Jon Hare joins Jagex

Jagex has hired Jon Hare as its head of publishing, the firm announced this morning.

Hare, who is well known for his work on titles such as Sensible Soccer, Mega-Lo-Mania and Cannon Fodder, will have particular focus on further developing FunOrb.com, the developer’s casual games portal.

In his 24 year career Hare has developed more than 30 games on over 20 formats from Sinclair Spectrum to the Nintendo Wii.

Jagex is the UK’s largest independent studio and is best known for its Runescape MMO, which is popular amongst younger gamers.

“Jagex is a traditional and very British games development company as well as being one of Europe’s most successful publishers,” said Hare.

“I am really excited to be joining the team and I feel very at home here. I am looking forward to working alongside the management team to help nurture the mentality of innovation and expansion that already exists here and to grow FunOrb into the world’s leading online games destination.”

Mark Gerhard, Jagex CEO, added: ”Jon is one of the most highly rated game designers in Europe and has had a hugely successful career developing classic titles such as Sensible Soccer, Mega-Lo-Mania and Cannon Fodder.

“Jon will be playing a very hands-on role, actively engaged in developing and optimising all of our games. Jagex has always focused on creating games that we want to play, FunOrb is no different. We have specifically created FunOrb for the time-pressured gamer, people who want a high quality deep gaming experience but only have 30 minutes a day or perhaps even a week to relax and enjoy playing. The site isn’t for kids or for mums; it is designed for adult gamers who ask themselves ‘why don’t they make great games like they used to?’.”