James Ohlen is a video game designer. He was Senior Creative Director of

BioWare BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zeschuk. Since 2007, ...

where he worked for 22 years prior to starting the publishing company Arcanum Worlds in 2018. In 2019, Ohlen became the lead of a new internal development studio Archetype Entertainment under

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. It is currently a subsidia ...

to develop new intellectual property and video games for the company.

Career

In his early career, Ohlen ran a comic store as well as two ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...

'' campaigns. The campaigns were so popular that each had a waiting list. BioWare founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk recruited Ohlen to work at the company based on his D&D skills. At BioWare, part of his early work included testing on ''

Shattered Steel ''Shattered Steel'' is a Mecha, mech Vehicle simulation game, simulation game released in 1996 by BioWare for MS-DOS, and later ported to Mac OS by now-defunct Logicware. It is notable for the deformable terrain effects, and for being BioWare's ...

'', then becoming the lead designer for ''

Baldur's Gate ''Baldur's Gate'' is a series of role-playing video games set in the Forgotten Realms '' Dungeons & Dragons'' campaign setting. The game has spawned two series, known as the ''Bhaalspawn Saga'' and the ''Dark Alliance'', both taking place mostl ...

'' which was credited with making BioWare a successful company. As a result of the success of Baldur's Gate, Ohlen was made the company's Director of Design. He continued to work as the lead designer on BioWare's Dungeons and Dragons titles including Baldur's Gate 2 and Neverwinter Nights. He later led up the design on '' Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic'' and Dragon Age: Origins. In 2006 James Ohlen moved to Austin, Texas to set up a new studio for BioWare alongside Gordon Walton and Rich Vogel. That studio was responsible for the production of the MMORPG game '' Star Wars: The Old Republic''. In 2018 Ohlen retired from BioWare after 22 years to start up his own publishing company – Arcanum Worlds. The first book to be produced by Arcanum Worlds is ''Odyssey of the Dragonlords''.

announced it was establishing a new Austin-based studio in April 2019 to develop new intellectual properties (IP), and had tapped Ohlen to lead it. Ohlen said that the offer was too good to pass up, and that "This is just an opportunity to work on projects as personal to me as the good ol' days of the '90s and early '00s." By January 2020, Wizards of the Coast revealed the studio as Archetype Entertainment, and that another former BioWare member, Chad Robertson, was named as vice-president and general manager. A month later,

Drew Karpyshyn Drew Karpyshyn (born July 28, 1971) is a Canadian video game scenario writer, scriptwriter and novelist. He served as a senior writer for BioWare's ''Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (video game), Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic'' and ...

, yet another former BioWare member, came on board Archetype as lead writer. Ohlen was able to continue Arcanum Worlds under the deal, though the studio would not use any of the IP developed through Arcanum.

Works

As Lead Designer/Creative Director

* ''

'' (1998) * '' Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast'' (1999) * '' Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn'' (2000) * ''

Neverwinter Nights ''Neverwinter Nights'' is a series of video games developed by BioWare and Obsidian Entertainment, based on the ''Forgotten Realms'' campaign setting of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game. Aside from also being set in the Dungeons & Dr ...

'' (2002) * '' Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic'' (2003) * '' Dragon Age: Origins'' (2009) * '' Star Wars: The Old Republic'' (2011)

Other games

* ''

'' (1996) * ''

Jade Empire ''Jade Empire'' is an action role-playing game developed by BioWare, originally published by Microsoft Game Studios in 2005 as an Xbox exclusive. It was later ported to Microsoft Windows personal computers (PC) and published by 2K Games in 200 ...

'' (2005) * ''

Mass Effect ''Mass Effect'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Casey Hudson, Drew Karpyshyn and Preston Watamaniuk. The franchise depicts a distant future where humanity and several alien civilizations have colonized the known unive ...

'' (2007) * '' Anthem'' (2019)

References

External links

Arcanum Worlds official website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ohlen, James BioWare people Canadian video game designers Dungeons & Dragons video game designers Living people Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic developers Year of birth missing (living people)