Near miss
Doug Churchdraft
Lead on Ultima Underworld, director of System Shock, designer on Thief. Church wrote the essay that gave the immersive sim, and the field, a vocabulary: intention and perceivable consequence.
- Born
- 1968
- Nationality
- American
- Active
- 1990 to present
- Studios
- Looking Glass Studios, Eidos, Valve
Why it matters
Church misses the ten only because his lessons are already carried in the entry for Warren Spector, whose games he built. On a list of essays rather than designers he would be first.
Lessons
01 · process
Give the field a shared vocabulary
Church's 1999 essay argued that design cannot improve as a craft until designers can name what they do. He proposed formal abstract design tools and demonstrated three by dissecting Super Mario 64: intention, the player forming a plan; perceivable consequence, the world answering clearly enough to plan again; and story. The essay is the reason the immersive sim can be taught rather than only imitated.
Known for
- Ultima Underworld1992 · lead programmer, designer
- System Shock1994 · director
- Thief: The Dark Project1998 · designer
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