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Fred Ford (programmer)

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Robert Frederick Ford is an American video game programmer. He is the son of mathematician L. R. Ford Jr. A co-founder of the video game studio Toys for Bob, he led the company from its inception until late 2020 with his co-founder Paul Reiche III. Ford is the co-creator, with Reiche III, of the Star Control universe. Ford did the programming, while Reiche was responsible for the game design and fiction.[1] Ford was also the lead programmer on The Horde and Pandemonium.[2]

Career

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Beginnings and Star Control

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Ford attended the University of California, Berkeley.[3] In the early 1980s, Ford began his game career while in college, creating games exclusively for the Japanese market.[4] Working for a company called Unison World (later Magicsoft), he worked on his first games for a Japanese monochrome handheld, including a bowling game, a bi-plane flight game, and a tank game.[5] Soon after, he moved onto developing for the NEC PC-6000 series, the MSX, and Fujitsu systems, with titles such as Pillbox, Sea Bomber, and Ground Support.[5]

Ford was working on an unreleased title, when Magicsoft ran out of money.[5] This led Ford to transition to more corporate employment.[6] He worked for graphics companies in Silicon Valley, until he realized he missed working in the game industry.[4] Ford told friends he was seeking a designer-artist to collaborate with, and his friends knew Paul Reiche III was seeking a programmer-engineer.[7] Ford and Reiche had actually attended college together,[3] and their friends arranged to re-introduce them at a game night hosted by game designer Greg Johnson.[8] One of the friends who encouraged the get-together was fantasy artist Erol Otus[9]

Reiche and Ford's first collaboration was Star Control, with Ford focused on programming, and Reiche focused on the game design and fiction.[7] Originally called Starcon, the game began as an evolution of the concepts that Reiche first created in Archon: The Light and the Dark.[6] Archon's strategic elements were adapted for Star Control into a space setting, with one-on-one ship combat inspired by the classic 1962 game Spacewar!.[10] As Ford and Reiche's workflow as a team was developing, the game took on a more limited scope compared to the sequel.[7] Upon its release in 1990, Star Control was voted the "Best Science Fiction Game" by Video Games and Computer Entertainment.[11] Decades later, it is remembered as one of the greatest games of all time. "[A]s a melee or strategic game, it helped define the idea that games can be malleable and dynamic and players can make an experience wholly their own."[12]

The success of their first game led to a more ambitious sequel in Star Control II. Reiche and Ford aimed to go beyond ship combat to develop a "science fiction adventure role-playing game".[6] Their goal of creating a dynamic space adventure was largely inspired by Starflight, created by Greg Johnson.[7] A few years earlier, Reiche had been friends with Johnson. During the game's creation, Reiche was inspired to offer creative input for Johnson's expansive science fiction game.[13] This friendship and mutual admiration led Reiche and Ford to hire Johnson for Star Control II. The duo later credited Johnson as one of the game's most significant contributors.[14] Star Control's story and characters were vastly expanded from the story and characters in the first game.[6] As Reiche and Ford worked on the first version of the game's dialog,[7] they recognized they needed help with the writing and art and were forced to enlist the help of friends and family.[14] In addition to Johnson, they recruited long-time friend Erol Otus, who contributed music, text, art, and illustrations for the game's manual, and (later) voice-acting.[7] Through mutual friends, they acquired the talents of famed fantasy artist George Barr.[15][16] The project eventually ran over schedule, and the budget from publisher Accolade ran out.[7] During the final months of development, Fred Ford supported the team financially.[17]

Star Control II became one of the best games of all time, according to numerous publications in the 1990s,[18] 2000s,[19] and 2010s.[20] It is also ranked among the best games in several specific areas, including: writing,[21] world design,[22] character design,[23] and music.[24] The game also influenced other titles, most notably the open-ended gameplay of Tim Cain's Fallout,[25][26] the world design of Mass Effect,[27] and the story events of Stellaris.[28]

Toys for Bob

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Ford and Reiche began branding themselves as Toys for Bob, with The Horde as the studio's first official title.[29] By this point, Reiche and Ford were doing contract work for game publisher Crystal Dynamics, with their three-person studio recruiting Fred Ford's brother, Ken.[30] The Horde was a fantasy action-strategy hybrid game comparable to Star Control II, and was notable for including performances from actors Kirk Cameron and Michael Gregory.[31]

