2008-07-07

Dave Perry - the Spielberg of Video Games

A 2003 BBC news report went so far as to say: "If video games are the new Hollywood, David Perry is a bona fide Spielberg."

Dave Perry worked for me at Virgin Interactive. Well, "worked for me" is a bit of an overstatement, since Dave has never really worked for anyone but himself. Still, it was that way on the org chart.

I do not believe that in the history of video games there is a single programmer who has ever had as much support as Dave Perry. We built special tools just for Dave. We built the entire art pipeline and network around Dave. Dave, in turn, worked his ass off. His put art and design assets into whatever game he was working on as fast as possible. Remember, back in 1992, it was a big deal to see your sprite moving on a Genesis, so, in reciprocal fashion, the artists worked really hard to get assets to Dave to plug in, so they could see their work playing on a Genesis.

After Aladdin, Dave wanted to start his own studio. I was all in favor and I supported getting the budget for it. Unfortunately, this was one of the few times a budget request from me was denied. So Dave formed a studio anyway, and went off to make Earthworm Jim. Astoundingly, he also licensed the game as an animated TV series, which I watched with my kids, and I probably still have on video tape somewhere.

Anyway, congratulations to Dave on his honorary doctorate.




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3 comments:

  1. Sup, were from jersey too.

    Any interest in syndicating your blog on gamernook.com? We're gonna for a few featured bloggers in gaming, so maybe we can help drive a bit of traffic.

    Message me here

    -Evan

    ReplyDelete
  2. Doc -- I didn't know you ever lived in Jersey!

    Anyhow, I have learned a lot about DP over the last couple of years, dealing with his former team and studio. One thing I have not learned is what he's working on now...

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have no idea what the Jersey stuff is about.

    ReplyDelete