Redmond A. Simonsen
Encyclopedia
Redmond Askel Simonsen was an American graphic artist
and game designer best known for his work at the board wargame
company Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in the 1970s and early 1980s. Simonsen was considered an innovator in game information graphics
, and is credited with creating the term "game designer".
As art director at SPI Simonsen supervised the release of over 400 game titles, and had game design or development credit for over twenty games. In addition, he variously held positions of executive art editor and co-editor or executive editor for the SPI magazines Strategy & Tactics
, MOVES
and Ares
. Simonsen was the Charles S. Roberts Awards Hall of Fame inductee for 1977.
, the second son of Astri Nordlie Simonsen and August Emil Simonsen, an immigrant from Norway
. His father was a high ironworker who died in a fall from a building; his mother then worked as a domestic and raised her three children August, Lois, and Redmond. Simonsen attended the Stuyvesant High School
from 1956-1960. He served two tours in the United States Air Force, and was accepted for enrollment at Cooper Union
, where he received a Bachelor's of Fine Arts degree in 1964. Subsequent work as a graphic artist included designing the book jacket for Is Paris Burning? (1965), album covers for London Records, and KOOL cigarette advertisements. He also worked as a photographer, and sold pictures to TIME, Newsweek and The New York Times.
and Simulation Publications, Inc.
In 1969 the wargaming hobby fanzine
Strategy & Tactics was sold by its founder/publisher Chris Wagner to James F. Dunnigan for $1. Although circulation was only around 1,000 copies, Dunnigan planned on using the magazine to promote new games he was designing. Later he wrote in The Complete Wargames Handbook:
The format of Strategy & Tactics (S&T) was ambitiously changed to a bi-monthly magazine with a complete game inside every issue, along with an accompanying historical article. Dunnigan and Simonsen's newly incorporated SPI began publish non-magazine games as well. At that time the main wargame publisher, Avalon Hill
, released only one or two new games a year. The response was overwhelming. Simonsen wrote: "Via a program of advertising, S&Ts circulation began to build and sales of SPI games to its readers began to take on serious proportions." Combined with other factors such as a sophisticated computerized customer feedback system the company experienced exponential growth. By the mid-'70s SPI's revenues exceeded $2 million annually, with up to forty employees. Circulation of Strategy and Tactics steadily grew, eventually peaking at over 36,000 by 1980.
Simonsen acted as founding editor for SPI's Ares Magazine
, a fantasy/science fiction game magazine following the same approach as Strategy & Tactics, until replaced during the TSR takeover.
Simonsen also wrote fictional backgrounds for various SPI games, notably for StarForce and Battlefleet Mars, often with humorous elements hidden in the text.
In 1969 however, Simonsen's ability to implement such graphic engineering was limited by SPI's starting capital, which was only "a hundred dollars" borrowed from writer Al Nofi
. Accordingly, production standards for their first series of games were comparatively low. While competitor Avalon Hill was owned by the printers Monarch Press, and thus was able to use professional production equipment, SPI was essentially producing game "kits". Designer Greg Costikyan
wrote:
Increased revenue and experience led to progressive improvements in production quality, and Simonsen continuously refined the standards for game components. The playing boards ("maps
") went from black-and-white to two-color and then full-color. Playing pieces ("counters
") became professionally mounted and die-cut, eventually being printed on both sides in full-color. Simonsen now had the means to implement his physical system design concepts. Game designer John Prados recalled that "Redmond prided himself on making at least one graphical innovation each game."
, and Simonsen left.
Along with former SPI designer Brad Hessel, he founded Ares Development Corporation to produce computer games. Simonsen had already successfully "ported
" the board game Wreck of the B.S.M. Pandora to the Apple II
, creating one of the first real-time strategy
games. A multi-game contract with Texas Instruments
fell through when they pulled out of the home computing
business in 1984.
Simonsen then moved to Richardson, Texas
where, with Jerry Robinson, he co-founded Microbotics, manufacturers of peripherals for the Amiga
platform of home computers. Around 1992 Microbotics closed and he retired from active work, becoming a gaming network moderator for BIX
and other places. In 1993 Simonsen contributed to Master of Orion: The Official Strategy Guide (Prima Publishing, 1993), devising a naming-convention for ships. By 1998 he had retired completely and spent his time drawing, writing computer programs and science fiction short stories.
Simonsen suffered a heart attack in 2004 and two more in early 2005 which led to his hospitalization and death in Garland, Texas
on 9 March 2005 at the age of 62.
