Martin Wallace is an English board game designer from

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Early life and education

Martin Wallace was born and raised in the U.K., and has been resident in Manchester for most of those years. He began gaming in his teens, starting with titles from SPI and

Avalon Hill Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the company ...

, and as a student he got into ''

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 ...

''.

Career

Wallace worked for a while at Games Workshop, then started designing games in earnest in the early 1990s, his first DTP game being ''Lords of Creation''. Eventually German companies picked up a few of his games, such as '' Und Tschüss'', '' Volldampf'', and ''Tempus''. He has also published a number of games through his own company, Warfrog. These include such titles as '' Struggle of Empires'' and '' Princes of the Renaissance''. Wallace is the founder and chief designer of Treefrog (former Warfrog) Games. Wallace is known for designing complex

strategy game A strategy game or strategic game is a game (e.g. a board game) in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous, decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome. Almost all strategy games require internal decisi ...

s that depict a variety of historical settings. Two themes he has frequently used are the construction and operation of

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

s, and the rise and fall of

ancient civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). Civ ...

s. He has developed a reputation for blending elegant European style game mechanics with the strong themes that are more typical of American style games. Many of his games feature economic systems, incorporating rules for income, taxation, and debt. In 2016, Wallace announced the closure of Treefrog Games and focussing on being a full-time game designer.

Notable games

*''Empires of the Ancient World'' (2000) *'' Liberté'' (2001) *''Volldampf'' (2001) *''Tyros'' (2002) *''Princes of the Renaissance'' (2003) *''Secrets of the Tombs'' (2003) *'' Runebound'' (2004) *''Struggle of Empires'' (2004) *''Byzantium'' (2005) *''

Railroad Tycoon ''Railroad Tycoon'' is a business simulation game series. There are five games in the series; the original ''Railroad Tycoon (video game), Railroad Tycoon'' (1990), ''Railroad Tycoon Deluxe'' (1993), ''Railroad Tycoon II'' (1998), ''Railroad Ty ...

'' (2005) *''Tempus'' (2006) *''Perikles'' (2006) *''

Brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...

'' (2007) *''Tinners' Trail'' (2008) *''After The Flood'' (2008) *''Steel Driver'' (2008) *''Steam: Rails to Riches'' (2009) *''Waterloo'' (2009) *''Automobile'' (2009) *''Rise of Empires'' (2009) *''Last Train to Wensleydale'' (2009) *''God's Playground'' (2009) *''Moongha Invaders'' (2010) *''Age of Industry'' (2010) *''

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

'' (2010) *''First Train to Nuremberg'' (2010) *''Gettysburg'' (2010) *'' A Few Acres of Snow'' (2011) *'' Discworld: Ankh-Morpork'' (2011) *''Aeroplanes: Aviation Ascendant (2012) *'' Doctor Who: The Card Game'' (2012) *''Discworld: The Witches'' (2013) *''A Study in Emerald'' (2013) based on Neil Gaiman’s short story ''

A Study in Emerald "A Study in Emerald" is a short story written by British fantasy and graphic novel author Neil Gaiman. The story is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche transferred to the Cthulhu Mythos universe of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Gaiman describes it as ...

'' *''Onwards to Venus'' (2014) based on

Greg Broadmore Greg Broadmore (born 1972) is a concept designer, artist, writer and sculptor based in Wellington, New Zealand. He is the creator of Dr Grordbort's, and has worked as a designer, artist and writer at ''The Lord of the Rings'' film franchise direct ...

’s '' Dr Grordbort'' *''Mythotopia'' (2014) *''Ships'' (2015) *''A Study in Emerald Second Edition'' (2015) *''Via Nebula'' (2016) *''Hit Z Road'' (2016) *''A Handful of Stars'' (2017) *''AuZtralia'' (2018) *''Judge Dredd Helter Skelter'' (2019) *''Milito'' (2019) *''Nanty Narking'' (2019) *''Anno 1800'' (2020) *''Tinners' Trail'' (2021) (new, reworked edition) *''Rocketmen'' (2021)

References

External links

Treefrog Games
website domain has been bought by another company. Link directs to Wayback Machine archive.
Martin Wallace
article in The Games Journal *
Rank-ordered list of Martin Wallace's games
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallace, Martin Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Board game designers Mass media people from Manchester