Quick Facts
Biography
Steve Cartwright is an American computer and video game designer. He is best known as one of the original Activision game designers, credited with such games as Barnstorming, Megamania, Seaquest and Hacker.
Activision
In 1982, Cartwright joined college classmate David Crane as the fifth game designer/programmer at Activision where he developed the following games:
- Barnstorming
- Megamania
- Seaquest
- Plaque Attack
- Frostbite
- Hacker
- Hacker II
- Aliens
- Air Rally
Accolade
In 1988, Cartwright joined Activision founders Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead at Accolade. Among his products were the Sierra-style graphic adventures 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. Additionally, Cartwright designed the product to include 1-button access to a game server 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 holder rights to the technology that eventually became the basis of the PGA TOUR's Shotlink technology.
- PGA TOUR 486
- NBA Live 95
- PGA TOUR 96
- PGA TOUR Pro
- Tiger Woods 99
- Tiger Woods 2000
Glu Mobile
In 2002, Cartwright joined Scott Orr as an internal developer at Glu Mobile, 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. 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
- ZUMA
- Kingdom of Heaven
- Robots
- Diner Dash
- DRIVER: Vegas
Later career
In 2006, Cartwright joined TV Head—later known as TAG Networks—as Executive Producer. 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 in project design to make sports statistics fun and entertaining. The first project, Streakwise Draft Tracker 2011, reached #2 on the App Store.
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, and helped RockYou establish a relationship with John Romero and his new company, Loot Drop. 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 project.
More recently, Cartwright lead the design of Bluescape's real-time cloud-based collaboration system. The Bluescape "wall" is currently being used by Lucas Film to plan and storyboard future Star Wars films.
