Looking Glass Studios
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States United States (since 1994)
Looking Glass Studios (originally Blue Sky Productions, later Looking Glass Technologies) was in the 1990s, a development studio for computer games. Their games were role models for innovative gameplay, new physical effects and well-written and thoughtful stories. Despite good reviews, sales figures were moderate.
History
The company was formed in 1990 through the merger of Blue Sky Productions and Lerner Research by Paul Neurath by Ned Lerner. The original seat of the company was Lexington, Massachusetts; in 1994 it moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to. Many developers were graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Looking Glass ' most popular games are the Ultima Underworld, System Shock, Flight Unlimited 1-3 and Thief. The studio was disbanded on 24 May 2000 due to financial problems with their publisher Eidos Interactive.
Impact and aftermath
The company employs in the course of its existence numerous renowned and influential game developers, including Doug Church and Austin Grossman. Matt Toschlog founded in 1993 with Mike Kulas the software developer Parallax Software ( Descent ). Ken Levine began his career as a game designer at Looking Glass before it with his studio colleague Jonathan Chey and Robert Fermier Irrational Games founded in 1997, which was responsible for the 1999 released System Shock 2.
Following the closure of Looking Glass some employees to Ion Storm, Irrational Games, Harmonix and Arkane Studios went. Arkane Studios Published Arx Fatalis with a title, which was originally designed as the successor to Ultima Underworld II. However, Deadly Shadows, the third game in the Thief series, which although could come up with improved graphics, with fans of the series very much: Ion Storm Austin, under the direction of Warren Spector (including producer of Ultima Underworld and System Shock ) published later Thief remained controversial. Project was the longtime Looking Glass employee Randy Smith. Already the earlier of Ion Storm released Deus Ex, largely developed by Harvey Smith, was influenced in large part by Thief. The same applies to the developed by Smith for Arkane Studios Dishonored: The mask of anger.
Some ex- Looking- Glass- employee who worked on games such as Half-Life 2, Emil Pagliarulo worked for Bethesda Softworks as a quest designer of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and as lead designer and author on Fallout 3 Paul Neurath founded the company Floodgate Games, which among other things Bioware for the expansion Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide developed and was involved in Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, which in turn was developed by Arkane Studios.
List of Looking Glass titles
- Ultima Underworld I: The Stygian Abyss (1991 )
- Car and Driver (1992 )
- Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds (1992 )
- Chuck Yeager 's Air Combat (1993, conversion to the Apple Macintosh)
- System Shock (1994 )
- Flight Unlimited (1995 )
- Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri (1996 )
- British Open Golf (1997)
- Flight Unlimited II ( 1997)
- Dark Project Thief: The (original Thief: The Dark Project) (1998)
- Dark Project Gold (original Thief Gold ) (1999 )
- Command and Conquer for Nintendo 64 (1999)
- System Shock 2 ( 1999) ( in collaboration with Irrational Games )
- Flight Unlimited III (1999)
- Destruction Derby 64 for Nintendo 64 (1999)
- Dark Project II: The Metal Age (original Thief II: The Metal Age ) (2000 )
- Flight Combat: Thunder Over Europe ( was concluded in development than the Company)