David Perry

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David Perry (2009)

David Perry (born April 4, 1967 in Lisburn , Northern Ireland ) is an Irish game developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of the former development studio Shiny Entertainment , for which he worked from 1993 to 2006. In his career he also worked for companies such as Disney , 7 Up , McDonald’s , Orion Pictures and Warner Bros. His best-known game developments include the titles Earthworm Jim , MDK , Messiah , Wild 9 andEnter the matrix . He is also a co-founder of the cloud-based gaming service Gaikai .

biography

Perry and other game designers at a BAFTA event in Los Angeles in July 2011, from left: Rod Humble , Louis Castle , David Perry, Brenda Brathwaite , John Romero , Will Wright , Tim Schafer , Chris Hecker

Perry was born on April 4, 1967 in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, and grew up in Templepatrick and Donegore , County Antrim , where he attended Templepatrick Primary School and then Methodist College Belfast . In 1981 he began developing his first programs for the Sinclair ZX81 . In an interview with the BBC , Perry described his first game as a racing game ("a black blob trying to avoid other black blobs") that he eventually sent to a magazine which actually printed it. After a few more submissions, he received a check for £ 450, which encouraged him to move on. At the age of 17, he moved to London , although the job he was offered was only low paid at £ 3,500 per year, because he saw no future in the field of computer games in his home country. At Probe Software in London, he developed games for publishers such as Elite Systems , Mirrorsoft and Virgin Games . He worked on titles like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for various home computers and The Terminator for the Mega Drive .

In 1991 he moved to the US to work for the US division of Virgin Games. He took over the development of the McDonald's contract work Global Gladiators for Mega Drive, the content of which could not satisfy the client's expectations, but was nevertheless named Game of the Year by Sega . This was followed by Cool Spot for 7 Up and Disney's Aladdin , both games also for the Mega Drive and the latter with a development time of just four months. His work for Virgin Games USA also served as the basis for the development of other games such as The Terminator for the Sega Mega-CD , RoboCop Versus The Terminator and Walt Disney's The Jungle Book for the Mega Drive, all of which were only developed after Perry's departure.

David Perry (1996), with a miniature of the character Earthworm Jim

On 1 October 1993 Perry founded in Laguna Beach (California) his own company, Shiny Entertainment , which he after the song Shiny Happy People by REM named. The company's first game, Earthworm Jim , became a hit, selling millions of copies across multiple platforms including the Mega Drive, Super Nintendo, and PC. The eponymous character, an "average worm" who trips over a spacesuit and thus mutates into a superhero, became extremely popular and produced a range of merchandising products: action figures , comics and an associated animated series for the Warner Kids Network , in who dubbed the title character of Dan Castellaneta ( Homer Simpson ). In 1995 he sold a 91% stake in the company to US publisher Interplay Entertainment for $ 3.6 million , hoping to strengthen its console portfolio. In 2001, Interplay acquired the remaining 9 percent of the company for an additional $ 600,000. In 2012, Perry described this sale as his biggest mistake, as he overestimated Interplay's capabilities.

In April 2002, Shiny Entertainment was acquired by Infogrames for $ 47 million after Interplay's financial problems became increasingly apparent. At the same time as the acquisition, Perry signed a long-term contract as president of the studio. Also in 2002, Perry worked with the Wachowski brothers on a coordinated game implementation for the Matrix trilogy . When the new parent company, Infogrames, began to stumble, Perry left Shiny Entertainment in February 2006 in order to facilitate the sale of Shiny according to its own information. The studio was finally taken over by Foundation 9 in October 2006 .

Perry started a consultancy for senior game managers, followed by a company to help game developers fund their projects. In February 2008, Perry released a new edition of his Game Industry Map , a large, free industry database that visualized thousands of games and developer companies on a world map and allowed students and industry professionals to map the locations of game developers and production sites. In July 2008 he received an honorary doctorate from Queen's University Belfast for his services in the field of computer games.

In April 2009, Perry acquired a stake in Gaikai , a company founded by Andrew Gault and Rui Pereira in November 2008, and became its CEO . At the Game Developers Conference in February 2009, he first publicly presented the company's streaming technology for computer games ( cloud gaming ). In July 2012, Gaikai was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment for $ 380 million. The Japanese electronics company presented its PlayStation 4 game console to the public on February 20, 2013 in New York . Perry et al. a known that the console will not have any downward compatibility with previous models, but that all games of the previous generations will be made accessible as a stream with the help of Gaikai technology in the form of the PlayStation Cloud. In addition, Gaikai's technology should also be used for streaming demo versions and the remote play function for PS4 games on the PlayStation Vita handheld console .

