Erik Cassel
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| Erik Cassel | |
|---|---|
 CasselErik.png Cassel in 2013 | |
| Born | Erik S. Cassel December 16, 1967 Los Angeles |
| 💀Died | February 11, 2013 (aged 45) San FranciscoFebruary 11, 2013 (aged 45) |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| 📆 Years active | 1991-2013 |
| Known for | Co-founder of Roblox |
| Title | Former VP of Engineering |
| 👶 Children | 2 |
Erik S. Cassel[1] (December 16th, 1967 – February 11th, 2013), known by his Roblox username erik.cassel, was an American entrepreneur, engineer, and software developer. He formerly worked in Knowledge Revolution as the VP of Engineering and is best known as the co-founder of Roblox Corporation, along with David Baszucki.
Early life and education[edit]
Cassel was born on December 16th, 1967, in Los Angeles, California, United States.[2][3] When he was five, his father would take him to his work and sit him in front of a punch card machine.[4] This sparked his interest in computing, and in junior high school, he programmed on a Radio Shack TRS-80 every day, which motivated him to become a good programmer. He commented that in recess, he would program games on it: "I would program a game and only have a few minutes to play it before the bell rang. The computer didn't have a hard drive, so I would lose the program and have to write a new one the next day. This really motivated me to become a good programmer. The faster and better I could code, the more time I would have to play."[5] After graduating high school in the late 1980s, he went on to get a degree in science in Cornell University.[2]
Career[edit]
Knowledge Revolution[edit]
Shortly after graduating in 1989, Cassel met Baszucki, who at time founded the company Knowledge Revolution and developed and distributed a simulation called "Interactive Physics", which was designed as an educational supplement that would allow the creation of 2D physics experiments.[6][7] After seeing the potential of the company, Cassel flew out for an interview to work with Baszucki. During the interview, Erik presented a piece of software which he created while studying at Cornell University. After Baszucki saw his potential, he was hired as the VP of Engineering.[2]
In December 1998, Knowledge Revolution was acquired by MSC Software, a simulation software company based in Newport Beach, California, for $20 million.[8] Both Cassel and Baszucki took senior roles in the company[9][10], but went their separate ways a few years later. Although they no longer worked together, Baszucki still kept in touch with Cassel.[5][11] Soon after, Roblox Corporation was founded in 2004.[2]
Roblox[edit]
In December 2003, Cassel along with Baszucki began working on an early prototype of Roblox under the working title DynaBlocks. Working from an office in Menlo Park, California, they began preliminary work on the video game DynaBlocks, which was launched in a beta state later that year.[12][13] The game's name was changed to Roblox in 2005, and the game was formally released on September 1, 2006.[13] Roblox was a massive hit, with over 50,000 players in the first year after its release. Seeing the potential of the company, Cassel and Baszucki hired additional employees. Cassel and the team would further develop Roblox to achieve its full potential. On the website, Cassel was fairly active but rarely visited any games.[14]
Health problems[edit]
Early into Roblox's development, in 2010, Cassel was diagnosed with brain cancer.[2][4] Cassel would then take a few weeks off to spend time with his family to process the news.[4] Baszucki and Cassel had many talks over the years, with Baszucki offering Cassel to take all the time he neeeded. Despite this, Cassel still worked on Roblox, and attended the ROBLOX Rally 2011, Roblox's first in-person game convention. He also attended the following ROBLOX Game Conference 2012.[4]
Death[edit]
On February 11th, 2013, after battling cancer for three years, Erik Cassel passed away from his brain cancer in San Francisco.[3][15][16] The Roblox staff stated on the Roblox Twitter account that Erik Cassel had "lost his fight with cancer" earlier in the day at the age of 45.[17][18]
Legacy[edit]
Online memorial[edit]
On February 12th, 2013, hundreds of players gathered in a game called "Erik Cassel Memorial" that were created by his children to mourn the death of Erik Cassel.[14][5] Many of these people dressed up as Erik Cassel's character to pay tribute to him. On February 15th, 2013, Roblox created an online shirt "Official Erik Shirt" in memory of Cassel. The shirt went offsale eight days later. Also in memory of Erik Cassel, Roblox changed the name of a hat formerly known as "Well Worn Hat" to "Erik Cassel's Hat" and put it on-sale for a short time. Roblox then changed the two items' descriptions to the following:[14]
To honor our co-founder Erik Cassel, Roblox will make a substantial contribution to cancer research in Erik's name. Thank you to everyone for your respect and support.
— Roblox
References[edit]
- ↑ "Google Patents". patents.google.com. Retrieved 2025-01-03.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Bloxy News (2023-02-11). The Story of Erik Cassel (1967 – 2013) | Roblox Co-Founder. Retrieved 2025-01-03 – via YouTube.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Visit Erik Cassel's memorial page on We Remember". www.weremember.com. Retrieved 2025-01-04.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Gamersaurus (2023-04-22). The Story of Erik Cassel | Roblox Documentary. Retrieved 2025-01-04 – via YouTube.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Russell, Melia. "Roblox's lesser-known $45 billion cofounder was the architect of its smashing success and the 'coolest guy'". Business Insider. Retrieved 2025-01-04.
- ↑ LeGrand, Roland (October 17, 2020). "Gaming as a learning revolution". De Tijd (in Dutch). Retrieved January 3, 2025.CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link)
- ↑ Risley, John S.; Gjertsen, Margaret (1992). "Orlando Exhibit Brings News of Educational Software Advances". Computers in Physics. 6 (2): 111–112. Bibcode:1992ComPh...6..111.. doi:10.1063/1.4823052.
- ↑ Adams, Susan (June 10, 2016). "Why The Creator Of Roblox Thinks His Gaming Platform Will Top Minecraft". Forbes. Archived from the original on May 10, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2025.
- ↑ Fennimore, Jack (July 24, 2017). "Roblox: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy.com. Archived from the original on November 29, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2025. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Gatollari, Mustafa (March 6, 2020). "'Roblox' Has Been Captivating Players for Over 13 Years, and It All Started With Two Men". Distractify. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved January 3, 2025. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Russell, Melia. "Roblox's lesser-known $45 billion cofounder was the architect of its smashing success and the 'coolest guy'". Business Insider. Retrieved 2022-01-05.
- ↑ Fennimore, Jack (July 24, 2017). "Roblox: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy.com. Archived from the original on November 29, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2025. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 13.0 13.1 Gatollari, Mustafa (March 6, 2020). "'Roblox' Has Been Captivating Players for Over 13 Years, and It All Started With Two Men". Distractify. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved January 3, 2025. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 "Erik.cassel". Roblox Wiki. Retrieved 2025-01-03.
- ↑ Fennimore, Jack (July 24, 2017). "Roblox: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy.com. Archived from the original on November 29, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2025. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Gatollari, Mustafa (March 6, 2020). "'Roblox' Has Been Captivating Players for Over 13 Years, and It All Started With Two Men". Distractify. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved January 3, 2025. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Roblox (@Roblox) on X". X (formerly Twitter). Archived from the original on 2024-08-25. Retrieved 2025-01-03.
- ↑ "In memory of Erik Cassel..." X (formerly Twitter). Archived from the original on 2024-03-10. Retrieved 2025-01-03.
External links[edit]
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