Doug Church

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Doug Church
Church tests an Indie Game Jam 2005 project.
Born (1968-11-16) November 16, 1968 (age 55)
Evanston, Illinois, United States
Occupation(s)Game designer, producer
EmployerValve

Doug Church (born November 16, 1968, in Evanston, Illinois),[1] is an American video game designer and producer. He attended MIT in the late 1980s, but left and went to work with Looking Glass Studios, when they were making primarily MS-DOS-based immersive sim games, including Ultima Underworld, Ultima Underworld II, System Shock and Thief. His colleague Warren Spector claims, in fact, that Church was the one who originally coined the term "immersive simulation".[2]

Later, Church joined Eidos Interactive as technical director, lending programming and design expertise on a number of games from Ion Storm and Crystal Dynamics, including extensive design work on Tomb Raider: Legend. In 2005, he left Eidos to join Electronic Arts.

In 2003, Church was given the International Game Developers Association's Community Contribution award, in part for his work as co-chair of the IGDA's educational committee developing relationships between the game industry and academia. He has also participated in many of the Indie Game Jams, including developing "Angry God Bowling," the prototypical game for the first IGJ.[citation needed]

In 2009, he was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time.[3]

From July 2005 to 2009, Church worked at Electronic Arts' Los Angeles office, as team leader on a project supervised by filmmaker Steven Spielberg.[4]

On March 16, 2011, Valve announced that Church had been hired for an undisclosed position and project.[5]

In August 2016, OtherSide Entertainment announced that Church had been hired as a creative consultant for the development of System Shock 3.[6]

Games[edit]

Year Title Role
1992 Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss Programmer, additional support
1993 Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds Lead programmer, designer, additional support
1994 System Shock Lead programmer
1995 Flight Unlimited Programmer
1996 Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri
1997 Flight Unlimited II Programmer, additional support
1998 Thief: The Dark Project Programmer
1999 System Shock 2
2000 Thief II: The Metal Age Engine programmer
2001 FreQuency "Synth and Related Playstation 2 Voodoo"
Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition Design, additional programming
2002 Freedom Force Special thanks
2003 Whiplash
Deus Ex: Invisible War
Backyard Wrestling: Don't Try This at Home
2004 Thief: Deadly Shadows
2006 Tomb Raider: Legend Design
2012 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

References[edit]

  1. ^ Paul M Harrison (October 15, 2012). "Doug Church, A Brief Introduction".
  2. ^ Fenlon, Wes (May 8, 2017). "The designers of Dishonored, Bioshock 2 and Deus Ex swap stories about making PC's most complex games". PC Gamer. Retrieved 29 November 2017. Warren [Spector]: I think Doug Church was the one who came up with [the term 'immersive simulation'], isn't he? He's the first person I ever heard use it.
  3. ^ "IGN - 34. Doug Church". IGN. Archived from the original on 2014-04-20. Retrieved 2023-11-14.
  4. ^ Thorsen, Tor (2005-10-14). "Steven Spielberg, EA ink three-game next-gen deal". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30.
  5. ^ Ordland, Kyle (March 16, 2011). "Valve Confirms Hiring Of Thief Designer Doug Church". Gamasutra. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  6. ^ Donnelly, Joe (2016-08-30). "System Shock 3 reveals 'dream' development team". PC Gamer. Retrieved 13 March 2018.

External links[edit]