Mark Cerny facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Mark Cerny
Cerny in 2018
Born	Mark Evan Cerny (1964-08-24) August 24, 1964 (age 60)
Nationality	American
Occupation	Video game designer producer programmer consultant media proprietor
Organization	Cerny Games
Spouse(s)	Katsura Cerny
Awards	IGDA Lifetime Achievement (2004) AIAS Hall of Fame Award (2010)

Mark Evan Cerny (born August 24, 1964) is an American video game designer, programmer, and producer. He is famous for helping to create many popular video games and for designing the hardware for several PlayStation consoles.

Cerny grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He went to UC Berkeley for a short time before leaving to work in video games. Early in his career, he worked at companies like Atari and Sega. While at Sega, he helped start Sega Technical Institute and worked on games like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992).

Since 1998, Cerny has worked as an independent consultant through his own company, Cerny Games. He often works with Sony Interactive Entertainment. He was the main designer for the PlayStation Vita, PS4, and PS5 consoles. He also helped game studios like Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games from their beginnings. Cerny has also made his own games, including the arcade classic Marble Madness and the Knack series.

In 2004, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Game Developers Association. In 2010, he was added to the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame.

Career in Video Games

Early Years: 1982–1996

Mark Cerny loved computer programming and arcade games when he was young. When he was 17 in 1982, he got an amazing chance to join Atari. He left college to start his career in game development.

At Atari, Cerny worked on games like Millipede and Major Havoc. Game development teams were small back then. Each person did many different jobs. Cerny said working at Atari was a great start because he learned from legends and had to be very creative.

Cerny's first big success was the arcade game Marble Madness. He was only 18 years old and worked as the designer and a programmer for the game. After Atari, he joined Sega in the late 1980s. He worked in Japan and then came back to the United States in 1991. He helped create the Sega Technical Institute. There, he worked on games for the Master System and Genesis, including the very popular Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

In 1992, Cerny moved to a new company called Crystal Dynamics. He helped them get a special PlayStation development kit from Sony Computer Entertainment. This was a big deal because Crystal Dynamics was the first American company to get one.

Partnering with Sony: 1996–Present

Cerny in 2010

Yu Suzuki and Cerny at Game Developers Conference 2011

Cerny in 2014

From 1994 to 1998, Mark Cerny worked for Universal Interactive Studios. He was in charge of their new video game division. He had a lot of freedom and money to spend on new games. Cerny hired two small, new game studios: Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games.

He helped Naughty Dog with their game Crash Bandicoot. Sony decided to publish this game in 1996. He also helped Insomniac Games with Spyro the Dragon, which Sony also published in 1998. When their contracts ended, both Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games chose to work directly with Sony. Cerny stayed in touch with both teams.

In 1998, Cerny left Universal to become an independent consultant. This allowed him to keep working with Naughty Dog, Insomniac, and Sony.

Around 1999, Sony was developing the PlayStation 2. Sony asked Cerny to help create a graphics engine for the new console. He worked in Japan for three months and was the first American to work on the PlayStation 2. After that, he helped Naughty Dog and Insomniac with their first PlayStation 2 games, Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy and Ratchet & Clank. He also helped with many sequels in both series.

During this time, Cerny developed his "Method" approach for making games. This method has become a standard way for game developers to work.

Cerny continued to consult with Sony. In 2003, he helped plan the PlayStation 3. He worked with Sony and Naughty Dog to create the Initiative for a Common Engine (ICE) Team. This team helped make it easier and cheaper for developers to create games for the new console. Cerny also helped Naughty Dog with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Insomniac with Resistance: Fall of Man and Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. He also helped with other Sony games like God of War III and Killzone 3.

Lead Architect for PlayStation Consoles

Around 2007, Sony started planning for the next PlayStation console. The PlayStation 3 had not sold as well as they hoped. Mark Cerny suggested a new plan to Sony. He wanted the next console to be easy for game developers to use. He proposed that he lead the design of the new PlayStation. Sony agreed, and Cerny became the lead designer for the PlayStation 4.

Cerny's design for the PlayStation 4 was very successful. The console sold over 100 million units by 2019, making it one of the best-selling consoles ever. Along with the hardware, Cerny also directed one of the PlayStation 4's launch games, Knack, and its sequel, Knack 2.

Cerny continued to be the lead designer for Sony's future consoles, including the handheld PlayStation Vita and the PlayStation 5. His role as a consultant gives him the freedom to work with many different teams at Sony. This helps him improve the PlayStation design. He also continued to help design games like The Last Guardian, Marvel's Spider-Man, and Death Stranding.

Since 2009, Cerny has followed a two-year cycle. He visits most of Sony's game developers and other important studios. He asks them what problems they have with the current hardware and what they would like to see in future consoles. These visits help Sony make better hardware and software for gamers.

The Method Process

Mark Cerny created "The Method" process in 2002. He noticed that making a video game has two very different stages: pre-production and production. He realized that you can't put a strict timeline on the creative part of making a game.

Cerny suggested that the pre-production stage should be very open and free. During this time, creative people can explore if a game idea is good enough to be fully developed. The goal of this stage is to create a "publishable first playable" version of the game. This version doesn't need to be finished, but it should be good enough for people to play and give feedback. If players aren't excited by this early version, the game idea should be put aside. This saves a lot of effort and money.

Once everyone decides to move forward with the game, Cerny recommends using regular milestones and goals. This helps keep the project on track during the main production stage.

Personal Life

While working for Sega in Japan, Mark Cerny learned to speak Japanese. He met his wife, Katsura Cerny, in Japan. She helped him start Cerny Games and still manages the company today. Mark Cerny has Czech family roots.

Awards and Recognition

In 2004, the International Game Developers Association gave Mark Cerny the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards. They said he was great at both having big ideas for games and making sure all the parts came together. They called him a "master collaborator." His games Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon have sold over 30 million copies combined!

In 2010, Mark Cerny was added to the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' Hall of Fame. Joseph Olin, who was the president of the AIAS, said that Cerny was like a "modern-day Da Vinci." He meant that Cerny is good at many different things in game creation. He is a talented game designer, producer, programmer, and technologist. He also speaks Japanese and knows a lot about the Japanese game market.

Works

Cerny presenting a lifetime achievement award to Amy Hennig at the 2019 Game Developers Choice Awards

See also

In Spanish: Mark Cerny para niños