Jeff Dee

Jeff Dee is an artist and game designer who worked at Origin Systems from the late 1980s to 1993. Of the Ultima games, he provided artwork for Ultima VI: The False Prophet, The Savage Empire, Martian Dreams, Ultima Underworld, Ultima VII: The Black Gate, Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds, and Ultima IX: Ascension.

Career
Dee began his professional career in 1979 working with TSR, to whom he contributed artwork for various Advanced Dungeons & Dragons materials. The same year, he co-created the superhero-themed tabletop role-playing game Villains and Vigilantes with high school friend Jack Herman, who would later become a colleague at Origin (and who appears as Jakher in Ultima VII: The Black Gate). In 1987, Dee and partner Manda co-created TWERPS, a minimalist tabletop role-playing system.

Origin Systems
Dee was invited to join Origin Systems in the late 1980s at the recommendation of veteran Ultima illustrator Denis Loubet, the company's first hired artist, after the two had met briefly at Gen Con. Initially working on several smaller titles, Dee then provided in-game graphics for Ultima VI: The False Prophet (as well as voice acting for its FM Towns port), The Savage Empire, and Martian Dreams, before taking the role of art director on. He also produced interior art for the manuals and clue books for The Savage Empire, Martian Dreams, and Ultima Underworld. Dee's last project as an employee of Origin was creature art for Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds.

He was later commissioned to provide artwork for the Cards of Virtue both seen in Ultima IX: Ascension and included with its original release as a physical trinket. He also collaborated with Loubet to produce storyboards for the in-game cinematics.

Proposed Ultima spin-off
While at Origin, Dee submitted a project proposal for a Worlds of Ultima-style game set after, in which the player would travel by some means to Britannia's twin moons in order to procure replacement moonstones and reactivate the moongates. The concept was not approved for production, however.

Post-Origin
After his departure from Origin in 1993, Dee worked at several Texas-based video game companies, including Apogee Software and Simtex.

In 1997, Dee and Manda founded UNIgames, a tabletop role-playing game developer.

In 2002, Dee joined Asylumsoft, a small studio founded by former Origin programmer Jason Ely, to develop Dransik, a massively multiplayer online game heavily inspired by. Other past Ultima team members at the company included Bruce Adams, Aaron Allston, Andrew Hoffmann, Denis Loubet, Matt Sheffield, and Todd Yarbrough.

Dee's most recent video game credits are as lead designer on the 2008 titles Turok and The Sims: Castaway Stories.

In 2010, he and Jack Herman co-founded Monkey House Games after regaining the rights to Villains & Vigilantes, which they continue to publish.

Dee works as a freelance artist and game designer, and is currently active on Patreon.

In-game counterparts
Jeff Dee's in-game counterpart is Arturos, a self-proclaimed "king of the gypsies" camped to the north of Trinsic in Ultima VI: The False Prophet. Arturos is named after Dee's persona in Amtgard, where he participated alongside fellow Origin employees Dr. Cat and Manda, as well as numerous other players who appear as characters in.

Trivia

 * Dee is a longtime member of the Atheist Community of Austin (ACA), through which he became a regular host of the ACA's weekly public-access televison (now Youtube) show, The Atheist Experience, from 1998 to 2015. In 2001, he launched The Non-Prophets, an ongoing atheism-focused news and discussion podcast that also features Denis Loubet.