- David Perry (game developer)
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David Perry 
David Perry, 2009Born April 4, 1967 (age 44)
Lisburn, Northern IrelandNationality Northern Irish Occupation Video game developer and executive Spouse Elaine Perry (28 July 2001 - present) - This article is about David Perry, the game developer. For the David Perry who was a co-commentator on the UK video game TV show 'GamesMaster', please see Dave Perry, and for other uses, please see David Perry (disambiguation)
David Perry (born 1967) is an Northern Irish video game developer who has created dozens of video games, the best known of which include Earthworm Jim, MDK, Messiah, Wild 9 and Enter the Matrix. He also founded Shiny Entertainment, where he worked from 1993 to 2006. Shiny created games for many internationally known brands and companies, including Disney, 7 Up, McDonald's, Orion Pictures, and Warner Bros.[1] In 2008 he was presented with an honorary doctorate from Queen's University Belfast for his services to computer gaming.[2]
Contents
Biography
Perry and other game developers 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 in April 1967 in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, growing up in the towns of Templepatrick and Donegore in County Antrim, attending Templepatrick Primary School and then Methodist College Belfast.
He began writing computer game programming books in 1982 at the age of 15, creating his own games for the Sinclair ZX81. According to an interview with the BBC, Perry stated that his first game was a driving game, "a black blob avoiding other black blobs", which he wrote and sent to a magazine, which printed it. He sent them more games and they sent him a cheque for £450—a bit of a problem for a teenager who did not yet have a bank account. His work continued though, until he was offered a job making just £3,500/year.
At the age of 17, he moved to London, where he developed games for publishers such as Elite Systems, Mirrorsoft, and Virgin Games, working on titles such as The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for several home computers and The Terminator for the Mega Drive/Genesis.
In 1991, he moved to the United States to work for the American division of Virgin Games, usually known as Virgin Games USA. While in there, he led the development duties for several award-winning products, including McDonald's Global Gladiators, 7-UP's Cool Spot, and Disney's Aladdin for the Mega Drive/Genesis. His work within Virgin Games USA also served as a basis for the development of other games like The Terminator for the Mega-CD and RoboCop Versus The Terminator and Walt Disney's The Jungle Book for the Mega Drive/Genesis, all of them developed after David Perry had left the studio.
David Perry in 1996, with a miniature of Earthworm JimOn October 1, 1993, Perry formed his own company in Laguna Beach, California, Shiny Entertainment, naming the company after the song "Shiny Happy People" by R.E.M.. The company's first game Earthworm Jim was a hit, selling millions of copies on multiple platforms, including Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Super Nintendo and PC. The title character, an "average worm" who stumbled upon a space suit which turned him into a superhero, became immensely popular, and spawned a variety of other types of merchandise: action figures, comic books, and a syndicated television cartoon series on the Warner Kids Network, with the title character voiced on the show by Dan Castellaneta (also known as the voice behind Homer Simpson).
In 2002, Shiny Entertainment was acquired by Atari, Inc. in a US$47M deal, with Perry signed to a long-term contract to continue on as President. Also in 2002, Perry collaborated with the Wachowski Brothers on games in coordination with their Matrix series of movies.[3]
In 2006, he resigned from Shiny,[4] and formed GameConsultants.com, a consultancy firm planning to offer executive level video game industry advice,[5] followed by GameInvestors.com, a business-to-business company to help video game development teams get funded.
In February 2008, Perry re-released his Game Industry Map website, a large games database, offered for free, mapping thousands of games and game companies on a map of the world, allowing students and industry employees to look up where games are made and companies based.
Perry is on the advisory board for the Game Developers Conference, and has spoken at industry venues such as E3, CES, Hollywood and Games, Digital Hollywood, iHollywood, SIGGRAPH, Entertainment in the Interactive Age, What Teens Want, The Banff Summit, as well as at major universities such as USC, and MIT.[6] In 2006, he co-hosted the annual Game Developers Choice Awards with Tommy Tallarico.
