Jon Freeman is a

game designer Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...

and co-founder of software developer Automated Simulations, which was later renamed to

Epyx Epyx, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher active in the late 1970s and 1980s. The company was founded as Automated Simulations by Jim Connelley and Jon Freeman, originally using Epyx as a brand name for action-oriented games before rena ...

and became a major company during the 8-bit era of home computing. He is married to

game programmer A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebases for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines, all of which f ...

Anne Westfall Anne Westfall is an American game programmer and software developer, known for 1983's ''Archon: The Light and the Dark'', originally written for the Atari 8-bit family. She is married to fellow game developer Jon Freeman (game designer), Jon Free ...

, and they work together as

Free Fall Associates Free Fall Associates was a video game developer of the 1980s and early 1990s founded in 1981 by game designer Jon Freeman, game programmer Anne Westfall, and game designer Paul Reiche III. Westfall and Freeman are married. To start the new compa ...

. Free Fall is best known for '' Archon: The Light and the Dark'', one of the earliest titles from

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

Career

Automated Simulations and Epyx

Freeman worked as a game designer for video game developer and publisher, Epyx, which he co-founded with Jim Connelley in 1978 as Automated Simulations. Their first game, '' Starfleet Orion'', was a two-player only game developed mainly so Connelley could write off the cost of his

Commodore PET The Commodore PET is a line of personal computers produced starting in 1977 by Commodore International. A single all-in-one case combines a MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, Commodore BASIC in read-only memory, keyboard, monochrome monitor, an ...

computer. Freeman provided design while Connelley handled the programming in

BASIC BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...

. Freeman was amazed when they actually had a finished product and they had to create a company to publish it. So, both he and Connelley fell into the computer game industry by accident. It was while with this company, still known as Automated Simulations in 1980, that Freeman met his future wife,

, at a computer fair. ''Starfleet Orion'' was quickly followed by ''

Invasion Orion ''Invasion Orion'' is a 1979 science fiction strategy game written and published by Automated Simulations (which would become Epyx in 1983). It is one or two player sequel to the original two-player ''Starfleet Orion'' which was published in late ...

''. What followed was a slew of very successful titles for various platforms. Freeman designed or co-designed a number of Epyx games, such as ''

Crush, Crumble and Chomp! ''Crush, Crumble and Chomp!'' is a 1981 video game where the player takes control of a movie monster and attacks a major city, such as New York or San Francisco. It was published in 1981 for the TRS-80, Apple II, and Atari 8-bit family. Ports ...

'' and ''

Rescue at Rigel ''Rescue at Rigel'' is a 1980 science fiction role-playing video game written and published by Automated Simulations (later known as Epyx). It is based on a modified version of their ''Temple of Apshai'' game engine, which was used for most of th ...

''. Freeman tired of what he called "office politics" and yearned to get away from the now much larger company.

''The Complete Book of Wargames''

In 1980, Freeman, in collaboration with the editors of ''Consumer Guide'', wrote ''

The Complete Book of Wargames ''The Complete Book of Wargames'' by Jon Freeman and the editors of Consumer Guide was published in 1980 by Simon & Schuster under the Fireside imprint. Contents This book comes in both a 285-page hardcover edition and a paperback version. In ...

'', which was published by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

under their "Fireside" imprint. In the book, Freeman, explained the history of wargames to that point, the notable companies, the usual components, and evaluated most of the major wargames in print at the time, as well as the role that computer games would play in this field.

Free Fall Associates

In 1981, Freeman and Anne Westfall left Epyx to create Free Fall Associates along with

Paul Reiche III Paul Reiche III ( ) is an American game designer, particularly known for his work on video games. Reiche is best known for being the co-creator, together with Fred Ford, of the '' Star Control'' universe. Career Pen and paper RPGs Reiche was ...

. Free Falls' first game was 1982's '' Tax Dodge'', which remained obscure. Free Fall went on to develop two highly acclaimed games published by

: ''

Archon ''Archon'' ( gr, ἄρχων, árchōn, plural: ἄρχοντες, ''árchontes'') is a Greek word that means "ruler", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem αρχ-, mean ...

'' and '' Archon II: Adept''. Originally written for the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

, they were ported to other contemporary home computers. Free Fall developed a few more titles after ''Archon II'', but nothing as well-known. Freeman is credited with some recent development work with

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate, best known for its ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', ''Star Ocean'' and ''Kingdom Hearts'' role-playing video game ...

References

External links

*
List of games developed by Freeman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freeman, Jon American video game designers American businesspeople Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Software developer communities