Carl Sanford Joslyn "Sandy" Petersen (born September 16, 1955) is an American

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 ...

. He worked at

Chaosium Chaosium Inc. is a publisher of tabletop role-playing games established by Greg Stafford in 1975. Chaosium's major titles include '' Call of Cthulhu'', based on the horror fiction stories of H. P. Lovecraft'', RuneQuest Glorantha'', ''Pendragon ...

, contributing to the development of ''

RuneQuest ''RuneQuest'' (commonly abbreviated as RQ) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson, and Warren James, and set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of Glorantha. It was first publi ...

'' and later creating the acclaimed and influential horror

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal ac ...

''Call of Cthulhu''. He would later join

id Software id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: game programmer, programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer T ...

where he would work on the development of the ''Doom'' franchise and ''Quake''.

Biography

Petersen was born in St. Louis, Missouri and developed the love for dinosaurs at age 3. He studied

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

in college and later attended

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

, majoring in

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, an ...

Work

Chaosium

He is a well-known fan of H. P. Lovecraft, whose work he first encountered in a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Armed Services Edition Armed Services Editions (ASEs) were small paperback books of fiction and nonfiction that were distributed in the American military during World War II. From 1943 to 1947, some 122 million copies of more than 1,300 ASE titles were distributed to s ...

of '' The Dunwich Horror and other Weird Tales'' found in his father's library. In 1974, ''

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 ...

'' brought his interest to

s. He became a full-time staff member at

. His interest for role-playing games and H. P. Lovecraft were fused when he became principal author of Chaosium's game '' Call of Cthulhu'', published 1981, and many scenarios and background pieces thereafter. While working for Chaosium he co-authored the third edition of ''

'', for which he also co-wrote the critically acclaimed '' Trollpak'' and a number of other

Glorantha Glorantha is a fantasy world created by Greg Stafford. It was first introduced in the board game ''White Bear and Red Moon'' (1975) by Chaosium and then in a number of other board, roleplaying and computer games, including ''RuneQuest'' and ''Her ...

n supplements. He authored several critically acclaimed ''RuneQuest'' supplements for

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

Games Workshop Games Workshop Group (often abbreviated as GW) is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are '' Warhammer Age of Sigmar'' and '' Warhammer 40,000''. Founded in 1975 by John Peake, ...

. Petersen served as co-designer for

West End Games West End Games (WEG) was a company that made board, role-playing, and war games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York City, but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Its product lines included ''Star Wars'', ''Paranoia'', ...

's ''

Ghostbusters ''Ghostbusters'' is a 1984 American supernatural comedy film directed and produced by Ivan Reitman, and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis as Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler, thr ...

'' roleplaying game. He still plays and runs role-playing games, and is a frequent guest at conventions where he usually runs a freeform game of his own devising, and/or helps to run someone else's game.

MicroProse

He worked some time for

MicroProse MicroProse is an American video game publisher and developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the ''Civilization'' and '' X-COM'' series. Most of their in ...

, where he is credited for work on ''

Sid Meier's Pirates! ''Sid Meier's Pirates!'' is a video game created by Sid Meier for the Commodore 64 and published by MicroProse in 1987. It was the first game to include the name "Sid Meier" in its title as an effort by MicroProse to attract fans of Meier's ear ...

'' and '' Sword of the Samurai''. Between 1989 and 1992 he also worked on the

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...

s '' Darklands'', '' Hyperspeed'', and ''

Lightspeed The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant that is important in many areas of physics. The speed of light is exactly equal to ). According to the special theory of relativity, is the upper limit for ...

''. He also made some contributions to ''

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). ...

''. Petersen was laid off in 1992 and was jobless for 5 months. He considered that period as one of the worst times of his life.

id Software

Primarily interested by the

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the p ...

Wolfenstein 3D ''Wolfenstein 3D'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software and FormGen. Originally released on May 5, 1992, for DOS, it was inspired by the 1981 Muse Software video game '' Castle Wolfe ...

'', Petersen joined

about 10 weeks before the December 1993 release of ''

Doom Doom is another name for damnation. Doom may also refer to: People * Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed * Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist * Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher * ...

'' and in that time created 19

level Level or levels may refer to: Engineering *Level (instrument), a device used to measure true horizontal or relative heights *Spirit level, an instrument designed to indicate whether a surface is horizontal or vertical * Canal pound or level *Reg ...

s for it (of which 8 were based to some extent on early drafts by

Tom Hall Tom Hall is an American game designer best known for his work with id Software on titles such as '' Doom'' and ''Commander Keen''. Career Hall attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he earned a B.S. in Computer Science. In 1987 ...

). He later created 17 of the levels for ''

Doom II ''Doom II'', also known as ''Doom II: Hell on Earth'', is a first-person shooter game by id Software. It was released for MS-DOS computers in 1994 and Macintosh computers in 1995. Unlike the original ''Doom'', which was initially only available ...

'', and 7 levels for '' Quake''. His Lovecraftian influences also resulted in some changes to the monster designs for these games.

Ensemble Studios

He left id Software for

Ensemble Studios Ensemble Studios was an American video game developer. It was founded by Tony Goodman in 1994 and incorporated the following year. It borrowed the name of Ensemble Corporation, a consulting firm founded by Goodman in 1990. It was acquired by Mi ...

in June 1997. There, he has worked as a game designer on several of their ''

Age of Empires ''Age of Empires'' is a series of historical real-time strategy video games, originally developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios. The first game was '' Age of Empires'', released in 1997. Nine total games within the se ...

