Martin Wallace (game designer)
Martin Wallace | |
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![]() Wallace at PLAY: The Games Festival 2012, Modena | |
Born | United Kingdom |
Occupation | Game designer |
Martin Wallace is an English game designer from Manchester.
Early life and education[]
Martin Wallace was born and raised in the U.K., and has been resident in Manchester for most of those years.[1] He began gaming in his teens, starting with titles from SPI and Avalon Hill, and as a student he got into Dungeons & Dragons.[1]
Career[]
Wallace worked for a while at Games Workshop, then started designing games in earnest in the early 1990s, his first DTP game being Lords of Creation.[1] Eventually German companies picked up a few of his games, such as , , and Tempus.[1] He has also published a number of games through his own company, .[1] These include such titles as , , and Age of Steam. Wallace is now a full-time game publisher and designer.
Wallace is the founder and chief designer of Treefrog (former Warfrog) Games. Wallace is known for designing complex strategy games that depict a variety of historical settings. Two themes he has frequently used are the construction and operation of railroads, and the rise and fall of ancient civilizations. He has developed a reputation for blending elegant European style game mechanics with the strong themes that are more typical of American style games.[2] Many of his games feature economic systems, incorporating rules for income, taxation, and debt.
Martin Wallace's most popular game[citation needed], Age of Steam, was the winner of the 2003 International Gamers Award.[3] and in 2008 was one of the top twenty rated games on BoardGameGeek.[4]
Notable games[]
- Empires of the Ancient World (2000)
- Liberté (2001)
- Volldampf (2001)
- Age of Steam (2002)
- Tyros (2002)
- Princes of the Renaissance (2003)
- Secrets of the Tombs (2003)
- Runebound (2004)
- Struggle of Empires (2004)
- Byzantium (2005)
- Railroad Tycoon (2005)
- Tempus (2006)
- Perikles (2006)
- Brass (2007)
- Tinners' Trail (2008)
- After The Flood (2008)
- Steel Driver (2008)
- Steam: Rails to Riches (2009)
- Waterloo (2009)
- Automobile (2009)
- Rise of Empires (2009)
- Last Train to Wensleydale (2009)
- God's Playground (2009)
- Moongha Invaders (2010)
- Age of Industry (2010)
- London (2010)
- First Train to Nuremberg (2010)
- Gettysburg (2010)
- A Few Acres of Snow (2011)
- Discworld: Ankh-Morpork (2011)
- Aeroplanes: Aviation Ascendant (2012)
- Doctor Who: The Card Game (2012)
- Discworld: The Witches (2013)
- A Study in Emerald (2013) based on Neil Gaiman’s short story A Study in Emerald
- Onwards to Venus (2014) based on Greg Broadmore’s
- Mythotopia (2014)
- Ships (2015)
- A Study in Emerald Second Edition (2015)
- Via Nebula (2016)
- Hit Z Road (2016)
- A Handful of Stars (2017)
- AuZtralia (2018)
- Judge Dredd Helter Skelter (2019)
- Milito (2019)
- Nanty Narking (2019)
- Anno 1800 (2020)
- Tinners' Trail (2021) (new, reworked edition)
- Rocketmen (2021) campaign on Kickstarter
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Wallace, Martin (2007). "Power Grid". In Lowder, James (ed.). Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Green Ronin Publishing. pp. 247–250. ISBN 978-1-932442-96-0.
- ^ The Games Journal Article on Martin Wallace Retrieved October 24, 2008.
- ^ Recipients for 2003 International gamers Awards Announced Archived 2007-08-13 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ BoardGameGeek Retrieved October 24, 2008.
External links[]
- Treefrog Games
- Martin Wallace article in The Games Journal
- Martin Wallace at BoardGameGeek
- Rank-ordered list of Martin Wallace's games
- Living people
- Board game designers
- Mass media people from Manchester