David Whatley

Whatley was born August 10, 1966, in St. Louis, Missouri, the youngest of three children to Oscie Whatley, a day lily hybridizer,{{cite web |url=http://www.daylilylay.com/library/WhatleyProfile1998_DaylilyJournal.pdf |title=Oscie Whatley, Man From Jakarta |year=1999 |last=Bouman |first=Michael |work=Winter 1999 Daylily Journal}} and Dorothy Whatley, who ran a miniatures store. Whatley attended McCluer North High School, graduating in 1984, and was involved in the early BBS culture, writing the FRPBBS software for his privately owned company, Deep Pan Software. He briefly attended the University of Missouri, St. Louis, in 1985, majoring in communications, but left early to found his own software company.{{cite web |url=http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,17936/ |title=David Whatley |accessdate=2010-09-23}}

A passionate gamer, in 1987, at the age of 20, he co-founded Simutronics with Tom and Susan Zelinski,{{cite web |url=http://www.tomshardware.com/news/BioWare-Engine-MMO-Star-Wars,6680.html |title=BioWare to Use HeroEngine for Old Republic |date=2008-12-11 |last=Parrish |first=Kevin |work=Tom's Hardware |accessdate=2010-09-22}} and ran the company from his bedroom in his parents' home.{{cite web|url=http://stlmag.com/media/St-Louis-Magazine/August-2008/Bankroll-Playing/|title=Bankroll-Playing|author=Hollerbach, Bryan A.|work=St. Louis Magazine|date=August 2008|accessdate=2008-07-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006133846/http://www.stlmag.com/media/St-Louis-Magazine/August-2008/Bankroll-Playing/|archive-date=2008-10-06|url-status=dead}} Whatley was president, CEO, and chairman of the board.

The company grew rapidly to the point of grossing $5 million per year, and made the Inc. 500 list in 1999.{{cite web|url=http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2007/company-profile.html?id=1999295|title=Inc. 500 Index|work=Inc.|date=October 15, 1999}}

Business relationships were developed with every major online service available at the time, including General Electric's GEnie{{cite web|url=http://www.armchairarcade.com/neo/node/1420 |title=Interview with David Whatley of Simutronics' Gemstone |date=2007-07-11 |last=Barton |first=Matt |work=Armchair Arcade |accessdate=2010-09-23}} to America Online, Prodigy, and CompuServe.{{cite web |url=http://www.mmogamer.com/05/01/2009/from-gemstone-to-heroengine-simutronics-ceo-david-whatley-on-putting-the-mud-back-into-mmos |title=From GemStone to HeroEngine: Simutronics CEO David Whatley on Putting the MUD back into MMOs |date=2009-05-01 |last=Crews |first=Steven |work=MMO Gamer |accessdate=2010-09-23}} Other partners have included Time Warner, Sony, and Universal Studios.

Simutronics games were the #1 third-party content on America Online, breaking industry records with 2 million user hours per month. Simutronics' flagship product GemStone is the longest-running product line of its type in the world, with customers who have been with the company since 1988.[http://www.gignews.com/goddess/dunin.htm Gignews.com May 2002] Interview: Elonka Dunin Whatley innovated the concept of online 3D action games, developing the CyberStrike 3D multiplayer game in 1993. The first of its type, it caused Computer Gaming World magazine to create the new category of "Online Game of the Year" so it could be awarded to CyberStrike.

In 2007, Inc. magazine again cited Simutronics, this time as one of the 5000 fastest growing companies of the year.{{cite web|url=http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2007/company-profile.html?id=1999295|title=Inc. 5000: No. 295, Simutronics|work=Inc.}}

In 2010, Whatley announced that Simutronics would reorganize into two companies, Simutronics Games and HeroEngine,{{cite web|url=https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/heroengine-developer-simutronics-reorganizes-amid-growth |title=HeroEngine Developer Simutronics Reorganizes Amid Growth|author=Graft, Kris|work=Gamasutra |date=February 16, 2010|access-date=2010-03-30}} with Whatley taking over the role as president of Simutronics Games, and Neil Harris as president of HeroEngine.