In November 2008, Perry co-founded Gaikai in the Netherlands, a company planning to release game streaming technology in late 2009.[7]
In July 2009, Perry confirmed that he had been involved in developing a title with Michael Jackson prior to the singer's death and had spent some time with Jackson and his children.[8]
Selected works
Description Year Publisher National ZX80/ZX81 Users Club Magazine 1982 Interface Publications Tim Hartnell's Giant Book of Spectrum Games 1983 Interface Publications 49 Explosive Games for the ZX Spectrum 1983 Interface Publications Astounding Arcade Games for your Spectrum + & Spectrum 1984 Interface Publications Sord M5 Graphics Demos [Written in BASIC] 1982 Sord Drakmaze (Original IP) Mikro-Gen Software Ltd. Pot-Holing Pete (Original IP) Mikro-Gen Software Ltd. Three Weeks in Paradise (Original IP) Mikro-Gen Software Ltd. Stainless Steel (Original IP) Mikro-Gen Software Ltd. Savage (Original IP) via Probe Software -> Go / US Gold Ltd. Tintin on the moon (Comic Book License) via Probe Software -> Infogrames Paperboy - II (Arcade Game Conversion) Mindscape International Ltd. Captain Planet (TV Show License) Mindscape International Ltd. Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (TV Show License) via Probe Software -> Mirrorsoft Ltd. / Konami Smash T.V. (Arcade Game Conversion) via Probe Software -> Ocean Software Ltd. Supremacy (UK) / Overlord (US) (Original IP) |1990 via Probe Software -> Virgin Games Ltd. The Terminator (Movie License)|1992 via Probe Software -> Virgin Games Ltd. McDonald's Global Gladiators (Based on McD Characters) Virgin Games Ltd. 7-UP's Cool Spot (AdvertGame) 1993 Virgin Games Ltd. Disney's "Aladdin" (Movie License) 1993 Virgin Games Ltd. Earthworm Jim 1994 Playmates Interactive Entertainment Earthworm Jim 2 1995 Playmates Interactive Entertainment MDK 1997 Playmates Interactive / Interplay Entertainment. Wild 9 1998 Interplay Entertainment, Inc. Messiah 2000 Interplay Entertainment, Inc. Sacrifice 2000 Interplay Entertainment, Inc. Enter the Matrix 2003 Atari Inc. The Matrix: Path of Neo 2005 Atari Inc. The Darkness 2007 2K Games Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures 2008 Eidos Interactive Books
- 49 explosive games for the ZX Spectrum. By Tim Hartnell with David Perry. London : Interface, 1983.[9]
- David Perry on Game Design. Delmar, 2009.
References
- ^ http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/html/enternewsindex.html
- ^ http://www.qub.ac.uk/home/Graduation/HonoraryGraduates2008/DavidPerry/
- ^ "CNN article about Matrix game". May 15, 2003. http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/fun.games/05/15/cnna.matrix.game/index.html.
- ^ "Dave Perry resigns from Shiny". Eurogamer.net. 2006-02-20. http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=62975.
- ^ "GameDaily article". http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=12690.
- ^ "MIT Speakers List". http://web.mit.edu/cms/games/speakers.html.
- ^ Lifshitz, Jesse (2009-08-08). "OnLive and Gaikai - How to Stop a Gaming Revolution". ablegamers.com. http://ablegamers.com/general-game-news/626-onlive-and-gaikai-how-to-stop-a-gaming-revolution.html. Retrieved 2009-08-15.
- ^ Bailey, Kat (2009-07-10). "New Michael Jackson Game Reportedly Under Development". 1UP.com. http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3175132. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
- ^ Search result from Oxford University Libraries (solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk)
- "Top developer's code for success". BBC. July 4, 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/3041572.stm.
- David Perry (game developer) at the Internet Movie Database
- Smart computing, "The Emerald Isle’s ‘Shiny,’ Happy Game Developer", October 2000
- Gamedev.net Interview
- Eurogamer.net Interview
- Disposable Media Interview, part 1
- Disposable Media Interview, part 2
External links
- Official Shiny Entertainment website
- DPerry.com (David Perry's official site) (official biography)
- "David Perry TEDTalk: Will videogames become better than life?". http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/david_perry_on_videogames.html.
- David Perry's profile at MobyGames
- "GameConsultants.com - Perry's company formed in 2006". http://www.gameconsultants.com.
- "GameIndustryMap.com - Perry's free industry resource, a visual games database on a map of the world". http://www.gameindustrymap.com.
Categories:- British video game designers
- 1967 births
- Living people
- Inventors from Northern Ireland
- People from Newport Beach, California
- People from Lisburn
- People educated at Methodist College Belfast
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