David Allen (game designer)

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David Allen (born 1972 in Englewood, Colorado) is the creator of a number of popular niche-games, namely Mordor and Demise.^[1]

He created the somewhat Rogue-like game Mordor: The Depths of Dejenol in 1995 and released it commercially, together with a shareware demo.

He then started to work on a sequel, Mordor II: Darkness Awakening. Through several beta-releases, the game expanded from featuring simple 2D-graphics to advanced OpenGL 3D-graphics, while retaining the basic premise and gameplay of the original Mordor. A later beta also included early multiplayer features.

The title of the game was briefly changed to Infinite Worlds, as Interplay took an equally brief interest in the project. After Interplay called off the deal, Allen went on to found Artifact Entertainment, finally releasing the game as DEMISE: Rise of the Ku'Tan on January 1, 2000, now featuring a full 3D interface and radically different gameplay.^[2]

He also worked on Artifact Entertainment's MMORPG Horizons: Empire of Istaria, but lost control of the company to his business partner James Jones and was fired on July 20, 2001.^[3]

In September 2001, he founded Pharaoh Productions to work on the games Universe and Dominion. However, the company faced a number of internal and external problems, including disgruntled fans and the dismissal of the webmaster in August 2002.

David Allen shut down Pharaoh Productions on April 25, 2004 and left the gaming business for two years, citing a lack of passion, dissatisfaction with the gaming industry and not the least, financial trouble.^[4]

On March 1, 2006, David Allen announced on the Pharaoh Productions homepage that he had begun working on a new MMORPG initially entitled Crusade and later renamed Alganon.^[5]^[6]