Kenneth Alan Lobb (also credited as Ken Lobb, KAL, and K. Lobb) is an American video game designer formerly employed by Taxan USA Corp., Namco Hometek, and Nintendo of America, and currently employed by Xbox Game Studios as Creative Director.[2] He is best known as co-creator of the Killer Instinct series.[3]
Ken Lobb | |
|---|---|
| Other names | KAL, K. Lobb, Ken Lobb |
| Occupation(s) | Video game designer, creative director, voice actor |
| Years active | 1988[1]–present |
Career
editLobb graduated from DeVry University in 1982 and attempted to secure a job in the video game industry unsuccessfully, blaming the video game crash of 1983. Lobb claimed that he applied to Atari Inc. around this time but never heard back. Lobb subsequently began working at AMD, specifically on programmable ROM.
Lobb was introduced to the management of Taxan USA via the owner of a video game store he frequented in Northern California. Lobb did not apply for a role with Taxan but instead had casual conversations with the company management about video games and this sparked their interest in hiring him, unbeknownst to Lobb until they invited him to play the newly released R-Type at their company office. Subsequently Lobb was employed as Product Manager of Taxan USA between October 1988 and January 1991,[4] where he worked alongside Japanese developer KID on various NES games made for the U.S. market. After Taxan closed down in early 1991, Lobb was then employed by Namco Hometek until 1993, where he was Head of Product Development.[5] The same year[6] Lobb began working at Nintendo of America, where he worked on several games, including GoldenEye 007.[7] Whilst at Nintendo Lobb worked as Head of Game Development for Nintendo of America. Shortly after the resignation of Minoru Arakawa from Nintendo in January 2002, Lobb left to join Microsoft Game Studios. Lobb commented in a 2007 interview with IGN that had Arakawa not left the company he would have been less likely to leave.[8]
A weapon in GoldenEye 007, the Klobb, was named after him due to last-minute copyright issues, and became notorious amongst gamers for its lackluster abilities.[9] Despite this, Lobb stated that it "ended up having a nice impact on me, personally".[10]
Works
edit| Year | Title | Role | Platform | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Burai Fighter | Designer | NES | KID |
| Low G Man | ||||
| G.I. Joe | Producer | |||
| 1991 | Rolling Thunder 2 | Hometek Team | Sega Genesis | Namco |
| 1992 | G.I. Joe: The Atlantis Factor | Producer (uncredited) | NES | KID |
| Kick Master | Producer | |||
| Splatterhouse 2 | Special Thanks | Sega Genesis | Now Production | |
| Wings 2: Aces High | Producer | SNES | Malibu Interactive | |
| Super Batter Up | Special Thanks | Namco | ||
| 1993 | Splatterhouse 3 | Sega Genesis | Now Production | |
| 1994 | Super Punch-Out!! | SNES | Nintendo | |
| Donkey Kong Country | ||||
| Killer Instinct | Game design, character voices | Arcade | Rare | |
| 1996 | Killer Instinct 2 | Character voices, additional design, special thanks | ||
| Cruis'n USA | Special Thanks | N64 | Williams | |
| Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! | SNES | Rare | ||
| 1997 | Tetrisphere | Product coordinator | N64 | H2O Entertainment |
| Donkey Kong Land III | Special Thanks | Game Boy | Rare | |
| GoldenEye 007 | NOA Treehouse Staff | N64 | ||
| Diddy Kong Racing | NOA Thanks To | |||
| Cruis'n World | NOA Producer | Eurocom | ||
| Blast Corps | NOA Staff | Rare | ||
| 1998 | Banjo-Kazooie | NOA Big Thanks | ||
| 1999 | Star Wars Episode I: Racer | Thanks to NOA | N64 Game Boy Color) |
LucasArts |
| R-Type DX | Special Thanks | Game Boy Color | Bits Studios | |
| The New Tetris | N64 | H2O Entertainment Blue Planet Software | ||
| NBA 3 on 3 Featuring Kobe Bryant | Game Boy Color | Left Field Productions | ||
| Mickey's Racing Adventure | NOA Thanks | Rare | ||
| Ken Griffey Jr.'s Slugfest | Special Thanks | N64 Game Boy Color |
Angel Studios Software Creations | |
| Jet Force Gemini | NOA Thanks To | N64 | Rare | |
| Duke Nukem: Zero Hour | Special Thanks | Eurocom | ||
| Donkey Kong 64 | Rare | |||
| Conker's Pocket Tales | NOA Special Thanks | Game Boy Color | ||
| Command & Conquer | Executive producer | N64 | Looking Glass Studios | |
| 2000 | Perfect Dark | NOA Staff | Rare | |
| Alice in Wonderland | NOA Special Thanks | Game Boy Color | Digital Eclipse Software | |
| 2003 | Voodoo Vince | Special Thanks | Xbox | Beep Industries |
| 2004 | Fable: The Lost Chapters | Big Blue Box Studios | ||
| 2007 | Shadowrun | Xbox 360 | FASA Interactive | |
| 2010 | Crackdown 2 | Designer | Ruffian Games | |
| 2013 | Killer Instinct | Supervisor, voice of Chief Thunder[11] | Xbox One | Double Helix Games |
| 2015 | Ori and the Blind Forest | Special Thanks | Xbox 360 Xbox One Windows |
Moon Studios |
| 2016 | Quantum Break | Partner creative director | Xbox One Windows |
Remedy Entertainment |
References
edit- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: How Did You Get Into The Games Industry? - Ken Lobb. YouTube.
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Killer Instinct - 720p Gameplay Interview With Ken Lobb - E3 2013. YouTube.
- ^ "An Audience With: Ken Lobb". Edge Online. Retrieved 2014-06-21.
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: How Did You Get Into The Games Industry? - Ken Lobb. YouTube.
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Ken Lobb - Interview ( circa 2007 ) - Courtesy of IGN.com - Part . 1 of 3. YouTube.
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: How Did You Get Into The Games Industry? - Ken Lobb. YouTube.
- ^ "IGN review of Goldeneye007". 26 August 1997. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
- ^ Grooveraider. "Ken Lobb - Interview ( circa 2007 ) - Courtesy of IGN.com - Part. 2 of 3". Youtube. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
- ^ Edge Staff (2014-04-04). "The story of GoldenEye 007's most notorious gun, The Klobb – and its design secret". Edge. Archived from the original on 2014-04-04. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
- ^ Brian (2017-04-02). "Former Nintendo exec Ken Lobb on GoldenEye 007's rail shooter origins, Klobb gun, more". Nintendo Everything. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
- ^ "Chief Thunder Voice - Killer Instinct (2013) (Video Game)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved 13 June 2021. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
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External links
edit- Ken Lobb's profile at MobyGames