Guido Henkel

Guido Henkel (born September 9, 1964, in Stuttgart, Germany) is a German-American video game designer. He is most well known for his work on Planescape: Torment and for creating the Realms of Arkania series of video games.

Early life Henkel was born on September 9, 1964, in Stuttgart, Germany. He modeled a working microprocessor in high school before getting interested in video game development.

Career Henkel focused on programming out of school, and formed his first company, Dragonware Games. Henkel began making text adventure games, and then moved onto creating role-playing games. After creating a series of games for a number of different early personal computers, he landed a publishing deal with Ariolasoft. After releasing a couple of games with the company, Henkel left and formed Attic Entertainment Software with two friends which published games for a number of early computer platforms. In 1992, Attic published Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny, which, according to Die Zeits Nicole Lange, was a commercial and critical success in Germany but found weak sales worldwide outside of Germany. After working with Attic on two more games, Henkel moved to the United States in 1997.

Henkel joined Interplay Productions, where he was initially assigned to their role-playing development company Black Isle Studios, which is where he served as a senior producer for Planescape: Torment. While working on the game, Henkel served as the model for the game's box cover. After having worked on a more fantasy-themed RPG series in Realms of Arkania and other fantasy games for over a decade, Henkel noted in an interview when Planescape came out that he "felt encumbered by [fantasy's] limitations and people's expectations." In 2001, Henkel joined a new company eMusement as a Vice President. eMusement was slated to develop a game with SquareSoft, but after six months, the project was cancelled and the company shut down. Henkel pivoted to working with mobile phone carriers to develop games to sell directly to consumers on their phones from 2002 to 2011. Henkel in 2013 was helping to lead a team to create a game called Deathfire: Ruins of Nevermore, but the project was canceled after it failed to reach its Kickstarter goal and further funding was not enough to keep development going; the team refunded all pledges. Henkel currently works as the Principal Software Engineer for the Intellivision Amico.

Games Game title Year DeveloperFlipIt! 2003 G3 StudiosVideo Poker Pro 2002 G3 StudiosBlack Jack Pro 2002 G3 StudiosPlanescape: Torment 1999 Interplay ProductionsThe Ultimate Wizardry Archives 1998 Interplay ProductionsHerrscher der Meere 1997 Attic Entertainment SoftwareRealms of Arkania: Shadows over Riva 1996 Attic Entertainment SoftwareFears 1995 Attic Entertainment SoftwareRealms of Arkania: Star Trail 1994 Attic Entertainment SoftwareRealms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny 1992 Attic Entertainment SoftwareDrachen von Laas 1991 Attic Entertainment SoftwareThe Oath 1991 Attic Entertainment SoftwareSpirit of Adventure 1991 Attic Entertainment SoftwareLords of Doom 1990 Attic Entertainment SoftwareExolon 1989 Hewson ConsultantsOoze: Als die Geister mürbe wurden… 1989 Dragonware GamesHellowoon: Das Geheimnis des Zauberstabs 1987 Dragonware Games

Music Herrscher der Meere 1997 Attic Entertainment Software Realms of Arkania: Shadows over Riva 1996 Attic Entertainment Software Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games 1996 Sir-Tech Realms of Arkania: Star Trail 1994 Attic Entertainment Software Drachen von Laas 1991 Attic Entertainment Software Spirit of Adventure 1991 Attic Entertainment Software