction television series created by Rockne S. O'Bannon. It originally aired on NBC between 1993 and 1996. In its final season, i ...
''
* ''
Plaque Attack
''Plaque Attack'' is a 1983 video game for the Atari 2600 that was made by Activision. The player must shoot food to protect teeth inside a person's mouth. Steve Cartwright, who designed the game, said that game was meant to help people develo ...
''
* ''
Frostbite
Frostbite is a skin injury that occurs when exposed to extreme low temperatures, causing the freezing of the skin or other tissues, commonly affecting the fingers, toes, nose, ears, cheeks and chin areas. Most often, frostbite occurs in the ha ...
''
* ''
Hacker
A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...
''
* ''
Hacker II''
* ''Aliens''
* ''
Air Rally''
Accolade
In 1988, Cartwright joined Activision founders
Alan Miller and
Bob Whitehead
Robert A. Whitehead (born November 1, 1953) is an American video game designer and programmer. While working for Atari, Inc. he wrote two of the nine Atari Video Computer System launch titles: '' Blackjack'' and '' Star Ship''. After leaving Ata ...
at
Accolade. Among his products were the
Sierra-style
graphic adventure
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-base ...
s ''
Les Manley in: Search for the King'' and ''
Les Manley in: Lost in L.A.''—the first game to use live actors captured in front of a blue screen.
Electronic Arts
In 1993, Cartwright joined Electronic Arts. He soon took over
producer responsibility on the fledgling PGA Tour line and helped redesign the ''
NBA Live'' product line. Among the many innovations to the golf line were the first use
of digitized golfers, the first EA golf product with 3D terrain, and the first use of a targeting arc and putting guides in a golf product.
In 1999, Cartwright designed and produced ''
Tiger Woods '99
''Tiger Woods 99: PGA Tour Golf'' (also known as just ''Tiger Woods 99'') is a sports video game developed by Adrenalin Entertainment and published by EA Sports for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation in 1998.
Development
In mid-1997 EA Sports s ...
''. Additionally, Cartwright designed the product to include 1-button access to a game
server
Server may refer to:
Computing
*Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called clients
Role
* Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers and su ...
and match server—making this EA's first online multiplayer sports game. Later, with the addition of the "Play Against The Pros" feature, Cartwright was awarded co-
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling disclo ...
holder rights to the technology that eventually became the basis of the PGA Tour Shotlink technology.
* ''
PGA Tour 486 PGA is an acronym or initialism that may stand for:
Aviation
* IATA code for Page Municipal Airport, Coconino County, Arizona
* ICAO designator for Portugália, regional airline based in Lisbon, Portugal
* Abbreviation for Prince George Airpo ...
''
* ''
NBA Live 95
''NBA Live 95'' is the follow-up to '' NBA Showdown'' and the first ''NBA Live'' title in the ''NBA Live'' video games series from EA Sports. It was published by EA Sports and released in October 1994. The cover features an action shot from the ...
''
* ''
PGA Tour 96
''PGA Tour 96'' is a sports video game developed by Hitmen Productions for the PlayStation and MS-DOS versions, Unexpected Development for the Game Boy version, NuFX for the Sega Genesis and 3DO versions, Ceris Software for the Game Gear version, ...
''
* ''
PGA Tour Pro
''PGA Tour'' is a series of golf video games developed and published by Electronic Arts - and later their EA Sports sub-label - since 1990. The series primarily features courses featured on the U.S. PGA Tour, and other notable courses (such ...
''
* ''
Tiger Woods 99
''Tiger Woods 99: PGA Tour Golf'' (also known as just ''Tiger Woods 99'') is a sports video game developed by Adrenalin Entertainment and published by EA Sports for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation in 1998.
Development
In mid-1997 EA Sports s ...
''
* ''
Tiger Woods 2000
The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on ...
''
Glu Mobile
In 2002, Cartwright joined
Scott Orr
Scott Orr is an American video game designer best known as the lead designer on the first video game console versions of ''Madden NFL Football''. In 2001 ''Wired'' magazine named Orr on its list of "gamemaking gods." Orr‘s career in sports gam ...
as an internal developer at
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 ...
