Nicholas Fortugno
| Nicholas Fortugno | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 13, 1975 Bronx, New York |
| Occupation | Video game designer, CCO, Interactive narrative specialist |
| Website | www.playmatics.com www.criticalsmack.com |
Nicholas Fortugno (born May 13, 1975) is an American game designer and educator. Fortugno is CCO of Playmatics LLC, a New York City-based game development studio focusing on casual games and cofounded with Margaret Wallace.
Fortugno is perhaps best known for designing Diner Dash, a top-selling casual game developed by Gamelab, and the award-winning Ayiti: The Cost of Life. In addition to his large body of digital work, Fortugno has been involved in the design of numerous non-digital projects, including board games, collectable trading card games, large-scale social games, and live-action role-playing games (LARP).
Since 2002, Fortugno has taught the Game Design and Interactive Narrative program at Parsons The New School for Design, and has contributed to the development of the school’s game design curriculum. Fortugno also hosts and writes for the game journal and review site Critical Smack!.
Born in the Bronx, New York, Fortugno was raised primarily in Yonkers, New York, where he attended Gorton High School. Fortugno earned B.A.’s in English and Philosophy from the State University of New York College at Purchase in 1997. Between 2000 and 2002, he attended the City University of New York as a doctoral student in English Literature, and then Hunter College as a Master's student, with a concentration on post-war American novels.
Fortugno worked at Gamelab starting in 2000, ultimately becoming Director of Game Design before leaving in 2006. Fortugno acted as lead designer and co-designer for many digital Gamelab projects, including:
Diner Dash
Diner Dash is an action strategy game in which the player takes the role of Flo, a stockbroker who quits her job to run her own diner. One of the top-selling downloadable games of 2004, Diner Dash was later ported to mobile phone, given a retail release and made available via 100% advert-supported download. Versions have been created for the PSP, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS platforms. GamingTalkHQ reported that a version for Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360 was imminent. To date, Diner Dash has been downloaded over a half a billion times across all of its platforms.
Cofounded in 2007 by Fortugno and Margaret Wallace, Rebel Monkey is a New York City-based casual game development studio. Rebel Monkey received $1 million in first-round funding from Redpoint Ventures in February 2008. In July 2008, Rebel Monkey released “Habitat Rescue”, a downloadable strategy game designed by Fortugno in which the player directs a group of lions in restoring their polluted savanna habitat. “Habitat Rescue” is currently distributed by National Geographic and RealArcade. In early 2009, Rebel Monkey announced the launch of casual Massively multiplayer online game CampFu.
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