Sandy Petersen

{{Infobox person

| name = Sandy Petersen

| image = Sandy Petersen 01.jpg

| image_size = 200px

| caption = Sandy Petersen at Lucca Comics & Games 2011

| birth_name = Carl Sanford Joslyn Petersen

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1955|09|16}}

| birth_place = St. Louis, Missouri

| occupation = Game designer

| years_active = 1980 - present

| notable_works = Call of Cthulhu (1981)
Doom (1993)
Doom II (1994)
Quake (1996)

}}

Carl Sanford Joslyn "Sandy" Petersen (born September 16, 1955) is an American game designer. He worked at Chaosium, contributing to the development of RuneQuest and creating the acclaimed and influential horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. He later joined id Software where he worked on the development of the Doom franchise and Quake. As part of Ensemble Studios, Petersen subsequently contributed to the Age of Empires franchise.

Biography

Petersen was born in St. Louis, Missouri and developed a love for dinosaurs at age 3. He studied zoology at Brigham Young University and later attended the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in entomology.{{cite web |last1=Petersen |first1=Sandy |title=Yithian Evolution |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obbvwh1eRC0 |website=YouTube |date=10 December 2021 |access-date=23 March 2022}}

Work

=Chaosium=

He became a full-time staff member at Chaosium in 1982.{{Cite book|author=Shannon Appelcline|title=Designers & Dragons|publisher=Mongoose Publishing|year=2011| isbn= 978-1-907702-58-7|page=86}}{{cite web |title=Meet the Team |url=https://petersengames.com/meet-the-team/}} 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,{{cite journal|title=Eye of the Monitor|author=Petersen, Sandy|journal=Dragon|issue=197|date=September 1993|pages=57–62}} and many scenarios and background pieces thereafter.{{Cite book | contribution=Up Front | title=Hobby Games: The 100 Best | last=Petersen | first=Sandy | editor-last=Lowder | editor-first=James | editor-link=James Lowder | publisher=Green Ronin Publishing | year=2007 | pages=341–344 | isbn=978-1-932442-96-0}}

He authored several critically acclaimed RuneQuest supplements for Avalon Hill and Games Workshop. Petersen served as co-designer for West End Games's Ghostbusters role-playing game.

=MicroProse=

He worked some time for MicroProse, where he is credited for work on Sid Meier's Pirates! and Sword of the Samurai. Between 1989 and 1992 he worked on the video games Darklands, Hyperspeed, and Lightspeed. He made some contributions to Civilization.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}} 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.{{cite web |last1=Petersen |first1=Sandy |title=Tales from the Dark Days of Id Software |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwV3uwM19EY |website=YouTube |date=20 April 2020 |access-date=15 March 2022}}

=id Software=

Petersen was hired by id Software in August 1993. During his interview, John Romero introduced him to DoomEd and simply asked him to build a level. Romero was ultimately happy with the results, so Petersen was brought on to production for Doom. The level from Petersen's interview eventually became E2M6.{{Cite book |last=Romero |first=John |title=DOOM Guy: Life in First Person |publisher=Abrams Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-1419758119 |pages=146–174}} He was a fast level designer and produced all maps for the third episode of Doom, Inferno. Petersen designed 17 levels for Doom II, a little over half of the 32 total. An 18th, Dead Simple, was redesigned by American McGee before release.{{Cite book |last=Romero |first=John |title=DOOM Guy: Life in First Person |publisher=Abrams Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-1419758119 |pages=185–197}}

Petersen was then involved with The Ultimate Doom in 1995 as well as the R&D phase for Quake. At the time, Quake was based on an id staff D&D campaign. Petersen was enthusiastic about the project, though he had not been a player in the original campaign as it was before his arrival at the company.{{Cite book |last=Romero |first=John |title=DOOM Guy: Life in First Person |publisher=Abrams Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-1419758119 |pages=213–235}} With id Software's designers waiting for the Quake engine to be ready for its design team, the studio sent Petersen to work temporarily at Rogue Entertainment, which was licensing the Doom engine to develop Strife.{{Cite book |last=Romero |first=John |title=DOOM Guy: Life in First Person |publisher=Abrams Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-1419758119 |pages=236–247}} Romero also credits Petersen with coming up with the title for the Hexen expansion Deathkings of the Dark Citadel. When Quake was reformulated as a first-person shooter in late 1995, id removed Petersen from the Strife team to focus on the game. The revised Quake storyline is credited to Petersen, along with 7 levels.{{Cite book |last=Romero |first=John |title=DOOM Guy: Life in First Person |publisher=Abrams Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-1419758119 |pages=248–274}}

=Ensemble Studios=

He left id Software for Ensemble Studios in June 1997.{{cite web|last=Feldman|first=Curt|url=http://headline.gamespot.com/news/97_07/09_id/index.html|title=Ensemble's Second Title Picks Up Speed|website=GameSpot|publisher=CBS Interactive|date=July 9, 1997|access-date=November 28, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981203063509/http://headline.gamespot.com/news/97_07/09_id/index.html|archive-date=December 3, 1998}} There, he worked as a game designer on several of their Age of Empires 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 a popular series of threads, "Ask Sandyman", where forum members could ask him about anything they wanted.{{cite web|url=https://aok.heavengames.com/university/game-info/general-info/ask-sandyman/|title=Ask Sandyman – Age of Kings Heaven}}

=Other works=

Petersen was the executive producer for the 2011 film The Whisperer in Darkness which was nominated for awards at the Chicago International Film Festival and Warsaw International Film Festival. It was produced by H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society Motion Pictures in the style of a 1930s black and white horror film.{{cn|date=April 2023}}

In April 2011{{Cite book|isbn = 978-1461059608|title = Arcane: Penny Dreadfuls for the 21st Century|last1 = Shumate|first1 = Nathan|last2 = Petersen|first2 = Sandy|last3 = Crook|first3 = Jeff|last4 = Pollock|first4 = Justin|date = April 2011| publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform }} he served as the publisher of horror magazine Arcane: Penny Dreadfuls for the 21st Century.[http://www.arcanemagazine.com/ Arcane: Penny Dreadfuls for the 21st Century].

