Leonard Boyarsky facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Leonard Boyarsky
Boyarsky in 2017
Occupation	Video game designer, visual artist
Employer	Obsidian Entertainment
Notable work	Fallout, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, Diablo III, The Outer Worlds

Leonard Boyarsky is an American computer game designer and visual artist. He is famous for helping create the video games Fallout and Diablo III.

Early Life and Art School

Leonard Boyarsky studied art in college. He earned degrees in Illustration and Fine Art. After finishing school, he worked as a freelance artist in 1992. He did jobs for game companies like Interplay and Maxis.

He enjoyed playing video games like Wizardry and Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos. But he was even more interested in comic books when he first started working in the game industry.

His Career in Video Games

Starting at Interplay Entertainment (1992–1998)

Boyarsky joined Interplay Entertainment as an early employee. After doing some freelance work, he was hired full-time. He became an art director, lead artist, and designer-writer.

His first big project was Stonekeep in 1995. He was in charge of creating the look of the game's characters and environments.

While at Interplay, Boyarsky met Tim Cain and Jason D. Anderson. They would later start a new game company together. The three of them often played role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons after work.

One day, Tim Cain suggested they meet to talk about making a new video game. Leonard Boyarsky and Jason Anderson were among the five people who showed up. This group became the main team for the game Fallout.

Boyarsky suggested the game should be set in a world after a big disaster. He and Anderson were big fans of the movie Mad Max 2. He didn't want to make another fantasy game because there were already so many.

In 1997, he finished his work on Fallout. He created the game's unique 1950s future style. He also designed the funny Vault Boy pictures and the game's unusual ending. He also helped improve the game's conversations.

Before leaving Interplay, he helped plan the main story and quests for Fallout 2 in 1998.

Creating Troika Games (1998–2005)

At Troika Games, Boyarsky had many important jobs. He was a project leader, art director, designer-writer, and even the CEO (chief executive officer).

Their first game was Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, released in 2001. Boyarsky worked on the art, wrote and edited conversations, and designed the story and quests.

He was also the project leader and art director for Troika's last game, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, in 2004. Troika Games eventually closed in 2005 because of money problems. Boyarsky also worked on a game that was never released.

After Troika closed, he took a year off. He felt very tired from working so hard, a feeling sometimes called "burnout." Later, Blizzard Entertainment asked him to work on the story for Diablo III.

Working at Blizzard Entertainment (2006–2016)

Leonard Boyarsky became a lead world designer for Diablo III at Blizzard Entertainment. He also worked on its expansion, Diablo III: Reaper of Souls. His job was to create the game's world, story, conversations, and quests. He wanted to make the Diablo story more interesting and detailed.

This was a new focus for Blizzard. They hadn't always put so much effort into the story of the Diablo games before. Boyarsky often spoke publicly about the story of Diablo III.

Fans of Diablo sometimes called him 'LeBo'. There's even a special item in Diablo III called 'Boyarsky’s Chip' as a tribute to him. Its description mentions Fallout.

Joining Obsidian Entertainment (2016–Present)

In April 2016, Boyarsky joined Obsidian Entertainment. Soon after, it was confirmed that he and Tim Cain were working together on a secret new game. Boyarsky called this project his "dream game."

At the 2018 Game Awards, Obsidian announced their new game: The Outer Worlds. It's a first-person science fiction action-RPG. The game happens on a planet that humans have changed to be more like Earth. The Outer Worlds was released in October 2019.

Games He Worked On

See also

In Spanish: Leonard Boyarsky para niños