Louis Castle

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 Nintendo Wii console based on Spielberg's design ideas.

Louis Castle
Castle at a BAFTA event in Los Angeles in 2011
OccupationGame designer
Known forCo-founding Westwood Studios
Blade Runner

Career

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. Castle continued on with EA in a number of executive and creative roles.[5] He was executive producer of Boom Blox and Boom Blox Bash Party, developed for the Nintendo Wii in a collaboration with Steven Spielberg.[6][7] From 2003 to June 2009, Castle was Vice President of Creative Development at the Los Angeles studio of Electronic Arts (EA Los Angeles).[8]

On July 15, 2009, Castle joined InstantAction as the new CEO of GarageGames.[9] After InstantAction was shut down in November 2010, Castle went on to become Senior Advisor for Premium FanPage in January 2011,[10] and later joined Zynga as VP of Studios.[11]

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.[12] He returned to video games as Creative Director for Kixeye's War Commander: Rogue Assault which launched worldwide in 2016.[13]

On March 9, 2017, Castle became the head of Amazon Game Studios Seattle.[14]

Games
Name Year Credited With Publisher
Fraction Action1986artistUnicorn Software Company
Mars Saga1988designer, artist, programmerInfocom, Electronic Arts
Donald's Alphabet Chase1988designer, artistDisney Software
California Games (Amiga port)1988artist, programmerEpyx
BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception1988programmerInfocom
A Nightmare on Elm Street1989art directorMonarch Software
DragonStrike1990designer, artist, programmerStrategic Simulations
Goofy's Railway Express1990production designWalt Disney Computer Software
Circuit's Edge1990art directorInfocom
Mickey's Runaway Zoo1991designerWalt Disney Computer Software
Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun1992designer, programmerSega
The Legend of Kyrandia: Hand of Fate1993art managementVirgin Games
Young Merlin1993producer, designerVirgin Games
The Lion King1994creative director, producerVirgin Interactive
Monopoly1995producer, designerHasbro Interactive
Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny1997producerVirgin Interactive
Blade Runner1997executive producer, technical director, art directorVirgin Interactive
Lands of Lore III1999executive producerElectronic Arts
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun1999voice actorElectronic Arts
Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat2002executive producerElectronic Arts
Command & Conquer: Renegade2002executive producer, designerElectronic Arts
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars2007studio creative directorElectronic Arts
Boom Blox2008executive producerElectronic Arts
Boom Blox Bash Party2009executive producerElectronic Arts
War Commander2010creative directorKixeye
War Commander: Rogue Assault2016creative directorKixeye

Awards

Castle was given the second annual Lifetime Achievement Award by the Computer Game Developers Association at the Spotlight Awards in 1999.[15] Castle was also given a BAFTA award (along with Steven Spielberg and Amir Rahimi) for his work on Boom Blox in 2009.[16][17]

Personal life

Castle lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with his family.

Castle is currently the Grand Master of Masons in Nevada.[18]

References
  1. Westwood co-founder Louis Castle leaves for InstantAction
  2. Hayes, Trevor (October 30, 2000). "Computer games: They got game", Las Vegas Review-Journal, p. D1.
  3. "Amazon taps RTS pioneer Louis Castle to lead Seattle studio". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2017-11-18.
  4. Campbell, Colin (2015-09-18). "Command & Conquer's Louis Castle returns to fight again on the RTS front". Polygon. Retrieved 2017-11-18.
  5. Campbell, Colin (2015-09-18). "Command & Conquer's Louis Castle returns to fight again on the RTS front". Polygon. Retrieved 2017-11-18.
  6. "Making games with Steven Spielberg". 2008-02-23. Retrieved 2017-11-18.
  7. "EA AND STEVEN SPIELBERG REVEAL BOOM BLOX". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2017-11-18.
  8. Forbes profile
  9. "Lou Castle to Head Up InstantAction as New CEO". Archived from the original on 2012-02-19.
  10. "GamerLiveTV interview, Louis Castle joins team Xiha". Archived from the original on 2011-07-18.
  11. Former head of InstantAction joins Zynga as VP of Studios
  12. Staff, GGB. "Interview with Shuffle Master's Louis Castle". Retrieved 2017-11-18.
  13. "After nearly 3 years of struggle, Kixeye launches its spectacular War Commander: Rogue Assault | GamesBeat". venturebeat.com. Retrieved 2017-11-18.
  14. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/293406/Command__Conquer_cocreator_Louis_Castle_to_head_Amazon_Game_Studios_Seattle.php
  15. "Game Developers Choice Awards | Archive | Lifetime Achievement". www.gamechoiceawards.com. Retrieved 2017-11-18.
  16. "Louis Castle". IMDb. Retrieved 2017-11-18.
  17. "2009 Games Casual | BAFTA Awards". awards.bafta.org. Retrieved 2017-11-18.
  18. https://nvmasons.org/glos/
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