Lowke Russell
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| Type of person | Individual |
|---|---|
| Principal occupation | Computer programmer |
Russell Lowke has been designing games since the late 1980s, drawing inspiration from classic Avalon Hill board games like Diplomacy, Hannibal, and Dune, as well as early computer games for the Apple ][, including Ultima, Wizardry!, and Archon.
In the 1990s, Russell established an early career in game development with several notable titles, including:
- Galactic Frontiers (1991) A Macintosh shareware classic inspired by Stellar Conquest, featured in Best of Inside Mac Games.
- Jewels of the Oracle (1995) Lead Programmer & UX Designer; won Best of Show at MacWorld Expo San Francisco.
- Spelling Spree (1999) Lead Architect; an educational game widely used in Texas schools.
Russell holds two degrees from Harvard University Extension, both earned with Dean’s List honors:
- Master of Liberal Arts (ALM) in Information Technology (2006, GPA 3.86) with a concentration in Software Engineering. His Master’s thesis focused on using computer games to teach history.
- Bachelor of Liberal Arts (ALB) in Computer Science (2003, Cum Laude, GPA 3.62).
After completing his studies, Russell worked as a Senior Programmer at Disney Interactive, contributing to projects like Club Penguin. He also helped develop educational and social gaming experiences such as Timeliner and "Fast Math" for Scholastic, Bakugan for Spin Master, and Vegas World for FlowPlay.
Now residing in Gawler, he has returned to board game design with “Assault on Gallipoli”, co-created with Sydney-based Kieran Oakley and published by Hexasim (France). The game recreates key battles of the 1915 Gallipoli campaign, such as the ANZAC landing and Lone Pine, blending historical accuracy with deep strategic gameplay. It is available at Table Top Warfare stores, including Gawler.
View Russell's talk on Galipoli:
A bio from his father John Lowke 1981.
I bought an Apple II+ lap top computer for my own FORTRAN calculations. My 10 year old son Russell took an immediate interest in this computer, spending many hours on it, teaching himself to code.1986. At age 15 Russell wrote a code on this computer for ranking students test results called Score Ranker for high schools and various teaching utilities. I remember him asking several questions on how to code, but the principal design of the software was his own. This software was advertised among teachers, some of whom bought copies for their own use in teaching. In 1988 we bought a Macintosh computer specially for Russell. Arthur Street, son of a Professor of Mathematics at Macquarie University, was also given one by his parents. Karil was teaching at SCECGS Redlands in Sydney, whose Principal Peter Cornish told her he doubted the wisdom of this purchase as Russell was likely to spend all of his time on the Macintosh, to the detriment of doing his homework. When I questioned Russell about spending time playing computer games, he replied that he was not playing computer games but instead was making up his own game, ‘Galactic Frontiers’, together with Arthur Street! Russ designed the game, Arthur programmed it, completing it in1991, two years after he left school. Galactic Frontiers was included on the Best of Inside Mac Games’ 1993 to 1996 1995 Russell went to Toronto to live, initially with one of his cousins who also lived in Toronto. He “walked the streets” for a job and after showing his “Galactic Frontiers” game, obtained a job at a company called “Electra Media”, a small software company. He then urged his boss to initiate another computer game. The manager took Russell on a trip to Ottawa to make a presentation for funds for this new computer game, to be called “Jewels of the Oracle”. The funding manager delegated hearing of the presentation to his assistant, but Russell, sensing an adverse decision from the assistant, demanded to present the proposal again to the funding manager. The project was funded! Russell was “Lead Programmer” and Jewels of the Oracle was a hit and won Best of Show Mac World 1995. After Toronto, Russell lived in Boston and Seattle, working with various companies and also doing contract work. Among these achievements were: 1998 “Lead Architect” of a computer game, “Spelling Spree!”, by the publishing company Houghton Mifflin. It was distributed into schools in Texas to aid the teaching of spelling. 2004 Russell helped fund himself through Harvard contracting and earning scholarships for A grades. At the time he worked in the Harvard Division of Continuing Education (DCE) computer lab and also consulted to them for their streaming video services. He received a Bachelors (ALB) degree in 2003 and a master’s in computing science (ALM in IT) in 2006, both from Harvard. He was listed on the Dean’s list. Russell’s Master’s Thesis was on using computer games to teach history. 2007 Russell worked on Timeliner for the company Scholastic, in Boston, prototyping the software design and working on user experience (UX). Timeliner was widely distributed as educational software into schools across the USA. 2012 Russell was appointed by Disney as Senior Programmer as part of their group ‘ Disney Interactive” in Seattle, working on their Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game Club Penguin. Club Penguin was an educational virtual world designed for the ages of 6–14 years. 2014-2017 Russell worked in Seattle for the company FlowPlay, on their MMO games Our World and Vegas World. These were casual gaming and social virtual worlds in a Los Vegas setting. 2024 Russell has released a board game, ‘Assault on Gallipoli’, with Kieran Oakley of Sydney, through the French publishing company Hexasim. Russell was a principal designer of the game, which has 5 scenarios for particular battles such as the ANZAC Landing and the Battle of Lone Pine. The game is available at all Tabletop Warfare stores, including the store in Gawler. The game was featured in the Bunyip and the Leader newspapers, with MP Tony Piccolo. 2026 Russell aims to complete programming a new computer game ‘Chess Origins’, featuring 16 different versions of chess from history and different countries e.g. Shogi (Japan), Makruk (Thailand), Xiangchi (China), and Janggi (Korea). As a final comment, I would like to say that I have been classified as a programmer for most of my life. But my programming is with numbers, deriving predictions for different mathematical scenarios. But Russell’s skills are completely different. He programs 'objects 'such as chess pieces, in a computer game, .
John Lowke 19/2/25
Memories of Lowke Russell
Do you remember Lowke Russell ? Then Join up and add your memory here.
Support our sponsors!
