Shattered Glass.

This is my contribution to the Blogs Of The Round Table for March 2009. The topic this month is the concept of the author, and the role of authorship, in game design.

 

It’s not uncommon for games from a particular studio to share similar aspects, technologies used have their unique strengths, and artists and designer have their distinct style but occasionally something about a particular developer’s output transcends such aspects and they share a commonality over and beyond that inherently defined by technical limitation or individual style.

Blue Sky Productions, later Looking Glass Studios, was one such company. Founded in 1990 they had the curious misfortune of existing at simultaneously the perfect moment in video game history and twenty years too early.

Intellectual thought provoking games for engaged gamers, it’s possible to identify a unifying theme across every game developed over their eight year life span, even those that fell outside the first person-action-adventure hybrids they are commonly remembered for. A focus on player self expression and shared authorship through object rich environments governed by simulations. It was a philosophy embodied as much in the game designs themselves as the technology behind them. Sometimes that technology was on the cutting edge, as with Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, and sometimes it wasn’t but every feature was there to serve the design, nothing was wasted.

No two games released by Looking Glass Studios (With the exception of the Thief: The Dark Project rerelease Thief Gold and the sequel Thief II: The Metal Age) had the same project lead. Despite this the unique Looking Glass Studios identity can be felt in every title. The stamp of authorship is as clear as it is in any Hitchcock film, yet there is no single individual who stands out as the guiding influence across all titles. The author of the “Looking Glass Studios” game is not one person, it is a gestalt entity, formed by dozens of talented developers working towards a single goal.

When the Looking Glass finally shattered in on May 24th 2000 the shards scattered to the winds, each one reflecting some small aspects of what made Looking Glass Studios what is was. In the years that followed former employees would join virtually every major American game studio, from 2K Boston to Valve, from Bethesda to Vicarious Visions. Across dozens of titles elements of the Looking Glass philosophy can be witnessed, in some cases stronger than others.

Though there is an entire generation of gamers growing up having never heard of Looking Glass Studios, there is another generation for whom the name will always be remembered; gamers now in their mid twenties, thirties and beyond who have redirected their passion for games into a passion for game development. Developers inspired by the intelligence, maturity and creativity of that departed studio who are striving to recapture that self same spirit in their own work.

The gestalt “Looking Glass Studios” author lives on.

 

Please visit the Blog of the Round Table’s main hall for links to the rest of this month’s entries.

Tags: 2K Boston, Bethesda, Blogs Of The Round Table, Hitchcock, Looking Glass Studios, Thief Gold, Thief II: The Metal Age, Thief: The Dark Project, Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, Valve Software, Vicarious Visions