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Jon Hare joins Jagex

Famed Sensible Soccer and Cannon Fodder designer to work on developing Jagex’s FunOrb.com.

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Gamers who grew up in the '90s will no doubt remember Sensible Soccer, the famed 2D football game complete with a zoomed-out bird's-eye view released on the Amiga. The title is so influential it is considered a "cultural artefact" and one of the 10 most important video games of all time.

This was once the pinnacle of video game football.
This was once the pinnacle of video game football.

The game was rereleased on Xbox Live Arcade back in 2008, and though it doesn't look like much by today's standards, the designer and creative director for the game, Jon Hare, described it as "like an ugly girl that makes up for it by trying harder in bed."

Now, the legendary designer has been snapped up by Jagex Games Studio, which claims to be the UK's largest independent games developer and publisher. Hare will be taking on the role of head of publishing and will work on developing Jagex's FunOrb.com, a site filled with free-to-play browser-based games "targeted at time-pressed gamers."

As well as Sensible Soccer, Hare was lead designer on Cannon Fodder, the 2D squad-based wargame where troops were often led to a bloody death to become the titular Cannon Fodder. Hare also wrote much of the music for Sensible Software's games, including the Cannon Fodder theme "War Has Never Been So Much Fun."

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