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
and game designer best known for his work at the board wargame
Wargaming
A wargame is a strategy game that deals with military operations of various types, real or fictional. Wargaming is the hobby dedicated to the play of such games, which can also be called conflict simulations, or consims for short. When used professionally to study warfare, it is generally known as...
company Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in the 1970s and early 1980s. Simonsen was considered an innovator in game information graphics
Information graphics
Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge. These graphics present complex information quickly and clearly, such as in signs, maps, journalism, technical writing, and education...
, and is credited with creating the term "game designer".
As art director at SPI Simonsen supervised the release of over 400 game titles, and had game design or development credit for over twenty games. In addition, he variously held positions of executive art editor and co-editor or executive editor for the SPI magazines Strategy & Tactics
Strategy & Tactics
Strategy & Tactics is a wargaming magazine now published by Decision Games, notable for publishing a complete new wargame in each issue...
, MOVES
Moves (magazine)
Moves was a wargaming magazine originally published by SPI , who also published manual wargames. Their flagship magazine Strategy & Tactics , was a military history magazine featuring a new wargame in each issue. While S&T was devoted to historical articles, Moves focused on the play of the games...
and Ares
Ares (magazine)
Ares was a science fiction wargame magazine published by Simulations Publications, Inc. , and then TSR, Inc., between 1980 and 1984. In addition to the articles, each issue contained a wargame, complete with a foldout stiff paper map, a set of cardboard counters, and the rules.There were a total of...
. Simonsen was the Charles S. Roberts Awards Hall of Fame inductee for 1977.
Early life
Simonsen was born and raised in Inwood, ManhattanInwood, Manhattan
Inwood is the northernmost neighborhood on Manhattan Island in the New York City borough of Manhattan.-Geography:Inwood is physically bounded by the Harlem River to the north and east, and the Hudson River to the west. It extends southward to Fort Tryon Park and alternatively Dyckman Street or...
, the second son of Astri Nordlie Simonsen and August Emil Simonsen, an immigrant from Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. His father was a high ironworker who died in a fall from a building; his mother then worked as a domestic and raised her three children August, Lois, and Redmond. Simonsen attended the Stuyvesant High School
Stuyvesant High School
Stuyvesant High School , commonly referred to as Stuy , is a New York City public high school that specializes in mathematics and science. The school opened in 1904 on Manhattan's East Side and moved to a new building in Battery Park City in 1992. Stuyvesant is noted for its strong academic...
from 1956-1960. He served two tours in the United States Air Force, and was accepted for enrollment at Cooper Union
Cooper Union
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly referred to simply as Cooper Union, is a privately funded college in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States, located at Cooper Square and Astor Place...
, where he received a Bachelor's of Fine Arts degree in 1964. Subsequent work as a graphic artist included designing the book jacket for Is Paris Burning? (1965), album covers for London Records, and KOOL cigarette advertisements. He also worked as a photographer, and sold pictures to TIME, Newsweek and The New York Times.
Strategy & Tactics and SPI
Main articles: Strategy & TacticsStrategy & Tactics
Strategy & Tactics is a wargaming magazine now published by Decision Games, notable for publishing a complete new wargame in each issue...
and Simulation Publications, Inc.
In 1969 the wargaming hobby fanzine
Fanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...
Strategy & Tactics was sold by its founder/publisher Chris Wagner to James F. Dunnigan for $1. Although circulation was only around 1,000 copies, Dunnigan planned on using the magazine to promote new games he was designing. Later he wrote in The Complete Wargames Handbook:
The format of Strategy & Tactics (S&T) was ambitiously changed to a bi-monthly magazine with a complete game inside every issue, along with an accompanying historical article. Dunnigan and Simonsen's newly incorporated SPI began publish non-magazine games as well. At that time the main wargame publisher, Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill was a game company that specialized in wargames and strategic board games. Its logo contained its initials "AH", and it was often referred to by this abbreviation. It also published the occasional miniature wargaming rules, role-playing game, and had a popular line of sports simulations...
, released only one or two new games a year. The response was overwhelming. Simonsen wrote: "Via a program of advertising, S&Ts circulation began to build and sales of SPI games to its readers began to take on serious proportions." Combined with other factors such as a sophisticated computerized customer feedback system the company experienced exponential growth. By the mid-'70s SPI's revenues exceeded $2 million annually, with up to forty employees. Circulation of Strategy and Tactics steadily grew, eventually peaking at over 36,000 by 1980.
