Mark Lorenzen (born 1965) is a

video game designer Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...

and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

Biography

Lorenzen was born in Virginia. He got primary education from

Huntington Beach High School Huntington Beach High School (HBHS) is a public high school in Huntington Beach, California. Built in 1906, it is part of the Huntington Beach Union High School District. HBHS is a California Distinguished School. Huntington Beach High School is ...

, and later attended

Point Loma Nazarene University Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) is a private Christian liberal arts college with its main campus on the Point Loma oceanfront in San Diego, California, United States. It was founded in 1902 as a Bible college by the Church of the Nazarene. ...

, finishing with a Bachelor's Degree in Visual Art.

Career

Lorenzen first entered the video game industry by joining

Blue Sky Software BlueSky Software was an American video game developer based in California. Formed in 1988, BlueSky closed in March 2001, when parent company Titus Interactive was in financial trouble. The BlueSky trademark continued to be owned by Titus Interac ...

in the early 90s. While there, he served as design director on such games as

Jurassic Park ''Jurassic Park'', later also referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton and centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of cloned dinosaurs. It began in 1990 when ...

Vectorman ''Vectorman'' is a 2D action platformer developed by BlueSky Software and published by Sega. The game was released for the Sega Genesis in late 1995 in North America and Europe. It was considered a critical and commercial success, achieving its ...

and Ren & Stimpy: Stimpy's Invention. After leaving Blue Sky in 1995 Lorenzen joined

Shiny Entertainment Shiny Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Laguna Beach, California. Founded in October 1993 by David Perry (game developer), David Perry, Shiny was the creator of video games such as ''Earthworm Jim (video game), E ...

, working on

Earthworm Jim 2 ''Earthworm Jim 2'' is a 1995 run and gun (video game), run and gun platform game, platform video game and the sequel to ''Earthworm Jim (video game), Earthworm Jim'', and the second and final game in the ''Earthworm Jim (series), Earthworm Jim'' ...

. One of the levels he designed was named "Lorenzen's Soil" in his honor. In 1996 a handful of Shiny members formed The Neverhood, Inc. (further history could be read

here Here is an adverb that means "in, on, or at this place". It may also refer to: Software * Here Technologies, a mapping company * Here WeGo (formerly Here Maps), a mobile app and map website by Here Television * Here TV (formerly "here!"), a TV ...

). The Neverhood included mark's brother Tim, who worked at

7th Level 7th Level was a video game development company based in Dallas, Texas and founded in 1993. Notable game titles by the company include: the three Monty Python games (with the aid of Python member Eric Idle); '' G-Nome'' (1997), a '' MechWarrior'' ...

. Lorenzen later led art design on The Neverhood, Inc.-made

Skullmonkeys ''Skullmonkeys'' is a platform video game developed by The Neverhood, Inc. and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation. It is the sequel to ''The Neverhood'', and rather than being an adventure game, it is a platformer. Players again take con ...

, and programming on BoomBots. In 1999 The Neverhood, Inc. disbanded, and Lorenzen with four partners formed the game company Monkeytropolis, based in

Rancho Santa Margarita, California Rancho Santa Margarita is a city in Orange County, California, United States. One of Orange County's youngest cities, Rancho Santa Margarita is a master-planned community. The population was 47,853 at the 2010 census, up from 47,214 at the 2000 ...

. The company was active for 3 years, working on various projects, both internal and for outside publishers. Monkeytropolis disbanded in 2002. In April 2002, Lorenzen joined

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 ...

, to work as software engineer on various

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, turn ...

games such as Command & Conquer: Generals and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth. In 2005, Lorenzen moved to

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, working for

EA Salt Lake EA Salt Lake was an American video game developer located in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was owned by video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA). History EA Salt Lake was founded by the studio's president, Vance Cook, as Headgate Stud ...

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 ''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07'' is a sports video game developed by EA Redwood Shores for the Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Wii and as a launch title for the PlayStation 3 version and Team Fusion for the PlayStation Portable ve ...

, Nerf N-Strike Elite and on various titles in the Electronic Arts The Sims 3 franchise. In January 2014, Pencil Test Studios announced that Lorenzen was working as the lead programmer on their upcoming

Armikrog ''Armikrog'' (stylized as ''Armikrog.'') is a stop-motion point-and-click adventure comedy game by Doug TenNapel in partnership with Pencil Test Studios and Versus Evil for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, Wii U and Xbox One. It i ...

game. In 2015, Lorenzen was hired at GALXYZ Inc. as principal designer and developer of a Science Education app called Blue Apprentice. in 2017, Lorenzen served as senior 3D developer at

Telltale Games Telltale Incorporated (trade name: Telltale Games) was an American video game developer based in San Rafael, California. The company was founded in July 2004 by former LucasArts developers Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors and Troy Molander, following ...

Game credits

Personal life

Mark Lorenzen is married to Jodi Lorenzen. He is based in

References

External links

MobyGames profileFacebook page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lorenzen, Mark 1966 births American video game designers American video game programmers 21st-century American businesspeople Living people Point Loma Nazarene University alumni People from Huntington Beach, California Video game artists