Dever's Corner

Joe Dever

Joe Dever, the creator of the bestselling LONE WOLF adventure books and novels, is a unique English talent. He has achieved world-wide recognition in three creative fields - as an award-winning author of international renown, as and acclaimed musician/composer, and as a games designer specialising in role-playing games.

On graduating from college in 1974, Joe Dever became a professional musician with Pye Studios, London. For several years he worked in the music industry in Europe and the United States, initially as a musician and later as a recording engineer with Virgin Records.

While working in Los Angeles in 1977 he discovered a then little-known game called "Dungeons & Dragons". Although the game was in its infancy, Joe at once realised its huge potential and began designing his own role-playing games along similar conceptual lines. These first games were to form the basis of a fantasy world called Magnamund, which later became the setting for the LONE WOLF books.

Five years later, in 1982, Joe won the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons World Championships in Baltimore, an event held before 16,000 people at 'Origins' - a major US games industry convention. Joe was the only British competitor. Inspired and encouraged by his success at Origins, Joe decided to quit the music business and devote his time to writing and games design. After a brief spell at Games Workshop (London) in 1983, he wrote FLIGHT FROM THE DARK - the first Lone Wolf interactive gamebook. His manuscript immediately attracted a frenzy of interest from three major London publishing companies, all of whom bid for world rights. Joe accepted an offer of publication from Hutchinson's (later to become Century Hutchinson Ltd; now Random House UK) and 'Flight from the Dark' was first published in 1984.

This first book sold more than 100,000 copies within its first month of publication, and overseas rights were snapped up by 12 countries (including the United States, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and Sweden). The success of Joe's first book laid the foundations for the future of the LONE WOLF series, which has now sold more than 8 million copies around the world.

SONY PLAYSTATION

Joe Dever was commissioned in November 19[9]4 by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Ltd. as a script writer and games design consultant on the European launch of their Playstation games console. Joe has subsequently scripted and designed two games for the Sony Playstation:

1. Spiral Saga -- Publication scheduled for September 1998
2. Shadow Bay -- Publication scheduled for Christmas 1999

He has also worked as Script Consultant on two additional PC/Playstation titles:

1. Realms of the Haunting -- 1997
2. Final Fantasy VII - European Edition (with Martin Alltimes - Producer) -- 1997

Current Projects

Joe has very recently completed design work [on] an exciting multi-player Internet game called CORAZON ONLINE for Pepper's Ghost Productions Ltd. (UK). Corazon Online will be the first Virtual City where people from all over the world can meet, interact, and take part in quests created by Joe and moderated by Pepper's Ghost's design team. Corazon is scheduled to go on-line in the spring of 1999.

Joe is currently working on the interactive scripting and designs for two PC games. The first is a humorous cartoon adventure game entitled SPACE BABES (Published by Perfect Entertainment Ltd, London UK); the second is an exciting 'Blade Runner/Cyberpunk' futuristic adventure game entitled TWISTED UNION (published by Team 17 Software Ltd, Yorkshire UK). Both games are scheduled for worldwide release in 1999.

Citations

WHO'S WHO - 21st edition
INTERNATIONAL LEADERS IN ACHIEVEMENT
WHO'S WHO - MEN OF LITERATURE
DICTIONARY OF INTERNATIONAL BIOGRAPHY
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION (Nicholls/Clute: A.C. Black)
INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY CREATIVE ARTS AWARD - March 1997

Copyright ©1997 Joe Dever
All Rights Reserved.