William Novak

William Novak
Place of birth: United States
Date of birth: 1951 (age 72-73)
Employment history: Sega Electronics/Sega Enterprises, Ltd. (1982 – 1985) Mattel (1987 – 1991) Zono (1991 – 2007)
Role(s): Designer, Programmer, Executive
Education: University at Albany, SUNY (BA Electronic Music Composition), Mills College at Northeastern University (MFA Electronic Music Composition)

William Novak, professionally known as simply Novak, is an American musician and video game designer, most known as the designer of a number of Sega of America-published Mega Drive titles, as well as the co-founder of Zono. Boasting over 30 years of working in the video game industry, Novak had moved to Southern California in 1982 to accept a job at Sega Enterprises, Ltd., and would later work with Sega again through creative titles like Mr. Bones on the Saturn. Following his departure from Sega, he would go on to design the Power Glove for Mattel, and in 2017 eventually became chair of Woodbury College's Game Art & Design program.

Career

William Novak first began his career as a musician by drawing on his teenage experiences with synthesizers and sound equipment to acquire a bachelors degree in music composition from University at Albany, SUNY, followed by a master of fine arts degree in electronic music composition from Mills College at Northeastern University. During his time at Mills College, Novak served as student assistant to electronic music pioneers such as John Cage, Robert Moog, David Tudor, and Philip Glass. He also founded the two San Francisco Bay Area punk rock labels Dumb Records and Nth Degree in 1976.

In 1982, Novak moved to Southern California to accept a job as a video game programmer and designer at Sega Enterprises, Ltd. Particularly, Novak began as an assembly language programmer developing titles for Sega's coin-operated division. He was surprised that he could build a career off something like this, as he had no formal game design experience or training whatsoever (and accredited game education did not exist at the time), but that his existing knowledge in electronics nonetheless transferred well to his new occupation; "I thought I’d be a starving artist until video games came along."

After departing Sega, Novak found a job as an independent contractor for Teledyne Systems, where he designed targeting devices for U.S. Navy anti-submarine helicopters. In his own words, "I was shocked that they hired me", but adds that there are a great number of similarities between sophisticated military technology and video games, even noting that the video game industry was far more adept at displaying large amounts of on-screen information than the military.

Following his stint at Teledyne, Novak would return to the video game industry as an engineer at Mattel; one of its first video game designers. He recalls that during this time, despite the company employing nearly 300 toy designers, only six of them (including himself) were assigned to electronic toys. Here he would go on to serve as the co-developer and software designer of the Power Glove peripheral for the Nintendo Entertainment System and both of its two games (particularly Super Glove Ball), as well as the Captain Power series of interactive VHS tapes. Novak would go on to become the Power Glove's impromptu spokesman, demonstrating the product in an episode of Video Power and serving in an advisory role for the Power Glove's appearance in the 1989 film The Wizard. In 1990, he would win a Popular Science award in New York for his involvement with Mattel's peripheral.

Novak showing off development material from his self-designed NES game, Super Glove Ball.

Novak left Mattel around 1991 to found Zono, his own video game development company headquartered in Costa Mesa, California. Here he would spend roughly the next 14 years producing video games for clients like Sega, Sony, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Microsoft, Fox Interactive, Activision, and Virgin Interactive. Novak recalls that, because Zono's budget was relatively limited, the studio could only afford to hire inexperienced developers, who would be later taught design, art, or programming skills once joining the company. He would remain with the company until around 2005.

In 2017, inspired by his previous experience educating Zono's newly-hired developers, he accepted a role as the chair of Woodbury College's Game Art & Design program. Calling on his many years of experience in the industry, Novak separated different aspects of game development into two separate categories: Game Design and Game Art. Game design focuses on user interfaces, play mechanics, narrative backstories, and scoring systems, while game art instead emphasizes the creation of 2D and 3D art, special visual effects, and animation. In particular, he feels this allows for a teaching program in which students understand all elements of the development process (regardless of what particular skill they eventually settle on), and emphasizes a sense of industry adaptability through first-hand experience in numerous disciplines. "There’s a lot of crossover,” Novak says. “That’s been the hallmark of my life — you’re all over the place, learning as many different things as you can."