Max Design GesMBH was an Austrian

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

based in

Schladming Schladming is a small former mining town in the northwest of the Austrian state of Styria that is now a popular tourist destination. It has become a large winter-sports resort and has held various skiing competitions, including most notably the F ...

, founded in 1991 by Wilfried Reiter Albert and Martin Lasser. The company is best known for creating the ''Anno'' series. The company was closed down in 2004.

Company history

Max Design was founded in 1991 by the brothers Albert Lasser and Martin Lasser together with Wilfried Reiter. The company became known for its challenging

business simulation game Business simulation games, also known as economic simulation games

s that attract a large fan following to this day, and in the 1990s it significantly influenced the image of the "typically German business simulation" as a separate game genre with its series History Experience, together with games such as The Patrician (

Ascaron Ascaron Entertainment was a video game developer based in Germany. Founded as Ascon by Holger Flöttmann in 1991 and later renamed in October 1996 due to the possible confusion with the Swiss company Ascom AG, the company produced titles prima ...

). The game

Anno 1602 ''Anno 1602: Creation of a New World'', entitled ''1602 A.D.'' in North America, is a 1998 construction and management video game developed by Max Design and published by Sunflowers Interactive. Set in the early modern period, it requires the p ...

, initiated by Max Design and later published together with Sunflowers, marked an important boundary in two respects. On the one hand, with 2 million copies sold, it became the most successful German / Austrian computer game everSpieleflut.de (German
http://www.spieleflut.de/
Anno 1602 - Der Longseller schlechthin and it laid the foundation for the Anno series. On the other hand, Sunflowers secured the first shares in Max Design as part of the cooperation. With the appearance of

Anno 1503 ''Anno 1503: The New World'' (released as ''1503 A.D.: The New World'' in North America) is a 2002 construction and management simulation video game developed by Austrian developer Max Design and published by Sunflowers Interactive. Part of the ' ...

, there was speculation in the fan base about a continual shift in the balance of power towards Sunflowers. After twelve years Max Design left the game industry on April 15, 2004. As per press release this is a matter of an adjustment phasehttp://www.gamestar.de/
Max Design - Massenentlassung bei Anno-Programmierern - Mass layoff on Anno developers (ger) whose duration is uncertain. All employees except the founding members were laid off. In the same year the company fully ceased all its activities. The ''Anno''-series was continued – while under its control – by Sunflowers in cooperation with

Related Designs Ubisoft is a French video game publisher headquartered in Montreuil, founded in March 1986 by the Guillemot brothers. Since its establishment, Ubisoft has become one of the largest video game publishers, and it has the largest in-house develop ...

. In an interview, one of the company's founder later declared that, after twelve years of development, the core team was "tired" and needed some time for a re-orientation.http://www.gamona.de
Red Monkeys - Interview mit Martin Lasser (ger)

List of developed or released games

* ''Think Cross'' (1991) - ( Atari ST/E,

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

/ 128) – Puzzle * ''Cash'' (1991) - (Amiga ECS/OCS) – Business simulation game * ''Osiris'' (1992) - (DOS) – Puzzle * ''Hunt The Fonts'' (1992) - Puzzle * '' 1869 - Hart am Wind!'' (1992) -

Business simulation game Business simulation games, also known as economic simulation games

** also known as ''1869: Erlebte Geschichte Teil I''Hall of Light
1869: Name allocation of the English version
/ref> ** English name: ''1869: History Experience Part I'' * '' Burntime'' (1993) - (

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...

) – Strategy game * '' Der Clou!'' (1994) – (Amiga ECS/OCS, AGA, CD³²) –

Adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

** English name ''The Clue'' * ''Oldtimer'' (1994/95) - (Amiga ECS/ OCS,

AGA Aga or AGA may refer to: Business * Architectural Glass and Aluminum (AGA), a glazing contractor, established in 1970 * AGA (automobile), ''Autogen Gasaccumulator AG'', 1920s German car company *AGA AB, ''Aktiebolaget Svenska Gasaccumulator'', a ...

, DOS) – Business simulation game ** also known as ''Oldtimer: Erlebte Geschichte Teil II''Hall of Light
Oldtimer: Overview
/ref> ** English name ''Motor City'' * ''Clearing House'' (1995) - Stock market simulation game * ''Strike Base'' (1996) - Space-Action * ''

'' (1998) - (Windows) – Business simulation game/Strategy ** (Developer/Publisher: Sunflowers Interactive Entertainment Software) * ''

'' (2002) - (Windows) – Business simulation game/Strategy ** (Developer/Publisher: Max Design/Sunflowers)

Other

The soundtrack for ''1869'' and ''Burntime'' was written by Hannes Seifert, one of the later founders and CEO's of

Neo Software Rockstar Productions GmbH (trade name: Rockstar Vienna; formerly Neo Software Produktions GmbH) was an Austrian video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Vienna. Peter Baustädter, Niki Laber, and Hannes Seifert founded the ...

, who also made the music on several other games at this time. Max Design also published the successful ''Der Clou!''. With ''Petko'', Max Design tried in the middle of the nineties to place an adventure. A playable demo was still released but the game has never gone gold.The Legacy.d
http://www.thelegacy.de/
Rare Screenshots of the project ''Petko''

Literature

* ''Max Design'' In: Winnie Forster: ''Lexikon der Computer- und Videospielmacher.'' Erste Auflage, S. 200. .

References

External links

Gesammelte Testberichte zu Spielen von Max Design (ger)
{{Authority control Video game companies established in 1991 Video game companies disestablished in 2004 Defunct video game companies of Austria Video game development companies 1991 establishments in Austria