Feargus Urquhart

Feargus MacRae Urquhart ( born April 19, 1970) is an American game developers. Urquhart was a long time head of the specialized computer role-playing game developer Black Isle Studios, until he left the company in 2003 along with several other employees and Obsidian Entertainment founded. He has since acted as Managing Director.

Private

Feargus Urquhart is the son of Robert William Urquhart and has a sister named Jessica Christine Urquhart. The last name Urquhart is derived from the Scottish castle ruins near Urquhart Castle Loch Ness. Urquhart is married to Margo Urquhart, with whom he had several children together.

Career

Urquhart began his career as a game developer with the U.S. publisher Interplay Entertainment. In 1991, he went there as a tester in a part-time ( The Bard's Tale Construction Set, Out of This World) and worked among other things as a manual writer ( The Lost Vikings, Clay Fighter ). In 1993 he received a full-time position as an Assistant Producer. This was followed by carriage in distance, 1994 Associate Producer, Producer 1995. In 1996 he was finally Division Director of the RPG division of Interplay, which operated since 1998 under the name Black Isle Studios, while at the same time he received the title of President. The studio was named after the island it from Black Isle from Urquhart Scottish homeland. In addition to in-house developments such as Fallout, the studio mainly dealt acquired by Interplay software licenses for the role playing game Dungeons & Dragons rules. As a studio manager Urquhart oversaw all projects of the developer, but also took over producer duties continue for various Interplay titles, including the first game of the Canadian developer BioWare entitled Shattered Steel. Throughout development, Urquhart received insights into BioWare's tech demo of a new game engine called Battleground Infinity. At the suggestion of Mr. Urquhart, the Infinity engine for the development of a D & D role-playing game was used. BioWare received by Interplay in the appropriate order, and developed under the supervision of Urquhart's Black Isle Studios, the successful title Baldur 's Gate and Baldur 's Gate 2, while Black Isle itself based on the Infinity Engine playfully related titles Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale and Icewind Dale 2 developed.

After twelve years with the company he left Interplay in April 2003, there were different views on the direction of the company between him and the Interplay Management. Interplay has worked in deficit for several years and lost the D & D license, so the Black Isle has been running for two years working on Baldur 's Gate 3: The Black Hound (internal working title: Project Jefferson ) had to stop. According to Urquhart himself Interplay also began to focus more on the console market, and although the Black Isle with Baldur 's Gate had produced Dark Alliance the most successful console game of the company, played the studio in the strategic planning of the Interplay management a subordinate role and increasingly less well supported. In 2003 he founded together with his former Black Isle- mate Chris Parker, Darren Monahan, Chris Avellone and Chris Jones the development studio Obsidian Entertainment, which he has since been CEO and president. In 2009 he was counted from the Games IGN 's best 100 game developers of all time.

Ludography (excerpt)

As a designer:

As a producer:

Weblink

• Feargus Urquhart at MobyGames (English)