Chris Hecker

Hecker studied fine arts at Parsons School of Design in New York City, with the goal of becoming an illustrator. Along the way, he noticed an article in Byte Magazine about computer programming which piqued his interest. He switched career tracks and dropped out of school to begin work on graphics and games.

Hecker obtained a job at Microsoft in Seattle, Washington around 1992. He worked there for three years, becoming creator and leader of the WinG API project for the Windows operating system. After completing WinG, he moved to Microsoft's entertainment division where he wrote the rendering engine for the real-time globe display in the Encarta World Atlas. In 1995, Hecker left Microsoft to form his own company in Seattle, Definition Six,

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|title=Computer Graphics in the Seattle Area

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a games and computer graphics consulting company that was later moved to Oakland, California. The company focused on the development of physics technology for games{{cite web|url=http://www.experimental-gameplay.org/info.html |title=The Experimental Gameplay Workshop |accessdate=2008-10-31 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080915102611/http://experimental-gameplay.org/info.html |archivedate=2008-09-15 }} and lobbied for the OpenGL standard for graphics display.

{{cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EKF/is_n2175_v43/ai_19584088|title=Microsoft asked to support OpenGL|first=Peter|last=Brown|date=1997-07-07|publisher=Reed Business Information, Inc.|accessdate=2008-10-31}} The company never actually shipped a commercial title, but did produce a tech demo.{{cite web|url=http://www.d6.com/games/index.htm|publisher=d6.com|title=SpyParty|accessdate=April 25, 2021}} He also spent several years working independently on a game based on rock climbing as a side project,{{cite web|url=http://experimental-gameplay.org/2002/index.html |title=Experimental Gameplay Workshop 2002 |accessdate=2008-10-30 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080919041719/http://experimental-gameplay.org/2002/index.html |archivedate=2008-09-19 }}

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}} though it was never completed.

In 2004, Hecker took a job with Maxis where he worked with Will Wright on what became the 2008 game Spore.{{cite web|url=https://venturebeat.com/2008/06/11/an-interview-with-ea-maxis-lucy-bradshaw-on-the-making-of-spore/|title=An interview with EA Maxis' Lucy Bradshaw on the making of Spore|first=Dean|last=Takahashi|date=2008-06-11|accessdate=2008-10-31|publisher=Matt Marshall}}

{{cite web|url=http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/13/joystiq-interviews-spores-chaim-gingold-and-chris-hecker/|title=Joystiq interviews Spore's Chaim Gingold and Chris Hecker|first=Scott Jon|last=Siegel|date=2006-11-13|accessdate=2008-10-31|publisher=AOL Games}}

He led the development of many of the key technologies on Spore, including the core creature tessellation, painting, skinning, and animation technologies. Hecker's research and development effort on Spore is widely regarded as a major step forward in procedural character animation and rendering. Part of the technology he developed while working on the project was later selected for publication in the SIGGRAPH 2008 Transactions on Graphics conference proceedings,{{cite journal|url=http://portal.acm.org/toc.cfm?id=1399504&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&type=proceeding&idx=SERIES382&part=series&WantType=Proceedings&title=SIGGRAPH|title=SIGGRAPH '08: ACM SIGGRAPH 2008 papers|journal=ACM Transactions on Graphics |issn=0730-0301|year=2008|publisher=ACM}} and became a featured presentation at that conference.{{cite web|url=http://www.siggraph.org/s2008/media/releases/release16.php|title=Spore Experts Share Animation Techniques at SIGGRAPH 2008|publisher=ACM|accessdate=2008-11-02|date=2008-08-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090710050753/http://www.siggraph.org/s2008/media/releases/release16.php|archive-date=2009-07-10|url-status=dead}} Wright later claimed in an interview that Hecker's work on Spore had advanced the state of the art in procedural animation by several years.{{cite video | people = Will Wright | title = [The Making of Spore] | medium = DVD | publisher = Electronic Arts | location = United States |date = 2008}} Following Spore's release in late 2008, some players believed that comments Hecker had made in Seed Magazine{{cite web|url=http://seedmagazine.com/news/2008/09/the_creation_simulation.php|title=The Creation Simulation|first=Margaret|last=Robertson|date=2008-09-08|publisher=Seed Media Group, LLC|accessdate=2008-11-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081108085604/http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/09/the_creation_simulation.php|archive-date=2008-11-08|url-status=unfit}} indicated that he had been primarily responsible for the game's lack of hard scientific backing.

{{cite web|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141105103030/http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/8555.page

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|url=http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/8555.page

|title=We Found Who to Tar and Feather!|accessdate=2008-11-04|date=2008-10-14}}

This interpretation of the interview was discredited by Wright{{cite web|url=http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/11211.page|title=Post from Will Wright Regarding Cute vs. Science |date=2008-11-04|accessdate=2008-11-04}} and Spore producer Lucy Bradshaw.{{cite web|url=http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/165/8555.page#128787|title=Re:We Found Who to Tar and Feather!|date=2008-10-30|accessdate=2008-11-04}}

Hecker was laid off from Maxis in late 2009, and is currently working on the "indie" game SpyParty, which was released as an early access title in 2018.{{cite news|url=https://venturebeat.com/2018/04/14/chris-heckers-spyparty-gets-started-after-8-years-in-development/|author=Takahashi, Dean|date=April 14, 2018|accessdate=April 25, 2021|title=Chris Hecker's SpyParty gets started after eight years in development|publisher=VentureBeat}}

On December 4, 2013, Microsoft announced that Hecker's studio, Definition Six, was one of many indie game developers to join the ID@Xbox program.

