Bill Jackson is an American video game designer and creative director. Jackson is best known as Creative Director for Zynga Dallas, steering its hit Facebook game CastleVille which launched in 2011. Also known for co-founding Bonfire Studios with David Rippy, Scott Winsett, and Stephen Rippy (which became Zynga Dallas after Zynga acquired the company in 2010). Most recently Jackson, David Rippy, Winsett, and Stephen Rippy co-founded Boss Fight Entertainment in 2013 and launched the mobile RPG game Dungeon Boss in 2015 in partnership with Big Fish Games.
Video Bill Jackson (video game designer)
Career
Bill Jackson was an engineer and producer at Ensemble Studios and worked on the hit PC real-time strategy games Age of Mythology and Age of Empires III as well as the pioneering console strategy game Halo Wars (where he got his first producer credit). When Ensemble shut down after releasing Halo Wars, Jackson co-founded a new company called Bonfire Studios with David Rippy, Scott Winsett, and Stephen Rippy. Jackson took a senior creative role at the developer. Bonfire created the mobile game We Farm for mobile publisher ngmoco.
Zynga acquired Bonfire in 2010 and the company became a studio inside the sprawling Zynga empire (renamed Zynga Dallas). Jackson steered the first Facebook game built by Zynga Dallas, the light fantasy themed CastleVille. Launched in 2011, Castleville became a huge hit for Zynga.
Zynga Dallas was shuttered in June, 2013 as Zynga closed numerous external studios after the company started to lose money.
The Bonfire founding team re-united in late 2013, starting Boss Fight Entertainment, headquartered in McKinney, Texas (just outside of Dallas). Jackson is the company's creative director as well as a member of the senior management team. The new company's first game was Dungeon Boss, launched in 2015 with Big Fish Games as publisher. Boss Fight's second game is Anvil: War of Heroes, also published by Big Fish Games.
Maps Bill Jackson (video game designer)
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia