Andy Schatz (pronounced SHARTS; born March 9, 1978) is a video game designer who lives in San Diego. He started making video games when he was young and finished college at Amherst College. After college, he worked for several video game companies, including TKO Software, before starting his own company called Pocketwatch Games in 2004. To grow his company, Schatz tried to go to business school but was not accepted. Because of this, he focused on creating games he was interested in. Schatz has released five video games through Pocketwatch Games: Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa, Venture Arctic, Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine, Tooth and Tail, and Monaco 2. His design ideas come from other types of media, such as movies, and he turns them into video games.

Early life

Andy Schatz was born in San Diego. His father was a geophysicist, and his mother was a philosophy professor. At the age of four, Schatz received a Commodore 64, which helped him want to create video games. By the age of seven, he had designed maze games and used BASIC programming code to make them work. When he was in seventh grade, he developed code for a game he called Servants of Darkness, a game similar to Warlords for the Commodore 64. His work on game development led to an invitation to the 1995 California State Science Fair. In the same year, Schatz began working on Netplay, an online gaming portal, which acted as his introduction to the video game industry. He later enrolled at Amherst College, where he graduated with a degree in Computer Science and Fine Arts.

Career

After college, Schatz worked at a company called e-tractions, where he helped create a virtual Christmas snowglobe. Later, he worked at Netplay and then at Presto Studios, where he helped design a game called Star Trek: Hidden Evil (1999) as a level builder. He briefly left Presto Studios to return to e-tractions but came back to help with the AI for the Xbox Live version of Whacked! (2002). After leaving Presto Studios, Schatz moved to Santa Cruz to work for TKO Software, where he helped develop Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Breakthrough (2003) and GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (2004). During a slow period at TKO, Schatz created a prototype for a "house-robbing game" where players would build homes, defend them, and try to break into others' homes. He sent this idea to Microsoft, but they were not interested.

In December 2004, Schatz founded Pocketwatch Games, an independent video game studio, after TKO Software closed in 2005. His first game, Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa (2005), was a tycoon game set in Africa, focusing on ecosystem balance and weather cycles. It was successful and became an Independent Games Festival (IGF) finalist, helping fund its sequel, Venture Arctic (2007). While Venture Arctic won awards, it faced challenges and was less successful commercially. Schatz later worked on a flash game for Green.com but eventually shifted focus to Venture Dinosauria, which was canceled before its 2009 release. He later reflected that he struggled to make the game both fun and self-contained.

Feeling discouraged after Venture Dinosauria’s failure, Schatz learned Microsoft XNA to develop games for PC and Xbox 360. He focused on creating games he was passionate about, leading to the development of Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine (2013). After 15 weeks of work, a prototype won two IGF 2010 awards, allowing Schatz to continue development. Initially planning to release the game on Xbox Live Indie Games (XBLIG), he changed his mind after receiving the awards and instead pursued a deal with Valve (the company behind Steam). Microsoft had previously rejected the game, but Schatz secured a $100,000 "no-risk loan" from the Indie Fund to continue. Despite setbacks, including Microsoft’s second rejection and PlayStation Network security issues, Schatz partnered with Majesco Entertainment to release Monaco on Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA).

During Monaco’s development, Schatz collaborated with composer Austin Wintory, who created original music for the game. Wintory noted that Schatz provided ideas for each section of the soundtrack, and Wintory composed based on those ideas. After Monaco’s release, Schatz began developing Tooth and Tail (2017), inspired by a concept called Dino Drop from his college years. The game, initially named Armada, was designed to be easy to play with gamepads. Schatz later changed the title to Lead to Fire and then to Tooth and Tail, referencing the "tooth-to-tail ratio" in military logistics. The game’s art style was compared to modernized 1990s pixel art. Wintory also composed the soundtrack for Tooth and Tail.

In March 2022, Monaco 2 was announced. The game uses 3D graphics and procedural level generation, while retaining the stealth and heist themes of the original. New characters are included for players to choose from.

Design philosophy

When creating video games, Schatz often draws ideas from non-game sources, such as movies. He then uses video game themes to turn these ideas into playable games. This approach was common during the development of Monaco, which was strongly influenced by the 1960 film Ocean's 11. A similar method is seen in Tooth and Tail, which is set during the Russian Revolution. Schatz also focuses on making game controls easy to use so players can become more engaged in the gameplay. He cited Geometry Wars as an example of a game with excellent controls, stating he has "never played a game with better controls." The controls in both Monaco and Tooth and Tail are "directly inspired by the simplicity" of those in Geometry Wars. Schatz designs games that appear "simple at first glance but are powered by complex systems."