George Vasilakos
George Vasilakos | |
|---|---|
| Born | United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Art director,businessperson |
| Children | 3 |
George Vasilakosis president andart directorofEden Studios, Inc.,and manages the company's daily operations.[1]
Early life
[edit]As a youth living inColonie, New York,Vasilakos was a comic book collector who estimated that he had around 3500 comics as of 1986.[2]
New Millenium Entertainment
[edit]After finishing art school, George Vasilakos opened a store called Imagination Games & Comics in Albany, New York in 1992 that provided table space to play games.[3]: 340 Several role-playing gamers started to frequent the store, one of them the attorneyM. Alexander Jurkat.Vasilakos and this circle of gamers went toGencontogether, where they were impressed by the newcollectible card game(CCG)Magic: The Gathering.Five members of the group, including Vasilakos and Jurkat, decided to publish their own CCG and formedNew Millenium Entertainment(NME), with Vasilakos as the art director.[4]
Their first product, released in 1995, wasBattlelordsCCG. Although the game initially sold well, the company printed too many copies, and the resultant production and storage bills for the unsold stock started to weigh on the company's finances.
Attempting to diversify, NME looked for a role-playing game to publish, and came across a small press game calledConspiracy X,which was thematically based on the then-popular television showThe X Files.Working with the game's original writers, Rick Ernst, Shirley Madewell and Chris Pallace, NME fleshed out the rules and produced a 224-page softcover book in 1996.[5]The game proved popular, but sales revenues were not enough to save NME.
Eden Studios
[edit]Increasing debt forced NME out of business, and Vasilakos closed Imagination Games & Comics in June 1997. The following month, Vasilakos and Jurkat joined with investorEd Healyto announce that they had startedEden Studioswith Vasilakos working for the company full-time,[3]: 340 and they had acquired the rights to continue theConspiracy Xline.[6]
Vasilakos and Jurkat were fans of the work done byC.J. Carella,and in July 1998 they announced an exclusive license to theWitchCraftandArmageddonrole-playing games by Carella, previously published by small-press roleplaying publisher Myrmidon Press.[3]: 340
Last Unicorn Games
[edit]In 1999,Last Unicorn Gamesoffered Vasilakos the position of art director, so he moved to California to work in their office, while still remaining president of Eden Studios.[3]: 341 Vasilakos retained the position of art director when Last Unicorn was bought byWizards of the Coastin 2000, and then bought byDecipher, Inc.in 2001.[4]
During this time, Vasilakos andChristopher Shyentered the zombie role-playing market, creatingAll Flesh Must Be Eatenin 2000.[3]: 341
At Decipher, Vasilakos worked on theStar TrekandLord of the RingsRPGs.[4]Vasilakos directed all the graphics work on theBuffy the Vampire Slayer,Angel,andArmy of Darknessroleplaying game lines for Eden Studios.[4]
In 2003, Vasilakos opened another game store inAlbany, New Yorkcalled Zombie Planet.[7][8][3]: 342 Vasilakos used edenstudios.net as a website for Zombie Planet, to sell adventure games.[9]By 2021, Vasilakos had gotten Zombie Planet its own website.[10]But that site has become abandoned as of 2024.[11]Vasilakos offered curbside service during theCOVID-19pandemic because customers could not enter the Zombie Planet store.[12]
In 2012, Vasilakos appeared on a gaming panel at Gencon discussing "Zombies in Gaming."[13]In 2016, he helped graphic artist Francis Hogan develop the kid-friendly RPGAdventure Maximus.[14]
Vasilakos was the inspiration behind theAbductionandKnights of the Dinner Table: HACK!card games.[4]
Personal life
[edit]Vasilakos lives inLoudonville, New Yorkwith his wife and two sons, Theo and Dimitri and daughter Sophia.[4]
References
[edit]- ^Higgins, Dan (2004-11-27)."Zombies Give Franchise Bite".Times Union.Archived fromthe originalon 2024-02-18.Retrieved2024-02-18.
- ^Thurman, Ken (1986-11-09)."Comic-Book Fans Convene Today's Young Sophisticates Want Complex Plots".Times Union.Archived fromthe originalon 2024-02-18.Retrieved2024-02-18.
- ^abcdefShannon Appelcline (2011).Designers & Dragons.Mongoose Publishing.ISBN978-1-907702-58-7.
- ^abcdefVasilakos, George (2007). "Vampire: The Masquerade".InLowder, James(ed.).Hobby Games: The 100 Best.Green Ronin Publishing.pp. 348–351.ISBN978-1-932442-96-0.
- ^Swan, Rick(August 1996). "Roleplaying Reviews".Dragon.No. 232. pp. 106–108.
- ^Varney, Allen(October 1997)."The Current Clack".Dragon.Vol. 22, no. 3 #240. p. 119.Retrieved2024-02-18– viaInternet Archive.
- ^Tollerton, Jackson (2023-02-04)."Local Business Spotlight: Zombie Planet".Nippertown.Retrieved2024-02-17.
- ^Levith, Will (2020-02-10)."5 Super Capital Region Comic Book Stores".Saratoga Living.Archived fromthe originalon 2024-02-18.Retrieved2024-02-18.
- ^Cetawayo, Ameerah (2009-09-28)."Board games win out in recession".The Daily Gazette.Archivedfrom the original on 2024-02-18.Retrieved2024-02-18.
- ^Appelcline, Shannon (2013-05-07)."Designers & Dragons: The Column #25: The Top Rpgs of 2012".RPGnet.Archived fromthe originalon 2024-02-18.Retrieved2024-02-18.
- ^Unknown[permanent dead link]
- ^Williams, Michael (2020-05-19)."Capital Region Businesses Prepare to Reopen".Times Union.Archived fromthe originalon 2024-02-18.Retrieved2024-02-18.
- ^Hite, Kenneth (2012-10-07)."RPPR Presentys: Zombies in Gaming Panel at Gencon 2012".RPPR: Role Playing Public Radio.Retrieved2024-02-17.
- ^Roiter, Andrew (2013-05-23)."Ready for an Adventure?".Bennington Banner.Archived fromthe originalon 2024-02-18.Retrieved2024-02-18.