This franchise was very important in the 1980s, and many RPGs owe their existence to it, and even PC games were heavily influenced by what was written at that time.

On Facebook, Robert Woodhead (a colleague of the deceased on the IP) and on Twitter, David Mullich (a game developer and game designer) remembered Andrew C. Greenberg. Greenberg, who died at the age of 67, was the co-creator of Wizardry. One of the first PC role-playing games was Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. It essentially brought the desktop RPG to the PC, and this particular game was on the Apple II. You could control a whole team. Everyone had different strengths and weaknesses, and you had to explore a large wireframe maze in a first-person perspective, and at the end you could reach the Mad Overlord Werdna (Greenberg’s name spelled backwards), the game’s title character.

Greenberg carried the nickname and name for a long time, even after he left the game industry. A personal email address and a YouTube channel (documenting the creation of a bowling scorecard program) also went by this name (Wizard Werdna). Wizardry and Ultima largely dominated the 1980s. Wizardry spawned sequels on both the Commodore 64 and DOS, and was a hit especially in Japan, establishing the success of the JRPG. Yuji Horii, the creator of Dragon Quest, has long admitted that Wizardry was his main inspiration, and in a tweet from 2022 he revealed that meeting Woodhead was a big boost for him…

なんと電ファミさんのおかげで、ウィザードリィの作者ロバート・ウッドヘッド氏と対談することが出来ました。思えば40年前、ウィザードリィにガチハマリしたが始まりでした。40年を経て、その作者のロバートさんからドラクエの感想を聞ける日が来るとは。超感激でした！電ファミさんの記事をお楽しみに pic.twitter.com/RQsvAO6Z4R

— 堀井雄二 (@YujiHorii) December 15, 2022

Returning to Greenberg, he co-created the Star Saga games in 1988 and 1989 before leaving the game industry to make his living as a lawyer. He first practiced intellectual property law in Florida before becoming general counsel of Xslent, a renewable energy company. However, archived snapshots from Greenberg’s personal website and YouTube channel show that his interest in computer programming never waned. According to a letter he sent to a Wizardry fan site in 1999, he married Sheila McDonald, with whom he had two children. McDonald also played with Wizardry as one of its testers…

From Baldur’s Gate to Persona, many IPs have taken Wizardry’s foundations to create something lasting, so Greenberg’s work cannot be ignored. God rest his soul.

Source: PCGamer