Frank Lantz (born December 17, 1963) is the Director of the
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
Game Center. For over 12 years, Lantz taught game design at NYU's
Interactive Telecommunications Program. He has also taught at the
School of Visual Arts and
Parsons School of Design
Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...
. His writings on games, technology, and culture have appeared in a variety of publications. In 2012,
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
referred to Lantz as a "reigning genius of the mysteries of games" following his design of iPhone puzzle game
Drop7
''Drop7'' is a puzzle game developed by Area/Code Entertainment, for Android and iOS.
Gameplay
The game is played with touch controls on a 7x7 square grid. In each round, the player places a disc that falls from the top of the grid. Each di ...
.
In 2005 he co-founded
area/code, a New York-based developer that created cross-media, location-based, and social network games. In 2011 area/code was acquired by
Zynga and became Zynga New York. Lantz has worked in the field of game development for the past 20 years. Before starting area/code, he worked on a wide variety of games as the Director of Game Design at
Gamelab
Gamelab was an independent game studio in New York City, New York founded by game designer Eric Zimmerman and Peter Seung-Taek Lee in 2000. It is best known for creating Diner Dash, one of the most downloaded games of all time (over half a bill ...
, Lead Game Designer at Pop & Co, and Creative Director at
R/GA
R/GA is a innovation consultancy and digital design and advertising agency, headquartered in New York City, Untited States, with global offices in Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, London, United Kingdom, Berlin, São Paulo, Buenos A ...
Interactive. In 2012, Lantz contributed an interview to the
Critical Path Project.
Lantz also had a cameo in the 1987 film
Redneck Zombies
''Redneck Zombies'' is a 1987 American horror comedy trash film directed by Pericles Lewnes and released by Troma Entertainment.
Production
''Redneck Zombies'' was one of the first films shot entirely on videotape and then released to the ho ...
, as "the crazy hitchhiker".
Credits
Video games
* ''
Gearheads'' (1996),
Phillips
Phillips may refer to:
Businesses Energy
* Chevron Phillips Chemical, American petrochemical firm jointly owned by Chevron Corporation and Phillips 66.
* ConocoPhillips, American energy company
* Phillips 66, American energy company
* Phil ...
Interactive
* ''
Junkbot'' (2001),
Lego Group
Lego A/S (trade name: The Lego Group) is a Danish toy production company based in Billund, Denmark. It manufactures Lego-brand toys, consisting mostly of interlocking plastic bricks. The Lego Group has also built several amusement parks aro ...
* ''
Spybot: The Nightfall Incident'' (2002),
Lego Group
Lego A/S (trade name: The Lego Group) is a Danish toy production company based in Billund, Denmark. It manufactures Lego-brand toys, consisting mostly of interlocking plastic bricks. The Lego Group has also built several amusement parks aro ...
* ''
Diner Dash
''Diner Dash'' is a strategy and time management video game initially developed by Gamelab and published by PlayFirst. It is now owned and published by Glu Mobile. It was one of the top-selling downloadable games of all-time, available in multiple ...
'' (2004),
PlayFirst
* ''
Drop7
''Drop7'' is a puzzle game developed by Area/Code Entertainment, for Android and iOS.
Gameplay
The game is played with touch controls on a 7x7 square grid. In each round, the player places a disc that falls from the top of the grid. Each di ...
'' (2009),
Zynga
* ''
CSI: Crime City'' (2010),
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', '' ...
* ''
Universal Paperclips
''Universal Paperclips'' is a 2017 incremental game created by Frank Lantz of New York University. The user plays the role of an AI programmed to produce paperclips. Initially the user clicks on a button to create a single paperclip at a time; ...
'' (2017)
* ''Hey Robot'' (2020), Everybody House Games
* ''
Babble Royale
''Babble Royale'' is a free-to-play battle royale video game developed by designers James Lantz and Frank Lantz of Everybody House Games. It was released for Windows and macOS in early access on December 15, 2021, via Steam. In each match, up to ...
'' (2021), Everybody House Games
Physical games
* ''
Pac-Manhattan
originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. The ...
'' (2004),
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
Footnotes
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lantz, Frank
1963 births
Living people
American video game designers
New York University faculty