Perry is a member of the Advisory Board for the Game Developers Conference and has been a guest speaker at industry events such as E3 , SIGGRAPH and CES and has been a visiting professor at universities such as USC and MIT . In 2006 he hosted the Game Developers Choice Awards together with Tommy Tallarico .

Selected Works

Games

title year Publisher
Three Weeks in Paradise 1986 Micro-gene software
stainless steel 1986 Micro-gene software
Savage 1988 Go / US Gold
Paperboy 2 1992 Mindscape International
Captain Planet 1992 Mindscape International
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles 1990 Mirrorsoft / Konami
Smash TV 1990 Ocean Software Ltd.
Supremacy: Your Will Be Done 1990 Virgin Games
The Terminator 1992 Virgin Games
Global gladiators 1992 Virgin Games
Cool spot 1993 Virgin Games
Disney's Aladdin 1993 Virgin Games
Earthworm Jim 1994 Playmates Interactive Entertainment
Earthworm Jim 2 1995 Playmates Interactive Entertainment
MDK 1997 Playmates Interactive / Interplay Entertainment
Wild 9 1998 Interplay entertainment
Messiah 2000 Interplay entertainment
Sacrifice 2000 Interplay entertainment
Enter the matrix 2003 Atari
The Matrix: Path of Neo 2005 Atari

Books

  • Tim Hartnell, David Perry: 49 Explosive Games for the ZX Spectrum . Interface Publications, London 1983, ISBN 978-0-907563-53-2 .
  • David Perry: Astounding Arcade Games for Your Spectrum + & Spectrum . Interface Publications, London 1985.
  • David Perry, Rusel DeMaria: David Perry on game design: a brainstorming toolbox . Charles River Media, Boston 2009, ISBN 978-1-58450-668-3 .

swell

Web links

Commons : David Perry (game designer)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ News on the official website for the game Enter the Matrix ( Memento from February 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Top developer's code for success (English) , BBC . July 4, 2003. Retrieved February 25, 2013. 
  3. ↑ a b Guy Cocker: David Perry: Selling Shiny to Interplay 'worst mistake I ever made' ( English ) In: GameSpot . CBS . July 12, 2012. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
  4. ↑ a b Infogrames Snags Shiny - For $ 47 Million ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM, plc . April 25, 2002. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
  5. ^ Matt Chat 91: The Fall of Interplay with Brian Fargo on YouTube
  6. ↑ CNN article about Matrix game (English) . May 15, 2003. Retrieved February 25, 2013. 
  7. ↑ Dave Perry resigns from Shiny (English) , Eurogamer.net. February 20, 2006. Retrieved February 25, 2013. 
  8. ↑ Guy Cocker: Dave Perry leaves Shiny to save Shiny ( English ) In: Joystiq . AOL . February 20, 2006. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
  9. ↑ Jason Dobson: Foundation 9 Acquires Shiny From Atari ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM, plc. October 2, 2002. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
  10. ↑ James Brightman: GameDaily article ( English ) May 15, 2006. Archived from the original on October 21, 2007. Retrieved on February 25, 2013.
  11. ↑ Game Industry Map
  12. ↑ Computer game 'Spielberg' and 'latter day Brunel' honored by Queen’s ( memento of the original from February 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.qub.ac.uk
  13. ↑ GDC Exclusive: David Perry's Entry into Server-Based Gaming (English) . In: GameDaily , AOL , March 25, 2009. Archived from the original on March 28, 2009. Retrieved February 25, 2013. 
  14. ^ Nathan Brown: Sony acquires Gaikai ( English ) In: Edge . February 7, 2012. Archived from the original on January 8, 2014. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
  15. ↑ Siliconera.com: PlayStation 4 Won't Play PlayStation 3 Games Natively, Coming This Holiday , February 20, 2013, accessed on February 24, 2013.
  16. ↑ JoyStiq.com: PlayStation 4 will stream PS1, PS2, PS3 games (English) , February 20, 2013, accessed on February 24, 2013.
  17. ↑ http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/20/4010420/sonys-playstation-4-will-use-gaikai-game-streaming-technology
  18. ↑ MIT Speakers List ( English ) Retrieved February 25, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Perry, David
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Perry, Dave
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish computer game developer and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH April 4th 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH Lisburn , Northern Ireland