Kris Johnson (video game developer)
Kris Johnson (born 1967) is an American video game developer and entrepreneur. He founded Beyond Games, Cobalt Interactive, and WildWorks (originally Smart Bomb Interactive). As of late 2020, Animal Jam and PlayWild! had 3.3 million monthly active users and a combined lifetime total of 130 million registered players in 200 countries. After leaving WildWorks in 2017, he founded ModStorm, a company developing a cross-device and instant social gaming platform, where he serves as Chief Executive Officer. Johnson’s gaming ventures have been characterized by a focus on multiplayer innovation and the use of proprietary tool sets to accelerate development iteration times and increase overall team productivity.
Background
Johnson was born in New Jersey and grew up in Colorado, Hawaii, and later Salt Lake City, Utah. During elementary school, he became interested in computers and programming as a path to create his own video games. The company was rebranded as WildWorks in 2014.
In 1999, Johnson founded Cobalt Interactive to focus on the confluence of advertising, gaming, and education. Cobalt produced Cap’n Crunch’s Crunchling Adventure for Quaker Oats Company, which was enthusiastically received and distributed in 1999 through CD-ROMs placed in boxes of cereal, and Math-A-Thon 2: The Mystery of the Missing Laboratory, an educational game designed for to help the organization’s fundraising initiatives and improve K-12 math skills.
After leaving WildWorks in 2017, Johnson founded ModStorm to develop a multiplayer social and creativity gaming platform designed to be readily accessible across mobile and traditional computing devices as well as virtual reality (VR) headsets.
Games
* BattleWheels (1993, Atari for Atari Lynx)
* Ultra Vortek (1995, Atari for Atari Jaguar)
* Redline (1999, Accolade for PC)
* Motor Mayhem (2001, Infogrames for PlayStation 2)
* Hot Wheels Velocity X (2002, THQ for GameCube, PC, and PlayStation 2)
* Cap’n Crunch’s Crunchling Adventure (1999, Cobalt Interactive for Quaker Oats Company)
* Math-A-Thon 2: The Mystery of the Missing Laboratory (2006, Cobalt Interactive for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital)
* Snoopy vs. the Red Baron (2006, Microsoft for PC, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable)
* Pac-Man World Rally (2006, Bandai Namco for GameCube, PC, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable)
* Bee Movie Game (2007, Activision for Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation 2, Wii, and XBox 360)
* Snoopy Flying Ace (2010, Microsoft for Xbox)
* Animal Jam (2010, WildWorks for PC)
* Tunnel Town (2013, WildWorks for PC)
* Animal Jam - PlayWild! (2015, WildWorks for Android and iOS)
Background
Johnson was born in New Jersey and grew up in Colorado, Hawaii, and later Salt Lake City, Utah. During elementary school, he became interested in computers and programming as a path to create his own video games. The company was rebranded as WildWorks in 2014.
In 1999, Johnson founded Cobalt Interactive to focus on the confluence of advertising, gaming, and education. Cobalt produced Cap’n Crunch’s Crunchling Adventure for Quaker Oats Company, which was enthusiastically received and distributed in 1999 through CD-ROMs placed in boxes of cereal, and Math-A-Thon 2: The Mystery of the Missing Laboratory, an educational game designed for to help the organization’s fundraising initiatives and improve K-12 math skills.
After leaving WildWorks in 2017, Johnson founded ModStorm to develop a multiplayer social and creativity gaming platform designed to be readily accessible across mobile and traditional computing devices as well as virtual reality (VR) headsets.
Games
* BattleWheels (1993, Atari for Atari Lynx)
* Ultra Vortek (1995, Atari for Atari Jaguar)
* Redline (1999, Accolade for PC)
* Motor Mayhem (2001, Infogrames for PlayStation 2)
* Hot Wheels Velocity X (2002, THQ for GameCube, PC, and PlayStation 2)
* Cap’n Crunch’s Crunchling Adventure (1999, Cobalt Interactive for Quaker Oats Company)
* Math-A-Thon 2: The Mystery of the Missing Laboratory (2006, Cobalt Interactive for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital)
* Snoopy vs. the Red Baron (2006, Microsoft for PC, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable)
* Pac-Man World Rally (2006, Bandai Namco for GameCube, PC, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable)
* Bee Movie Game (2007, Activision for Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation 2, Wii, and XBox 360)
* Snoopy Flying Ace (2010, Microsoft for Xbox)
* Animal Jam (2010, WildWorks for PC)
* Tunnel Town (2013, WildWorks for PC)
* Animal Jam - PlayWild! (2015, WildWorks for Android and iOS)
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