'' titles, including '' Rise of Rome'', '' Age of Kings'', and '' The Conquerors''. During this time, he was a frequent poster on the HeavenGames forums under the username ES_Sandyman. He ran an extremely popular series of threads, "Ask Sandyman", where forum members could ask him about anything they wanted.

Recent works

Petersen was the Executive Producer for the 2011 movie ''

The Whisperer in Darkness ''The Whisperer in Darkness'' is a 26,000-word novella by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written February–September 1930, it was first published in ''Weird Tales'', August 1931. Similar to '' The Colour Out of Space'' (1927), it is a blen ...

'' which was nominated for awards at the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

and

Warsaw International Film Festival Warsaw Film Festival ( pl, Warszawski Festiwal Filmowy, abbreviated as WFF) is an annual film festival held every October in Warsaw, Poland which previews new films of all genres, including documentaries from all around the world. The festival ha ...

s. It was produced by H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society Motion Pictures in the style of a 1930s black and white

horror movie Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, ap ...

. In April 2011 he served as the publisher of horror magazine ''Arcane: Penny Dreadfuls for the 21st Century''.Arcane: Penny Dreadfuls for the 21st Century
Petersen took a professorship at

The Guildhall at SMU SMU Guildhall is a graduate video game development program located at the Southern Methodist University (SMU). It was one of the first graduate video game development programs in the United States. In 2020, it was ranked #4 among the Top 25 Gradua ...

in 2009 following the closure of

, where he taught several courses on

game design 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 ...

.The Guildhall at SMU Faculty
Guildhall @ SMU Faculty Biographies. Petersen worked at

Barking Lizards Technologies Barking Lizards Technologies was an American video game developer that develops for mobile phones, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, Wii and personal computer. Founded in 2001, Barking Lizards Technologies ...

as their Creative Director, after leaving The Guildhall, and worked on their iOS release, '' Osiris Legends''. In mid-2013 Petersen led a highly successful

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

campaign by his company, Green Eye Games, to produce the ''Cthulhu Wars'' boardgame. Over US$1,400,000 was raised achieving over 3,500% of the initial target. This success allowed the creation of more figures (60), map expansions and additional scenario options. In most, if not all, previous Cthulhu games "you strive to avert the impending catastrophe. But in Cthulhu Wars you ARE the catastrophe! The Great Old Ones have returned to claim the ruins of Earth, and you are one of them!" Green Eye Games also produced the unsuccessful kickstarter ''Cthulhu World Combat'' (iOS, Android, Windows, PSN, Xbox Live).Barking Lizards Management Team
In June 2015, it was announced that Petersen and

Greg Stafford Francis Gregory Stafford (February 9, 1948 – October 10, 2018), usually known as Greg Stafford, was an American game designer, publisher, and practitioner of shamanism. Stafford is most famous as the creator of the fantasy world of Gloranth ...

had returned to Chaosium Inc. He left the board in 2019.

Personal life

Petersen is a practicing member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

, but sees no conflict between his faith and his design of games involving Satanic elements. While working on ''Doom'', he said to

John Romero John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

, "I have no problems with the demons in the game. They're just cartoons. And, anyway, ''they're'' the bad guys." Sandy is married, has five children, and 15 grandchildren.
/ref>

Credits

Video games

* ''

'' (1989) * ''

'' (1991) * ''

'' (1990) * '' Hyperspeed'' (1991) * '' Darklands'' (1992) * ''

DOOM Doom is another name for damnation. Doom may also refer to: People * Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed * Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist * Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher * ...

'' (1993) * '' Doom II: Hell on Earth'' (1994) * ''The Ultimate DOOM'' (1995) * '' Quake'' (1996) * '' Hexen: Beyond Heretic'' (1996) * ''

Final DOOM ''Final Doom'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by TeamTNT, and Dario and Milo Casali, and was released by id Software and distributed by GT Interactive in 1996. It was released for MS-DOS and Macintosh computers, as well as for t ...

'' (1996) * ''

Quake II ''Quake II'' is a 1997 first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Activision. It is the second installment of the ''Quake'' series, but not a direct sequel to '' Quake''. The game's storyline is continued in its ...

'' (1997, uncredited) * ''

'' (1997) * '' Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome'' (1998) * ''

Age of Empires II ''Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings'' is a real-time strategy video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft. Released in 1999 for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh, it is the second game in the '' Age of Empires'' series. ...

'' (1999) * '' Age of Empires II: The Conquerors'' (2000) * ''

Age of Empires III ''Age of Empires III'' is a real-time strategy video game developed by Microsoft Corporation's Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The Mac version was ported over and developed and published by Destineer's MacSoft. The PC ve ...

'' (2005) * '' Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs'' (2006) * ''

Halo Wars ''Halo Wars'' is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 video game console. It was released in Australia on February 26, 2009; in Europe on February 27; and i ...

'' (2009) * ''Osiris Legends'' (2011)

Role-playing games

* '' Call of Cthulhu'' (1981) * '' Ghostbusters '' (1986)

Board games

* ''Cthulhu Wars'' (2015) * ''Theomachy'' (2016) * ''Orcs Must Die!'' (2016) * ''Castle Dicenstein'' (2017) * ''Evil High Priest'' (2018) * ''The Gods War'' (2018) * ''Hyperspace'' (2019) * ''Planet Apocalypse'' (2020)

Films