Petersen took a professorship at The Guildhall at SMU in 2009 following the closure of Ensemble Studios, where he taught several courses on game design.[http://guildhall.smu.edu/Faculty.15.0.html?&cHash=2cfb264088&tx_guildhallbio_pi1 The Guildhall at SMU Faculty], Guildhall @ SMU Faculty Biographies.

Petersen worked at Barking Lizards Technologies as their creative director, after leaving The Guildhall, and worked on their iOS release Osiris Legends.{{cn|date=April 2023}}

In mid-2013 Petersen led a successful Kickstarter campaign by his company, Green Eye Games, to produce the boardgame Cthulhu Wars. 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1816687860/cthulhu-wars?ref=home_popular|title = Cthulhu Wars| date=15 April 2024 }} Green Eye Games also produced the unsuccessful kickstarter Cthulhu World Combat (iOS, Android, Windows, PSN, Xbox Live).[http://www.barkinglizards.com/folks.html Barking Lizards Management Team].{{cite web |url=http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1816687860/cthulhu-world-combat |title = Cthulhu World Combat by Sandy Petersen — Kickstarter| date=24 October 2012 }}http://www.cthulhuworldcombat.com {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121121001840/http://www.cthulhuworldcombat.com/ |date=2012-11-21 }}

In June 2015, it was announced that Petersen and Greg Stafford returned to Chaosium Inc.{{cite web|title=GREG STAFFORD & SANDY PETERSEN REJOIN CHAOSIUM INC.|url=http://www.chaosium.com/blog/greg-stafford-sandy-petersen-rejoin-chaosium-inc/|date=2015-06-02|access-date=2015-06-03|first=Greg|last=Stafford}} Petersen retired from the board in 2019, but continues to do occasional freelance work for the company.{{cite web|title=The Chaosium Team|author=Chaosium|url=https://www.chaosium.com/the-chaosium-team/|access-date=2023-10-24}}

Peterson has a website, Peterson Games,https://petersengames.com where he had sold various tabletop games, often based on his work with Call of Cthulhu. Although the site remains active, sales are now handled through Quimbly's Toys and Games.https://www.quimbleys.com/ As part of his ongoing work with Call of Cthulhu content he has published sourcebooks for Dungeons and Dragons 5e, Pathfinder, and Pathfinder 2e. Those books adapt the Cthulhu mythos for those systems to allow for several mythos-based player character options, many monsters, new insanity rules, and much more.

Personal life

Petersen is a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but sees no conflict between his faith and his design of games involving Satanic elements. While working on Doom, he said to John Romero, "I have no problems with the demons in the game. They're just cartoons. And, anyway, they're the bad guys."{{cite book|title=Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture|author=Kushner, David|year=2003|page=144}}

Sandy is married, has five children, and 15 grandchildren.

Credits

=Video games=

class="wikitable sortable" ! Year !! Title !! Developer !! Notes
1989	Sid Meier's Pirates!	rowspan=5 \| MicroProse	Atari ST version
1990	Lightspeed
rowspan=2 \| 1991	Civilization (1991)
Hyperspeed
1992	Darklands
1993	Doom	rowspan=4 \| id Software
1994	Doom II: Hell on Earth
1995	The Ultimate Doom
rowspan=3 \| 1996	Quake
Hexen: Beyond Heretic	Raven Software	Sega Saturn version
Final Doom	TeamTNT
rowspan=2 \| 1997	Quake II	id Software	Uncredited
Age of Empires	rowspan=7 \| Ensemble Studios
1998	Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome
1999	Age of Empires II
2000	Age of Empires II: The Conquerors
2005	Age of Empires III
2006	Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs
2009	Halo Wars
2011	Osiris Legends	Barking Lizard Studios

=Role-playing games=

Call of Cthulhu (1981)
Ghostbusters (1986)

==Additional Content for other Role-playing games==

Pathfinder:

Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos for Pathfinder - 1st Edition (2016^{(Needs verified)})

Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition:

Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos for 5e (October 1, 2019)

Pathfinder 2nd Edition:

Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos for Pathfinder 2nd Edition (2021^{(Needs verified)})

=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=

The Whisperer In Darkness (2011)

References

External links

{{Official website|http://petersengames.com}}
[http://aok.heavengames.com/gameinfo/ask-sandyman Ask Sandy Series @ Age of Kings Heaven (1999-2001)]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20050322042740/http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/august02/gencon/petersen/ GameSpy interview (2002)]
[http://www.yog-sothoth.com/articles.html/_/main/interviews/sandy-petersen-interview yog-sothoth.com interview]
{{cite web|url=http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showcreator&creatorid=268|title=Pen & Paper: Roleplaying Game Credits for Sandy Petersen|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080521045333/http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showcreator&creatorid=268|archive-date=2008-05-21}}
[http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,821/ MobyGames biography]
[http://guildhall.smu.edu/ The Guildhall @ SMU Homepage]
{{in lang|it}} [http://www.rill.it/?q=node/497 An interview in Italian language on RiLL.it (2011)]