Simon WoodroffeDeveloper BIO
Simon Woodroffe is the son of
Mike and
Patricia Woodroffe, who founded
Adventure Soft UK (succeeded by
Horror Soft and
Headfirst Productions).
When he was young he hooked on the delights of
Miner 2049er on the Atari and helped his father in his computer shop (Callisto Computers) in Birmingham. When he was 6 he wrote his first game - Tunnels of Terror - for the TRS 80 but it was never published. The first game he worked on was
Heroes of Lance
(Level Designer/Tester) and afterwards he was involved in the production of various other Horror Soft tiles.
He was studying AI at the university when he was offered the scripting job for
Simon the Sorcerer as a way to earn part time money. The creation of Simon the Sorcerer - not named after himself - occurred during a long car journey down the M5 when they were thinking about a character in a fantasy environment that could compete with the GuyBrushes and Rincewinds.
When
Simon the Sorcerer 2 (1995) rolled around he was offered full time money and so he quit to get into the industry.
After the publication of Simon 2 he was haunted by the idea that he had to write another Simon game, but he was fascinated by the idea to write a real "space opera," and so the idea of
The Feeble Files was born. Its title was inspired by the movie "Meet the Feebles" and the "X-files," and the game was published in 1997.
After his work as Lead Designer at
Adventure Soft he became Creative Director at Headfirst Productions Ltd (1998), where he worked on
Simon the Sorcerer 3D (2002) and
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (2005). He was also (officially) credited as Additional Designer for Simon the Sorcerer 4: Chaos ist das halbe Leben (“
Simon the Sorcerer: Chaos Happens”).
Simon Woodroffe joined
Midway Games in April 2006, where he is currently working as Creative Director/Lead Designer (2008).
Websites
Games CreditedSimon the Sorcerer: Chaos Happens (2007), RTL Enterprises GmbH
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (2005), 2K Games, Bethesda Softworks LLC
Simon the Sorcerer 3D (2002), Adventure Soft Publishing Ltd.
Elvira's Horror Pack (1998), Adventure Soft Publishing Ltd.
The Feeble Files (1997), Adventure Soft Publishing Ltd.
Simon the Sorcerer II: The Lion, the Wizard and the Wardrobe (1995), Adventure Soft Publishing Ltd.
Simon the Sorcerer (1993), Adventure Soft Publishing Ltd.
WaxWorks (1992), Accolade, Inc.
Elvira II: The Jaws of Cerberus (1991), Accolade, Inc.
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1990), Accolade, Inc.
