Talk:David Jones (video game developer)

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Not too many details here - there's a profile of Jones linked from his MobyGames profile; but the "Active Gaming" site where the profile was hosted, it done gone down.

Using Archive.org, I was able to find the profile. Here 'tis:

David Jones

Posted 4/28/04 by Eric Hysen

Welcome to the first of (hopefully) many active.bios. In each bio, I�ll look at an important figure in the video gaming world and describe what he or she has done for the industry. For this first entry, I�ve chosen one of the lesser-known stars of game design, David Jones.

David Jones may not be a household gaming name like game gods Shigeru Miyamoto and Will Wright, but his accomplishments certainly put him in the same class as those two. During his history at DMA Design (now renamed Rockstar North) he created not one, but two of the most influential franchises of all time: Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto. Impressed? Keep reading.

During David�s early adulthood, he worked at Timex, which was creating early computers such as the Sinclair ZX81 and Spectrum, attending computer programming classes during his free time. After spending four years with Timex, he left and attended the University of Abertay Dundee (located in Scotland), where he took several game programming courses. (Abertay Dundee was the first school in the world to offer such classes.)

The first year of college was very easy for him, and David began wondering if he could, as he says, �design a decent computer game in all this spare time.� He was about to find the answer to that question was a resounding �yes.� After teaming up with an artist and creating two popular games, he decided to leave school and form his own design studio, DMA Design. It was created in 1989.

When DMA began, it was made up of just David and two other employees. The company was located in a few offices practically given to the start-up by David�s future father-in-law. David�s earlier two games provided enough money to finance the company for its first year of existence. After that year was up, DMA released its first game, a fun, original puzzle game called Lemmings. The game was a hit, selling over 60,000 copies within days of its release, and establishing DMA Design as a player in the gaming industry.

The company soon expanded, acquiring several new employees and managerial staff. After Lemmings, DMA worked on a game titled Race and Chase, which pit players as a policeman and tasked them with tracking down speed limit violators and other criminals. In 1996, around halfway through the game�s development cycle, David called the company together. There were serious problems with the gameplay of their new endeavor; the premise was uninteresting for players and the gameplay wasn�t that great either. During that meeting, one of DMA�s staff had an idea that would change the face of video games forever: Why not turn the idea around and make the player the bad guy? The idea was a hit and DMA released the renamed Grand Theft Auto soon after. The rest is history.

Well, almost. In 1999, DMA was bought by Take Two Interactive and renamed Rockstar North. That same year, David Jones left the company to create a new venture in Dundee. This studio, named Real Time Worlds, has several other big names as well. Ian Hetherington (the former managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe) and Tony Harmen (former director of development and acquisition and Nintendo of America) are both on board. Mr. Jones says the studio will �only recruit talented staff with strong experience in making games� and that it has a �philosophy of only working with the best.�

he believes in god With this much talent at RTW, it�s reasonable to expect great things from the company. Things are looking good from what has been said so far. The studio has two games currently in development. Not too much has been revealed about them, it has been said that the company is �very interested in the online market� and �fans of GTA and next-generation racing games will not be disappointed.� In addition, Mr. Jones has shown interest in �constantly evolving worlds with real players and communities.� Could this be a hint at a GTA-style MMORPG? We�ll have to wait and see.

Now that I know this text is safe in the Wikipedia archives, maybe I'll find time to integrate it into the article. Unless someone else wants to take a crack? -JustinHall 05:04, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Stub? Should the stub status be changed on this article, providing that the introduction is reworked to fit with the change?