In 2009, Whatley founded Critical Thought Games to develop his own line of iPhone games.[http://criticalthoughtgames.com/about About Critical Thought Games] His first title, geoDefense was a critical{{cite web|url=http://www.destructoid.com/destructoid-review-geodefense-iphone--125402.phtml|title=Destructoid Review: geoDefense (iPhone)|author=Bennett, Colette|work=Destructoid|date=March 2009}} and financial success, and has continued to be a top seller on the app store. His second title, geoDefense Swarm went on to receive even more critical acclaim, and was named one of Time magazine's "Top 10 Video Games of 2009".{{cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1945379_1944169_1944183,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091213005726/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1945379_1944169_1944183,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 13, 2009|title=The Top 10 Everything of 2009|author=Grossman, Lev and Peter Ha|work=Time|date=December 2009|accessdate=2010-03-30}}

• GemStone II (1988)
• Orb Wars (1988)
• GemStone III (1989)
• CyberStrike (1994)
• Modus Operandi (1995)
• DragonRealms (1996)
• Hercules & Xena: Alliance of Heroes (1998)
• CyberStrike 2 (1998)
• GemStone IV (1998)
• HeroEngine
• geoDefense (2009)
• geoDefense Swarm (2009)
• geoSpark (2010)
• Fantasy University (2010){{cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/08/fantasy-university/#more-28150 |title=Parody RPG Fantasy University Targets Serious Facebook Gamers |date=2010-08-31 |last=Mastrapa |first=Gus |magazine=Wired |accessdate=2010-09-23}}

• Keynote speaker, 360 iDev Conference, San Jose 2010 {{cite web |url=http://www.tuaw.com/2010/04/13/360idev-interview-with-keynote-speaker-david-whatley-of-critica/ |title=Interview with keynote speaker David Whatley |author=Schramm, Mike |work=The Unofficial Apple Weblog |date=2010-04-13 |accessdate=2010-09-27}}
• "From Zero to Time Magazine: App Success", Game Developers Conference, 2010{{cite web|url=http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/11/gdc-2010-the-secret-to-app-store-success/|title=GDC 2010: The Secret to App Store Success|author=Schramm, Mike|work=The Unofficial Apple Weblog|date=March 11, 2010|accessdate=2010-03-30}}
• "The Massively Collaborative Development Paradigm Shift", ION Game Conference, 2008, Seattle {{Cite web |url=http://www.2008.loginconference.com/speaker.php?id=4690 |title=ION Speaker: David Whatley |access-date=2010-03-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100913143833/http://www.2008.loginconference.com/speaker.php?id=4690 |archive-date=2010-09-13 |url-status=dead }}
• Austin Game Developers Conference, 2006, MMO Technology Platforms
• AAAS 2006, Virtual Worlds
• GDC 1994, Programming Commercial Virtual Reality

• "Towards Photorealism in Virtual Botany" in [http://developer.nvidia.com/object/gpu_gems_2_home.html GPU Gems 2: Programming Techniques for High-Performance Graphics and General-Purpose Computation]

• "Online Game of the Year" for CyberStrike, by Computer Gaming World magazine, 1993
• "Best of Show" and "Most Original" for Hero's Journey at E3 2006
• "Inc. 500", Inc. magazine, 1999
• HeroEngine, "Best Development Tool", 2006{{cite web|url=http://www.stratics.com/content/portals/e3/content/goldencogs/2006/golden_cogs_2006.php|title=2006 Golden Cogs Awards|quote=HeroEngine wins 'Best Development Tool'}}{{Dead link|date=November 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• HeroEngine, finalist for "Best Engine" from Game Developer 2006.{{cite web|url=http://www.gdmag.com/frontlineawards/fla_2006.htm|title=Front Line Awards|year=2006|work=Game Developer|quote=HeroEngine finalist for 'Best Engine'|access-date=2010-03-30|archive-date=2012-02-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120213171626/http://www.gdmag.com/frontlineawards/fla_2006.htm|url-status=dead}}

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Category:1966 births

Category:Living people

Category:Video game developers

Category:Businesspeople from St. Louis