Karl Roelofs (born September 11, 1964) is an American video game developer known for creating the MacVenture game Shadowgate. He is a co-founder of the video game development company Zojoi, LLC with Dave Marsh.

Biography

ICOM Simulations

Karl Roelofs began his career in video game development in 1985 when his best friend Dave Marsh enlisted him to help with designing a video game for ICOM Simulations. Karl had wanted to be a writer and saw an opportunity in Dave's offer. He accepted the chance to design and write a fantasy adventure game and began working with Dave to create their first game together which would later be called Shadowgate. Karl was hired at ICOM Simulations in 1987 after the company had already released its first two MacVenture games, Déjà Vu: A Nightmare Comes True, Uninvited, and while working on and finishing Shadowgate.

Karl and Dave were not fully aware of how successful the games they developed were at the time as they were mostly focused on porting the MacVenture games to as many computer systems as possible. Together with Dave, Karl worked on a sequel to Shadowgate called Beyond Shadowgate which was to be the next Shadowgate MacVenture title. The game was four times larger than the original Shadowgate and had been fully designed and scripted, but ICOM Simulations got a contract with NEC to develop for the TurboGrafx-16. ICOM decided to shift their focus from adventure games to side scrolling and top-down action games. This prompted a redesign of Beyond Shadowgate for the TurboGrafx-CD as a hybrid side-scrolling and adventure game.

In 1993, ICOM Simulations was purchased by Viacom, Inc. and renamed to "Viacom New Media". Karl began to work on games based on MTV and Nickelodeon properties, such as Nickelodeon GUTS and Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day. After Viacom shut down Viacom New Media in 1998, Karl Roelofs went on to work for brief stints at Konami of America and Kesmai Studios/Electronic Arts. A highlight of this period was his involvement in an online version of the Settlers of Catan for MSN Zone.

Then he joined a new company with his friend Dave Marsh and another former employee of ICOM Simulations: Eugene Evans. Eugene was the founder and president of a new video game production company called Infinite Ventures, and had obtained the rights to ICOM Simulation's original intellectual properties, including Shadowgate. Together, Karl worked with them to create what was intended to be the "next generation" world of Shadowgate. Alt URL

Zojoi

On March 7, 2012, Karl Roelofs co-founded Zojoi, LLC with Dave Marsh. They had reacquired the rights to the ICOM Simulations properties which included the rights to Shadowgate, Uninvited, and Déjà Vu I and II and materials such as the master recordings for the Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective games.

The first project from Zojoi was a Kickstarter crowd funding campaign to remaster the Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective mysteries and release them for iOS and Android tablets as well as Windows and OS X platforms. The campaign had a funding goal of $55,000 and ran for 44 days. However, it only received $17,430 in pledges and did not succeed.

Despite the unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign, Karl and Dave were able to obtain funding through other means for the Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective mysteries. The first three mysteries were released on September 18, 2012, over iTunes for the iPad 2 and newer models, and on October 7, 2012, over Desura for Windows and OS X. Karl and Dave took their experience with the campaign for Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective and applied what they had learned for their next Kickstarter campaign for Shadowgate. Instrumental to this was that Shadowgate would be re-imagined and that it be in pre-production so that they could clearly communicate their vision through visuals, audio, and art.

On October 26, 2012, the Kickstarter campaign for Shadowgate went live with Karl Roelofs appearing beside Dave Marsh in the campaign pitch video. It had a funding goal of $120,000 and was set to last for 31 days. The campaign was successful and raised $137,232 in pledges by November 25, 2012. With that funding, the new re-imagined Shadowgate moved into production. If the reception to the new revision of Shadowgate is great enough, Karl and Dave have expressed an interest in developing their original vision for the sequel, Beyond Shadowgate, as well as bringing back re-imagined versions of Uninvited and Déjà Vu I and II .

Games Release date Title Developer Publisher Platform Credit 1985 Déjà Vu ICOM Simulations Mindscape AmigaApple IICommodore 64PC Artist / Producer 1986 Uninvited ICOM Simulations Mindscape Macintosh Artist / Producer 1987 Shadowgate ICOM Simulations Mindscape Macintosh Game Designer / Artist 1988 Déjà Vu II: Lost in Las Vegas ICOM Simulations Mindscape Macintosh Artist 1991 Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective ICOM Simulations ICOM Simulations PC Game Designer / Artist 1992 Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. II ICOM Simulations ICOM Simulations PC Game Designer / Artist 1992 Road Runner's Death Valley Rally ICOM Simulations Sunsoft SNES Additional Design 1993 Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. III ICOM Simulations ICOM Simulations PC Game Designer / Artist 1993 Beyond Shadowgate ICOM Simulations Turbo Technologies Inc. TurboGrafx-CD Original Concept 1993 Shape Shifter ICOM Simulations Turbo Technologies Inc. TurboGrafx-CD Game Designer 1993 Dracula Unleashed ICOM Simulations Viacom New Media PC Game Designer 1993 Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions ICOM Simulations Sunsoft SNES Additional Design 1994 Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage Viacom New Media Sunsoft SNES Additional Design 1994 Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day Viacom New Media Viacom New Media SNES Game Designer 1994 Nickelodeon GUTS Viacom New Media Viacom New Media SNES Producer 1997 Broken Helix Konami Konami PS1 Additional Design 1999 Shadowgate Classic Infinite Ventures Kemco GBC Game Designer 1999 Déjà Vu I & II: The Casebooks of Ace Harding Kemco Vatical Entertainment GBC Game Designer 2001 Air Warriors III: Millenium Version Kesmai I-MagicElectronic Arts PC Live Producer 2005 Catan: The Computer Game Castle Hill Studios MSN Games PC Co-Producer / Artist 2005–2011 50 Five-Reel and Three-Reel Mechanical Slot Machine Titles Video Gaming Technologies Video Gaming Technologies Slot machine Creative Services Manager

Patents

In addition to his video game credits, Karl Roelofs is also the inventor of a published patent for a gaming machine and method. The patent describes a game play mechanism for gaming machines wherein certain icons obtained from the spinning reels could be saved in a separate grid, and then called back in blank areas of the reel in order to complete a winning combination. Karl created this patent while he was working at Video Gaming Technologies. It was applied for on February 1, 2008, and was granted by the US patent office on January 17, 2012.

See also ICOM Simulations MacVenture Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective Zojoi

References

External links Zojoi, LLC Homepage