Simon Phipps (game designer)

{{Short description|British video game designer (born 1966)}}

{{BLP one source|date=December 2023}}

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| name = Simon Phipps

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| birth_date = 1966

| birth_place = England

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| occupation = Game designer

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Simon Phipps is a British self-taught game programmer and video game designer.{{cite magazine|last=Whitta|first=Gary|url=https://archive.org/details/theone-magazine-15/page/n111|title=Review - Swtichblade - From the team that put the dangerous into Rick comes Gremlin's mix of action and exploration. Gary Whitta's going underground...|magazine=The One|issue=15|publisher=EMAP|date=December 1989|pages=113–114}} He began making games in 1982 when he wrote his first published video game, StarForce Lander{{cite web |last1=Adrian |first1= |title=Simon Phipps (Core) - Interview |url=https://www.arcadeattack.co.uk/simon-phipps/ |website=Arcade Attack |date=16 February 2018}} (a version of Lunar Lander) he wrote while he was at school. He spent a few months writing business software before he was approached to provide some freelance artwork for Sheffield-based Gremlin Graphics.{{cite web |last1=Horowitz |first1=Ken |title=Interview: Simon Phipps (Designer & Artist) – Sega-16 |url=https://www.sega-16.com/2016/11/interview-simon-phipps-designer-artist/ |website=www.sega-16.com}} At his interview, he was offered a full-time position.

In 1988, he was one of the founders of Core Design, where he would work on many of their titles until leaving in 1996.

Phipps then worked on Acclaim Entertainment's hit Shadow Man, alongside game designer Guy Miller.{{cite web |title=Simon Phipps |url=https://www.mobygames.com/person/1340/simon-phipps/ |website=MobyGames |language=en}} Phipps worked for Acclaim Teesside, but about 9 months into making the game ShadowMan: 2econd Coming, he left for Electronic Arts (EA) where he worked alongside Guy Miller on the Harry Potter games for five years.

File:SimonNottsVGE.jpg

In 2006, he moved to EA's studio Criterion Games working on a number of unpublished titles as well as contributing to their website and video podcast. In early 2009 he left EA and joined Eurocom.

Simon has been a regular guest of the [https://www.nottsvge.com/ Nottingham Video Games Expo] (NottsVGE) which was established in 2022 and has so far been held across two different venues across Nottingham.

In 2024, Simon was part of the Nottingham Video Games Expo on the 20th and 21 July, which was held at The Belgrave Rooms. Simon exhibited unique game design art, plus delivered a talk across the weekend of the expo about his work in the gaming industry. Over previous years, Simon has been part of the Nottingham Video Game Expo delivering talks and Q&A.