UPDATE: Game Designer John Hill has passed away

Started by bayonetbrant, January 11, 2015, 10:12:09 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

BanzaiCat

I hate to say, I'm not much of a fan of SL or ASL now, but back in the 80s, I played the HELL out of it solo (because I couldn't get any of my friends to play it - Axis & Allies was unfortunately more their speed). I burned out on it in fact. But that doesn't make it any less of an awesome game.

I Googled John and when I saw his face, I realized how stupid I was for forgetting I actually met him - I believe ASL had a booth across from Matrix's at a GenCon or Origins show more than 10 years ago. I remember him hanging out there and talking to some of the others. Really odd that I'd remember that now.  :-[

RIP John, and thank you for helping me get my teeth into wargames.

airboy

A true innovator in game design.  He will be missed.

Michael Dorosh

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on January 13, 2015, 01:20:40 PM
I hate to say, I'm not much of a fan of SL or ASL now

Don't feel bad, John Hill wasn't a fan of ASL either.

Hill was involved in Squad Leader only up to Cross of Iron. After the first module was complete, he realized I think that he was basically at loggerheads with the direction the game was going. Greenwood took it into a different direction than Hill had intended. (Greenwood admits this in a recent podcast but it's not like a deep, dark secret or anything.) Basically, Don thought there was money to be made, and that audiences wanted a rich, detailed game like ASL eventually became. I don't think you can argue with the audience that ASL has found.

You also can't argue that they lost a lot of the original charm of the design, and that - I think - is why Hill jumped off the train. So did a lot of players who had no desire to keep up. I wasn't one of them; I happily invested in the three gamettes and then chucked it all for ASL and never looked back. But I can see the point a lot more clearly now than I did in 1986 when I was using my mom's credit card for that thick ASLRB.

Hill had a real clarity of vision when it came to game mechanics. Check this out: http://www.c3iopscenter.com/documents/F&M%20Interview%20John%20Hill.pdf

He could zero in on a few crucial factors - "design for effect" was his idea. In Squad Leader, it was leadership and morale and support weapons. In Eastern Front Tank Leader, it was command and control. I'm not saying he made the most realistic games ever, but he did make stuff that was playable, engaging and fun. And he turned his name into a household word as far as the industry went. How many other game designers had their names on boxtops in the 1980s? I think Frank Chadwick did. Not many others. SPI put his name on Battle of Stalingrad, and West End put it on EFTL. Just as with novels, if your name is in a catchier font than the title, you know you're someone important.

GroggyGrognard

Quote from: Michael Dorosh on January 13, 2015, 08:56:11 PM
He could zero in on a few crucial factors - "design for effect" was his idea. In Squad Leader, it was leadership and morale and support weapons. In Eastern Front Tank Leader, it was command and control. I'm not saying he made the most realistic games ever, but he did make stuff that was playable, engaging and fun. And he turned his name into a household word as far as the industry went. How many other game designers had their names on boxtops in the 1980s? I think Frank Chadwick did. Not many others. SPI put his name on Battle of Stalingrad, and West End put it on EFTL. Just as with novels, if your name is in a catchier font than the title, you know you're someone important.

Well put. Another brilliant game designer in the wargame world, Dean Essig, is as much a fixture to The Gamers games as John Hill was to Squad Leader and Johnny Reb.

John Hill will be sorely missed.


Groggy
"Strong prejudices in an ill-formed mind are hazardous to government."
-Barbara W. Tuchman, The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam

"The owners of this country know the truth: it's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it."
-George Carlin

Richie61

RIP to John Hill and prayers and thoughts to his family.

I still remember the day I bought Squad Leader! I had to order it thru a local shop and I was on cloud nine when I got it home. SL will always hold a special place in my heart  :D
Ed
aka Richie61

"If You Don't Stand for Something, You'll Fall for Anything"

Cyrano

A terrific article...particularly loved the bit about the best one could do re: chits and cardboard as a simulation, scale of one to ten, is a two so questions about smaller matters being "fudged" in the system hardly even register.

And my, oh, my that haircut...

Best,

Jim
"Cyrano"
:/7)
Sergeant at Arms of La Fraternite des Boutons Carres

One mustachioed, cigar-chomping, bespectacled deity, entirely at your service.

You didn't know? My Corps has already sailed to Berlin. We got there 3 days ago and we've been in the Tiergarten on the piss ever since. -- Marshal Soult, October 1806

ArizonaTank

Quote from: Michael Dorosh on January 13, 2015, 08:56:11 PM

Hill had a real clarity of vision when it came to game mechanics. Check this out: http://www.c3iopscenter.com/documents/F&M%20Interview%20John%20Hill.pdf

He could zero in on a few crucial factors - "design for effect" was his idea.

Great article. 
Johannes "Honus" Wagner
"The Flying Dutchman"
Shortstop: Pittsburgh Pirates 1900-1917
Rated as the 2nd most valuable player of all time by Bill James.