Simonsen acted as founding editor for SPI's Ares Magazine
Ares (magazine)
Ares was a science fiction wargame magazine published by Simulations Publications, Inc. , and then TSR, Inc., between 1980 and 1984. In addition to the articles, each issue contained a wargame, complete with a foldout stiff paper map, a set of cardboard counters, and the rules.There were a total of...
, a fantasy/science fiction game magazine following the same approach as Strategy & Tactics, until replaced during the TSR takeover.
Simonsen also wrote fictional backgrounds for various SPI games, notably for StarForce and Battlefleet Mars, often with humorous elements hidden in the text.
Physical systems design
It was at SPI that Simonsen coined the term "physical systems design" to describe the application of graphic design concepts to board games. He defined it as follows:In 1969 however, Simonsen's ability to implement such graphic engineering was limited by SPI's starting capital, which was only "a hundred dollars" borrowed from writer Al Nofi
Albert Nofi
Albert A. Nofi , is an American military historian, defense analyst, and designer of board and computer wargaming systems.A native of Brooklyn, he attended New York City public schools, graduating from the Boys' High School in 1961...
. Accordingly, production standards for their first series of games were comparatively low. While competitor Avalon Hill was owned by the printers Monarch Press, and thus was able to use professional production equipment, SPI was essentially producing game "kits". Designer Greg Costikyan
Greg Costikyan
Greg Costikyan, sometimes known under the pseudonym "Designer X" , is an American game designer and science fiction writer.Costikyan's career spans nearly all extant genres of gaming, including hex-based wargames, role-playing games, boardgames, card games, computer games, online games and mobile...
wrote:
Increased revenue and experience led to progressive improvements in production quality, and Simonsen continuously refined the standards for game components. The playing boards ("maps
Hex map
A hex map, hex board or hex grid is a gameboard design commonly used in wargames of all scales. The map is subdivided into small regular hexagons of identical size.-Advantages and disadvantages:...
") went from black-and-white to two-color and then full-color. Playing pieces ("counters
Counter (board wargames)
Boardgame counters are usually small cardboard squares moved around on the map of a wargame to represent armies, military units or individual military personnel. The first modern mass-market wargame, based on cardboard counters and hex-board maps, was Tactics, invented by Charles S. Roberts in 1952...
") became professionally mounted and die-cut, eventually being printed on both sides in full-color. Simonsen now had the means to implement his physical system design concepts. Game designer John Prados recalled that "Redmond prided himself on making at least one graphical innovation each game."
After SPI
Marketing lapses as well as financial mismanagement led to declining real income for SPI, culminating in Dunnigan's ouster as company manager (replaced by original S&T founder Chris Wagner). However with the economy in the midst of a recession, SPI was not able to make a recovery. In 1982 the company's assets was sold to TSR, Inc.TSR, Inc.
Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
, and Simonsen left.
Along with former SPI designer Brad Hessel, he founded Ares Development Corporation to produce computer games. Simonsen had already successfully "ported
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
" the board game Wreck of the B.S.M. Pandora to the Apple II
Apple II series
The Apple II series is a set of 8-bit home computers, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977 with the original Apple II...
, creating one of the first real-time strategy
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
games. A multi-game contract with Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
fell through when they pulled out of the home computing
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
business in 1984.
Simonsen then moved to Richardson, Texas
Richardson, Texas
Richardson is a city in Dallas and Collin Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 99,223. In 2011 the population was estimated to be 107,684. Richardson is an affluent inner suburb of Dallas and home of the Telecom Corridor with a high...
where, with Jerry Robinson, he co-founded Microbotics, manufacturers of peripherals for the Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
platform of home computers. Around 1992 Microbotics closed and he retired from active work, becoming a gaming network moderator for BIX
Byte Information Exchange
Byte Information eXchange was an online service created around 1985 by Byte magazine. It was a text-only Bulletin Board System-style site running the CoSy conferencing software running originally on an Arete multiprocessor system based on Motorola 68000s. When that didn't scale well, it was...
and other places. In 1993 Simonsen contributed to Master of Orion: The Official Strategy Guide (Prima Publishing, 1993), devising a naming-convention for ships. By 1998 he had retired completely and spent his time drawing, writing computer programs and science fiction short stories.
Simonsen suffered a heart attack in 2004 and two more in early 2005 which led to his hospitalization and death in Garland, Texas
Garland, Texas
-Climate:* The average warmest month is July.* The highest recorded temperature was in 2000.* On average, the coolest month is January.* The lowest recorded temperature was in 1989.* The maximum average precipitation occurs in May....
on 9 March 2005 at the age of 62.