Christopher Erhardt

Christopher Erhardt (December 23, 1958 - December3, 2012) was the Head of School - US Campuses for the Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE) from the time the school opened until his death.[1] From 1998-2007 he was the Associate Dean as well as V.P.-Production at DigiPen Institute of Technology in the United States.[2]

Christopher Erhardt
Born
December 23, 1958 Seattle, Washington
Died
December 3, 2012 Issaquah, Washington
OccupationHead of School, AIE US Campuses

Biography

During the first 10 years of his life, Christopher Erhardt lived in Seattle, Washington, Detroit, Michigan, Riverside, California and Arcadia, California. He received a Bachelor of Science from the University of San Francisco, did graduate studies in psychology at Harvard University and acquired his master's degree in business from Capella University. In 2008 he completed his doctoral dissertation on video game players and demographic considerations and he was awarded his PhD from Cappella in 2010.[3] Erhardt had over 19 years of experience in the Interactive Media Industry, where he was responsible for the production, design and product management of more than 22 titles with such publishers as Infocom, Activision, Electronic Arts, Infogrames, and Ocean Software of America.

Erhardt started working at an early age, putting himself through his undergraduate degree by odd jobs that ranged from magician to fur currier to line chef. In the early 80s he was a product planner for companies such as Teledyne and other TEMPEST secured, MIS-based programming and project management tasks. He moved into the game industry in 1987 when Infocom requested his assistance in transitioning them from text-only games into graphical titles, leveraging his education in adolescent psychology to help them develop more compelling titles.

Erhardt was the President of ISOG based at Hyderabad, India until June 2009.

In December 2010, it was announced that Erhardt would be the head of the new Seattle branch of the Academy of Interactive Entertainment, which offers certificate programs and continuing education courses in digital media, game development, special effects and film production.[4]

Games credited on
Year Game Platform Role/duty Company
1988 Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS Producer Infocom
1988 Quarterstaff: The Tomb of Setmoth Macintosh Producer Infocom
1989 Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur DOS Producer Infocom
1989 Pool of Radiance Macintosh Producer, sound designer Strategic Simulations
1990 Circuit's Edge DOS Producer Infocom
1990 Chiller Nintendo Entertainment System Designer ShareData
1990 Hard Nova Amiga, Atari ST, DOS Producer Electronic Arts
1990 Battle Squadron Sega Genesis Producer Electronic Arts
1990 Sword of Sodan Sega Genesis Producer Electronic Arts
1990 Spider-Man Sega Genesis, Master System Designer Sega of America
1991 James Pond Sega Genesis Producer Electronic Arts
1991 James Pond II: Codename Robocod Sega Genesis Producer Electronic Arts
1991 Rings of Power Sega Genesis Producer Electronic Arts
1991 Starflight Sega Genesis Executive producer Electronic Arts
1992 Black Crypt Amiga Producer Electronic Arts
1992 The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel DOS, 3DO Producer, video director Electronic Arts
1994 Noctropolis DOS Video director Electronic Arts
1995 Pocahontas DOS Executive producer GT Interactive
1996 Total Control Football DOS, Windows Producer/Product manager Philips Media
2007 Synaesthete Windows Executive producer DigiPen
2008 Nocturnal: Boston Nightfall Windows Designer, producer Big Fish Games
2009 Route 66 Windows Designer, producer Big Fish Games
2009 Rangy Lil's Wild West Adventure Windows Designer, producer Gameshastra

Academic career

In 1998, Erhardt transitioned into an academic environment and became a professor of Game Design and Production at DigiPen Institute of Technology. In 2000 he was responsible for co-creating, with Alex Dunne, the student submissions category of the Game Developers Conference Independent Games Submission.[5] In 2002 he moved to Beirut, Lebanon and spent two years teaching game software design and production to French and Arabic speaking computer engineering students. In 2005, upon his return to the US, he approached Valve to develop a level design program at DigiPen using their FPS engine. In 2006 he worked with Microsoft Game Studios to bring XNA product development into DigiPen and inaugurated one of the first series of C#/XNA Game Studio Express product development programs at an accredited academic institution.

In 2007 Erhardt left DigiPen Institute of Technology and moved to India to head ISOG.

2005-2007 public presentations
  • Co-presenter: GDC 2005 session ("The DigiPen Video Game Curriculum: From the Game to the Classroom")[6]
  • Moderator: PAX 2006 ("Gaming and Controversy")[7]
  • Moderator: November 2005 Game Producers Boot Camp[8]
  • Speaker: WritersUA 2006 ("User Assistance in Video Gaming")
  • Panelist 2006 Games Initiative ('Applying Transferable Skill Sets')[9]
  • Panelist: 2006 E3 Expo ('The New Gamemaker: Trends in the trenches of game making and publishing')
  • Member: Seattle Bureau of Trade-2007 World Cybergames Steering Committee
  • Moderator: PAX 2007 ("Growing Old in Gaming", "Getting an education in Gaming")
  • Presenter: VGEXPO 2007 ("Education and Gaming")[10]
  • Presenter: GDC 2011 session ("Surviving an Education at a Game School and Graduating Employable")[11]

References
  1. Cifaldi, Frank. "Obituary: Game designer, producer and educator Christopher Erhardt".
  2. "AIE's Faculty Bios". theAIE.us. Archived from the original on 2017-04-05. Retrieved 2012-12-06.
  3. Offerman, Michael J., Interim President (August 14, 2010). Commencement 2010 (PDF). Minneapolis: MN. p. 16.
  4. Dudley, Brier. "Seattle's getting a new school for video game, film studies". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
  5. "IndieGames.com". www.indiegames.com.
  6. "GDC". cmpevents.com. Archived from the original on 2007-10-20.
  7. "DigiPen newsletter" (PDF). digipen.edu. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-02-05.
  8. "DigiPen newsletter" (PDF). digipen.edu. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-08-08. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
  9. "2006 Seattle Game Conference press release". stageselect.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
  10. "VG Expo". vgxpo.com.
  11. "GDC". gdcvault.com.
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