Acquisition by Activision and Skylanders breakthrough

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Toys for Bob secured Activision as their new publisher, thanks to an introduction from former Toys for Bob staff who had founded Shaba Games and been acquired by Activision.[32] The publisher offered Toys for Bob the Disney license for Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure, which led to a 2003 game release.[3] This successful relationship led to Toys for Bob being acquired by Activision in May 2005. The company became a wholly owned subsidiary, and the management team and employees signed long-term contracts under the new corporate structure.[33][34] Working with Activision, Toys for Bob continued to focus on licensed video games, such as Madagascar.[3] However, the market for these types of games began to dry up,[35] in part due to the negative reputation created by other licensed games.[36]

The company searched for new opportunities.[3] One such idea came from Toys for Bob character designer I-Wei Huang, who had been creating toys and robots in his spare time.[37] The company saw the potential to adopt these toys and character designs into a game, with technical engineer Robert Leyland applying his hobby in building electronics.[3][38] Coincidentally, Activision merged with Vivendi Games in 2008, and asked Toys for Bob to create a new game around Vivendi's Spyro franchise.[39] The team saw the potential for toy-game interaction and suggested to Activision that it would be ideal for Spyro's rich universe of characters.[39] Activision CEO Bobby Kotick responded well to the idea, and gave the team an additional year of development to better refine the technology, the manufacturing process, and the gameplay.[3] Ford credits Activision for funding the expensive and risky development, "we could have thought of this idea as independents and never got it made."[39] This culminated in the 2011 release of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, which became a breakthrough success for the developer, their most notable game since Star Control.[40][41]

In October 2017 Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III announced they would be working on a direct sequel to Star Control II called Ghosts of the Precursors.[42]

Star Control intellectual property split

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In 2018, Stardock sued Paul Reiche III along with Fred Ford in Stardock Systems, Inc. v. Reiche, for trademark infringement of the "Star Control" trademark.[43] During the course of the lawsuit, Stardock trademarked numerous alien names from Star Control 1 and 2. Reiche and Ford asserted that Atari only owned the game name, marketing content and the new aliens in Star Control 3,[44] and that the in-game alien names to the first two games were never Atari's to sell.[44] Litigation ended at June 2019 when both sides reached a settlement that involved the parties exchanging honey for mead and the parties agreeing that Stardock has exclusive rights of the Star Control name with a list of alien names from the first two games being for the exclusive use for Reiche and Ford.[45]

