Louis_Castle
Louis Castle
American video games designer
Louis Castle is an American video games designer. He is known for co-founding Westwood Studios, designing the PC game Blade Runner, and collaborating with Steven Spielberg on the Boom Blox and Boom Blox Bash Party video games for the Wii console based on Spielberg's design ideas.
Louis Castle | |
|---|---|
Castle at a BAFTA event in Los Angeles in 2011 | |
| Occupation | Game designer |
| Known for | Co-founding Westwood Studios Blade Runner |
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Castle co-founded Westwood Studios with Brett Sperry in 1985.[1][2][3] Castle has multiple credits on Westwood games, including executive producer, technical director, and art director for the 1997 video game Blade Runner. Castle is also known for his contributions to multiple Command & Conquer games.[4]
Westwood was acquired by EA in 1998, and Castle continued on with EA in a number of executive and creative roles.[4] He was executive producer of Boom Blox and Boom Blox Bash Party, developed for the Wii in a collaboration with Steven Spielberg.[5][6] From 2003 to June 2009, Castle was Vice President of Creative Development at the Los Angeles studio of Electronic Arts (EA Los Angeles).[7]
On July 15, 2009, Castle joined InstantAction as the new CEO of GarageGames.[8] After InstantAction was shut down in November 2010, Castle went on to become Senior Advisor for Premium FanPage in January 2011,[9] and later joined Zynga as VP of Studios.[10]
Castle took a detour out of the video gaming industry to serve as Chief Strategy Officer for Shufflemaster (which became SHFL entertainment) in late 2011.[11] He returned to video games as Creative Director for Kixeye's War Commander: Rogue Assault which launched worldwide in 2016.[12]
On March 9, 2017, Castle became the head of the newly formed Amazon Game Studios Seattle.[13]
| Name | Year | Credited With | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fraction Action | 1986 | artist | Unicorn Software Company |
| Mars Saga | 1988 | designer, artist, programmer | Infocom, Electronic Arts |
| Donald's Alphabet Chase | 1988 | designer, artist | Disney Software |
| California Games (Amiga port) | 1988 | artist, programmer | Epyx |
| BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception | 1988 | programmer | Infocom |
| A Nightmare on Elm Street | 1989 | art director | Monarch Software |
| DragonStrike | 1990 | designer, artist, programmer | Strategic Simulations |
| Goofy's Railway Express | 1990 | production design | Walt Disney Computer Software |
| Circuit's Edge | 1990 | art director | Infocom |
| Mickey's Runaway Zoo | 1991 | designer | Walt Disney Computer Software |
| Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun | 1992 | designer, programmer | Sega |
| The Legend of Kyrandia: Hand of Fate | 1993 | art management | Virgin Games |
| Young Merlin | 1993 | producer, designer | Virgin Games |
| The Lion King | 1994 | creative director, producer | Virgin Interactive |
| Monopoly | 1995 | producer, designer | Hasbro Interactive |
| Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny | 1997 | producer | Virgin Interactive |
| Blade Runner | 1997 | executive producer, technical director, art director | Virgin Interactive |
| Lands of Lore III | 1999 | executive producer | Electronic Arts |
| Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun | 1999 | voice actor | Electronic Arts |
| Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat | 2002 | executive producer | Electronic Arts |
| Command & Conquer: Renegade | 2002 | executive producer, designer | Electronic Arts |
| Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars | 2007 | studio creative director | Electronic Arts |
| Boom Blox | 2008 | executive producer | Electronic Arts |
| Boom Blox Bash Party | 2009 | executive producer | Electronic Arts |
| War Commander | 2010 | creative director | Kixeye |
| War Commander: Rogue Assault | 2016 | creative director | Kixeye |
Castle was given the second annual Lifetime Achievement Award by the Computer Game Developers Association at the Spotlight Awards in 1999.[14] Castle was also given a BAFTA award (along with Steven Spielberg and Amir Rahimi) for his work on Boom Blox in 2009.[15][16]
Castle lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with his family.
Castle was the Grand Master of Masons in Nevada in 2020.[17]
- "Westwood co-founder Louis Castle leaves for InstantAction". GamesIndustry.biz. 16 July 2009.
- Hayes, Trevor (October 30, 2000). "Computer games: They got game", Las Vegas Review-Journal, p. D1.
- "Amazon taps RTS pioneer Louis Castle to lead Seattle studio". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2017-11-18.
- Campbell, Colin (2015-09-18). "Command & Conquer's Louis Castle returns to fight again on the RTS front". Polygon. Retrieved 2017-11-18.
- "Making games with Steven Spielberg". 2008-02-23. Retrieved 2017-11-18.
- "EA AND STEVEN SPIELBERG REVEAL BOOM BLOX". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2017-11-18.
- "Lou Castle to Head Up InstantAction as New CEO". Archived from the original on 2012-02-19.
- "GamerLiveTV interview, Louis Castle joins team Xiha". Archived from the original on 2011-07-18.
- "Former head of InstantAction joins Zynga as VP of Studios". Archived from the original on 2011-03-11. Retrieved 2011-03-06.
- Staff, GGB. "Interview with Shuffle Master's Louis Castle". Retrieved 2017-11-18.
- "After nearly 3 years of struggle, Kixeye launches its spectacular War Commander: Rogue Assault | GamesBeat". venturebeat.com. 22 December 2016. Retrieved 2017-11-18.
- McAloon, Alissa (9 March 2017). "Command & Conquer co-creator Louis Castle to head Amazon Game Studios Seattle". www.gamasutra.com.
- "Game Developers Choice Awards | Archive | Lifetime Achievement". www.gamechoiceawards.com. Retrieved 2017-11-18.
- "Louis Castle". IMDb. Retrieved 2017-11-18.
- "2009 Games Casual | BAFTA Awards". awards.bafta.org. Retrieved 2017-11-18.
- "Grand Lodge Officers | Grand Lodge of Nevada". nvmasons.org.
- Louis Castle at MobyGames
- "Adjunct faculty page at USC". Archived from the original on November 27, 2008. Retrieved September 7, 2008.