Hecker's other side projects have included acting as editor of Game Developer Magazine and serving on the editorial board for the Journal of Graphics Tools.

{{cite web|url=http://www.flipcode.com/misc/siggraph2001.shtml|title=A Game Developer's Perspective of SIGGRAPH 2001|first=Morgan|last=McGuire|publisher=FlipCode.com|accessdate=2008-10-31}}

As of 2008, he was the longest serving advisor of the Game Developers Conference.{{cite web|url=http://gdconf.com/aboutgdc/advisoryboard.html|title=The GDC Advisory Board|publisher=Think Services, a Division of United Business Media|accessdate=2008-10-31}} Hecker was awarded the Community Contribution award at the 2006 Game Developers Conference.{{cite web|url=http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-16-2006/0004321505&EDATE=|title=Special Honors Recognize RPG Pioneers, Chris Hecker and Founders of Harmonix at 6th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards|date=2006-03-16|publisher=PR Newswire|accessdate=2008-10-31}}{{cite web

|url=http://www.gamespot.com/news/6146126.html

|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130123212019/http://www.gamespot.com/news/6146126.html

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|archive-date=2013-01-23

|title=Choice awards to Hecker, Harmonix, others

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|publisher=CNET Networks, Inc., a CBS Company

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File:BAFTA2011 GameDevs.jpg event in Los Angeles in July 2011. From left: Rod Humble, Louis Castle, David Perry, Brenda Brathwaite, John Romero, Will Wright, Tim Schafer, Chris Hecker.]]

During his time at Microsoft and Definition Six, Hecker wrote an influential programming column for Game Developer Magazine. Two series of articles from this column still serve today as standard references on their respective subjects. The first series was the first complete synthesis of perspectively-correct texture mapping and formed the mathematical basis for many important game rasterizers, including Michael Abrash's rasterizer for the 3D title Quake.

{{cite web|url=http://www.whisqu.se/per/docs/math18.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20000229184857/http://www.whisqu.se/per/docs/math18.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=2000-02-29|first=Michael|last=Abrash|title=Quake's Hidden-Surface Removal|publisher=Dr. Dobb's Sourcebook|date=May 2008|accessdate=2008-11-04}} The second was a series on rigid body dynamics simulation for games,{{cite web|url=http://www.chrishecker.com/index.php?title=Rigid_Body_Dynamics&oldid=1918|title=Rigid Body Dynamics|publisher=chrishecker.com|accessdate=April 25, 2021|date=May 14, 2007}} complete with an extensive bibliography of rigid body dynamics resources.{{cite web|title=Physics References|url=http://www.chrishecker.com/index.php?title=Physics_References&oldid=1729|accessdate=April 25, 2021|publisher=chrishecker.com|date=May 14, 2007}} The articles were part of a general push by Hecker to incorporate more interactive physics into games,{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.08/physics_pr.html|title=Smash Hits|first=Mark|last=Frauenfelder|magazine=Wired|accessdate=2008-11-04}}

which at the time in 1996 rarely featured any physical simulation. In the summer of 1997, Hecker stepped down as author of the regular column to focus on game development full-time.

Hecker has lobbied heavily for the development of an independent games movement in many interviews and speaking engagements. Lamenting the lack of innovation in gameplay, he has pushed for alternative markets and models for small-scale video game production.{{cite book | last = Hall | first = Justin | url = http://www.tar.hu/gamedesign/gamedesign0127.html | author2 = Tracy Fullerton | author3 = Christopher Swain | author4 = Steven Hoffman | title = Game Design Workshop: Designing, Prototyping, and Playtesting Games | publisher = CMP Books | series = Gama Network Series | year = 2004 | pages = 438–441 | isbn = 1-57820-222-1 | access-date = 2008-10-31 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080213195344/http://www.tar.hu/gamedesign/gamedesign0127.html | archive-date = 2008-02-13 | url-status = dead }} In 2002, with the help of a few friends, Hecker co-founded the successful Indie Game Jam.{{cite web|url=https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/technology-inspires-creativity-indie-game-jam-inverts-dogma-2001-|title=Technology Inspires Creativity: Indie Game Jam Inverts Dogma 2001|last=Adams|first=Ernest|date=2002-05-15|publisher=CMP Media LLC|access-date=2008-10-31}} In addition to directly leading to the creation of at least one commercial title,

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|title=Experimental Gameplay Workshop: Success Stories and Influences

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the Indie Game Jam inspired others to create local game jams worldwide, including the Boston Game Jam and Toronto Game Jam.{{cite web|url=http://www.bostongamejam.com/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120721091924/http://www.bostongamejam.com/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=July 21, 2012|title=Boston Game Jam|accessdate=2008-11-04}}{{cite web|url=http://www.tojam.ca/details/history.asp|title=Toronto Game Jam|accessdate=2008-11-04}}

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• [http://www.chrishecker.com/ Chris Hecker's web page]

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Category:1970 births

Category:Living people

Category:People from St. Louis

Category:Microsoft employees

Category:American video game programmers