References

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  1. ^ Star Control 2 Manual
  2. ^ Fred Ford's profile at MobyGames
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Campbell, Colin (April 16, 2014). "Toys for Bob and the story behind Skylanders". Polygon. Retrieved March 7, 2016.
  4. ^ a b Sean Dacanay, Marcus Niehaus (July 7, 2020). "Star Control Creators Paul Reiche & Fred Ford: Extended Interview". YouTube (Transcript). Ars Technica. Retrieved October 21, 2020. Alt URL
  5. ^ a b c Szczepaniak, John (September 2009). "Finaru Furantier". Retro Gamer 067. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  6. ^ a b c d Matt Barton (April 19, 2016). Honoring the Code: Conversations with Great Game Designers. CRC Press. pp. 203–. ISBN 978-1-4665-6754-2.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Fred Ford & Paul Reiche III (June 30, 2015). "Classic Game Postmortem: Star Control". Game Developers Conference. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  8. ^ Sean Dacanay, Marcus Niehaus (July 7, 2020). "Star Control Creators Paul Reiche & Fred Ford: Extended Interview" (Transcript). Ars Technica. Retrieved August 6, 2020. Ford: I went to the Silicon Valley and I worked for some graphics companies. I did that for a few years, I was in the wilderness and eventually I said, why am I not doing something I like versus something I think I should be doing? And so the company I worked that, there was a couple of mutual friends, two people who grew up with Paul, they knew I wanted to leave and they knew Paul needed a partner and so they introduced us to each other.
    Reiche: Yeah, we were going to a game night, board game night at Greg Johnson's house, and Greg's one of the designers of "Starflight" and "ToeJam & Earl" and "Orly Draw-Me-A-Story" and a ton of great games. Anyway, he had a regular game night at his house and so we sort of had a blind date there and decided, yeah, let's start working on this game.     Alt URL
  9. ^ Lee Hutchinson (October 26, 2018). "Video: The people who helped make Star Control 2 did a ton of other stuff". Ars Technica. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  10. ^ Kurt Kalata (September 11, 2018). "Star Control". Hardcore Gaming 101. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  11. ^ "VG&CE's Best Games of 1990". VideoGames & Computer Entertainment, Issue 25. February 1991.
  12. ^ Polygon Staff (November 29, 2017). "500 Best Games of All Time". Polygon. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  13. ^ Hoffman, Erin (January 19, 2010). "When the Stars Align". The Escapist. Archived from the original on December 9, 2013. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  14. ^ a b Kasavin, Greg (June 27, 2003). "Greatest Games of All Time - Star Control II (Interview Feature)". GameSpot. Archived from the original on March 5, 2005. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  15. ^ Lee Hutchinson (October 26, 2018). "Video: The people who helped make Star Control 2 did a ton of other stuff". Ars Technica. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  16. ^ GameSpy Staff (February 3, 2001). "Interview with George Barr". GameSpy. Archived from the original on March 13, 2006. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  17. ^ Pelit (March 21, 2006). "Star Control - Kontrollin aikakirjat". Pelit. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  18. ^
  19. ^
  20. ^
  21. ^
  22. ^
  23. ^
  24. ^
  25. ^ Cain, Tim (September 2019). Pepe, Felipe (ed.). The CRPG Book: A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games. Bitmap Books. ISBN 978-1-9993533-0-8. Since its release in 1992, Star Control 2 has been considered one of the best computer game ever developed, and for me, it remains my favorite CRPG of all time. You can see its influence in the open-endedness of Fallout and Arcanum, and I will always remember this game fondly. Alt URL Archived March 15, 2020, at the Wayback Machine
  26. ^ Cain, Tim (January 19, 2015). "1992 – Star Control 2". The CRPG Book Project. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  27. ^ John Gaudiosi (November 20, 2007). "Critically Acclaimed Mass Effect Powered by Unreal Engine 3". Unrealengine.com. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  28. ^ Alex Hamilton (June 11, 2016). "Stellaris Interview". GameGrin. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  29. ^ Meston, Zach (November 1995). Reboot - Mail Order Monsters. Computer Player Vol 2 Issue 6. p. 98.
  30. ^ Maher, Kathleen (November 1994). Toys for Bob - A Virtual Studio. InterActivity 01. pp. 59–61.
  31. ^ Lombardi, Chris (May 1994). Bob's Your Bovine Uncle. Computer Gaming World Issue 118. pp. 108–110.
  32. ^ Sean Dacanay, Marcus Niehaus (July 7, 2020). "Star Control Creators Paul Reiche & Fred Ford: Extended Interview" (Transcript). Ars Technica. Retrieved August 6, 2020. Alt URL
  33. ^ Chris Pirillo (April 3, 2005). "Activision purchases Toys for Bob". Locker Gnome. Archived from the original on September 28, 2011. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  34. ^ David Jenkins (May 3, 2005). "Activision Acquires Toys For Bob". Gamasutra. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  35. ^ Hamza Aziz (October 21, 2012). "Merging toys and videogames with Skylanders". Destructoid. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  36. ^ Hansen, Dustin (November 22, 2016). Game On!: Video Game History from Pong and Pac-Man to Mario, Minecraft, and More. Feiwel & Friends. ISBN 978-1-250-08096-7.
  37. ^ Robertson, Andy (May 23, 2012). "FGTV Interviews I-Wei Huang, Hears How Skylanders Got Boys Playing With Girl Characters". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  38. ^ Robertson, Andy (May 24, 2012). "FGTV Interviews Robert Leyland, Creator of the Skylanders Portal of Power". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  39. ^ a b c Evangelista, Benny (May 31, 2014). "Toys for Bob, 'Skylanders' game creator, celebrates 25 years". SFGate. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
  40. ^ Mike Fahey (October 21, 2012). "Skylanders Giants: The Kotaku Review". Kotaku. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  41. ^ Anton Olsen (October 5, 2012). "Toys for Bob: From Star Control to Skylanders Giants". Wired. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  42. ^ dogarandkazon.squarespace.com Ghosts of the Precursors announcement
  43. ^ Courtlistener (August 12, 2017). "Court Listener: Filing" (PDF).
  44. ^ a b Hutchinson, Lee (July 7, 2020). "An extended interview with Star Control creators Fred Ford & Paul Reiche III". Ars Technica. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
  45. ^ "Stardock and Star Control creators settle lawsuits—with mead and honey [Updated]". June 12, 2019.
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