, originally known as
Sorrent. After a 10-year hiatus from
programming, Cartwright developed six of Sorrent's first eight products. During the 2004 presidential election, Cartwright took his previous product ''
FOX Sports Boxing'' and turned it into ''
Bush vs. Kerry Boxing
''Bush vs. Kerry Boxing'' is a boxing video game developed and published by Sorrent for mobile phones. It was released in North America on August 22, 2004.
The game allows the player to choose to play as either George W. Bush or John Kerry to fi ...
''. He was later named Director of Production where products he designed, produced, or otherwise developed accounted for up to 70% of Glu Mobile revenue.
* ''
FOX Sports Football''
* ''
FOX Sports Basketball''
* ''
FOX Sports Boxing''
* ''
FOX Sports Track & Field''
* ''
Yao Ming Basketball''
* ''
Atari's DRIV3R''
* ''Deerhunter''
* ''
Bush vs. Kerry Boxing
''Bush vs. Kerry Boxing'' is a boxing video game developed and published by Sorrent for mobile phones. It was released in North America on August 22, 2004.
The game allows the player to choose to play as either George W. Bush or John Kerry to fi ...
''
* ''
ZUMA''
* ''
Kingdom of Heaven
Kingdom of Heaven may refer to:
Religious
* Kingdom of Heaven (Gospel of Matthew)
** Kingship and kingdom of God, or simply Kingdom of God, the phrase used in the other gospels
* Kingdom of Heaven (Daviesite), a schismatic sect, founded by Will ...
''
* ''
Robots "\n\n\n\n\nThe robots exclusion standard, also known as the robots exclusion protocol or simply robots.txt, is a standard used by websites to indicate to visiting web crawlers and other web robots which portions of the site they are allowed to visi ...
''
* ''
Diner Dash
''Diner Dash'' is a strategy and time management video game initially developed by Gamelab and published by PlayFirst. It is now owned and published by Glu Mobile. It was one of the top-selling downloadable games of all-time, available in multiple ...
''
* ''
DRIVER: Vegas''
Later career
In 2006, Cartwright joined TV Head—later known as
TAG Networks—as
Executive Producer
Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights ...
. TAG was a games-on-demand television network.
In 2008, Cartwright spent several months developing and pursuing VC funding for a Kid's MMO in the vein of Club Penguin. This endeavor was abandoned when he joined Slipgate Ironworks The company later became Gazillion Entertainment.
In 2009, Cartwright joined former colleagues
Adam Bellin and
Sam Nelson
Sam Nelson (1896-1963) was a director who worked from the end of the silent through the early 1960s. While most of his film work was in the assistant director role, he did direct over 20 films during the 1930s and 1940s, all of which were wester ...
in project design to make sports statistics fun and entertaining. The first project, Streakwise Draft Tracker 2011, reached #2 on the
App Store
An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the co ...
.
In 2010, Cartwright joined RockYou as GM of the Redwood City Games Studio. In his first few weeks, he recruited John Yoo, lead designer on Zynga's ''
CityVille
''CityVille'' is a defunct casual social city-building game developed by Zynga, and released in December 2010.
A sequel, ''CityVille 2'', was released in December 2012. It was closed down on February, 2013 just three months after the game's rel ...
'', and helped RockYou establish a relationship with
John Romero
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Seco ...
and his new company,
Loot Drop
''Loot Drop'' was a social video game studio that was started in San Mateo, California. It was created by John Romero and Brenda Romero with veteran game designer Tom Hall heading up his own game. Its tagline was "Believe in fun".
Formation
...
. After managing through a difficult transition period following the layoff of nearly 1/3 of the company, Cartwright became Sr. Director of Design. He then worked closely with Executive Producer
Jennifer Gee on the launch of RockYou's ''Zoo World 2''
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...
project.
More recently, Cartwright lead the design of Bluescape's real-time cloud-based collaboration system. The Bluescape "wall" is currently being used by
Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is a business segment of The Walt Disney Company. The studio is best known for creating and producing the ''Star Wars'' and ' ...
to plan and storyboard future
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...
films.
References
External links
Cartwright's personal websiteCartwright's profile on MobyGames
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cartwright, Steve
American video game designers
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)