


Jason Rohrer (born November 14, 1977) is an American computer programmer, writer, musician, and game designer. He publishes most of his software into the public domain (public-domain software) and charges for versions of his games distributed on commercial platforms like the iPhone appstore or Steam.[1][2][3] He is a graduate of Cornell University.[4][5] From 2004 until 2011 he practiced simple living, stating in 2009 that his family of four had an annual budget of less than $14,500.[6] They have since relocated from Las Cruces, New Mexico to Davis, California.[7] In 2005 Jason Rohrer worked on a local currency, called North Country Notes (NCN), for Potsdam, New York.[8][9][10] In 2016 Rohrer became the first videogame artist to have a solo retrospective in an art museum. His exhibition, The Game Worlds of Jason Rohrer, was on view at The Davis Museum at Wellesley College until June 2016.[11]
Rohrer has placed most of his creative work, like video games' source code and assets, into the public domain as he is a supporter of a copyright-less free distribution economy.[12] Many of his project are hosted on SourceForge.[13]
At the 2011 Game Developers Conference Rohrer won the annual Game Design Challenge by proposing a game that could only be played once by a single player and then passed on to another.[33] This idea was based on stories of his late grandfather that had been passed down. He stated "We become like gods to those who come after us." With this in mind he created a Minecraft mod, Chain World, that was put on a single USB flash drive, which he then passed to an audience member. The rules of the game were simple: No text signs are allowed in the game, players may play until they die once, upon respawning they must quit the game and the game must then be passed onto someone that is interested and willing to respect the rules.
In March 2013 the Game Design Challenge was held at the Game Developers Conference for the final time. Its theme was "Humanity's Final Game." Rohrer was among the six contestants and won with his entry A Game For Someone, a physical game constructed of titanium. After its completion Rohrer buried it in an undisclosed location in the Nevada desert. At the challenge he released lists containing over one million discrete GPS coordinates, one of which was the actual burial spot. He estimated that with coordinated searching it would take at least 2,700 years to locate the game.[34]
2016年2月、ウェルズリー大学のデイビス美術館は、ジェイソン・ローラーのゲーム世界展を開催した。これは、一人のビデオゲーム制作者の作品に焦点を当てた、美術館としては初の回顧展である。同美術館は、「ローラーの展示作品は巧みで魅力的であり、しばしば驚くほど感動的です。ボルヘスの小説から黒魔術まで、多様な文化的影響を参照しています。同時に、切実な感情的、知的、哲学的、社会的な問題にも取り組んでいます。Wired 、Esquire、The Wall Street Journalでの特集記事や、 MoMAの最初のビデオゲームコレクションへの収録など、ローラーの大きな評価は、他に類を見ないほど魅力的なゲーム作品群に基づいています。これらのゲームは、創造的な狂気と憂鬱の飛翔を描いたゲームであるGravitation(2008)のような優雅でシンプルなものから、ビザンチン的な複雑さを持つものまで多岐にわたります。展覧会では、ローラーのゲームをユニークな空間体験に変換する4つの大きな構築物と、彼の作品群を探求するためのセクションが設けられました。」と述べています。[ 11 ]この展示は、ボストンを拠点とするデザイン会社IKD [ 35 ]によって設計されました。
2005 年 8 月、ローラー氏と妻は、草を 10 インチ以上に伸ばすことを禁止する地方条例に違反したとして起訴された。ローラー氏は自ら弁護し、自然な景観には環境上の利点があり、草刈り条例は「米国憲法およびニューヨーク州憲法の言論の自由、平等保護、適正手続き条項に違反する形で」施行されていると主張し、勝訴した。裁判所は、この条例は広範すぎると判断し、ローラー氏は 2006 年 6 月 12 日にすべての容疑で無罪となった。[ 39 ] [ 40 ]