Shiny Entertainment: Америкалық ойынды жасаушы студиясының тарихы

American video game developer

Shiny Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Laguna Beach, California. Founded in October 1993 by David Perry, Shiny was the creator of video games such as Earthworm Jim, MDK and Enter the Matrix. Perry sold the company to Interplay Productions in 1995, which sold the studio to Infogrames, Inc. in 2002. After Foundation 9 Entertainment acquired Shiny in 2006, the company was merged with The Collective in October 2007, creating Double Helix Games.

David Perry, a video game programmer from Northern Ireland, created his first video game in 1982, when he was 15, for the Sinclair ZX81 that he had at home. This led him to move to London, England, shortly following his 17th birthday, where would work with several early video game developers on games for the ZX Spectrum. By 1991, Perry had moved to Irvine, California, to work for the internal development studio of Virgin Games' American branch. Playmates agreed, and Perry, once he had gained lawful permanent resident status in the U. S., set up Shiny Entertainment using Playmates' funds in October 1993. Offices for the company were set up in Laguna Beach, California, and Perry was appointed as the company's president. Several developers formerly of Virgin Games followed Perry and joined Shiny, bringing its employee count to "around nine". The deal was announced by Interplay at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 1995, with Shiny retaining their identity and management under the new ownership. Meanwhile, Perry instituted a strict no sequels policy at Shiny to ensure that new games developed by the studio would be surprising and associated with the developer, rather than with a franchise.

The next game produced by Shiny was MDK, produced fully in 3D. After MDK shipped, Shiny employees Nick Bruty and Bob Stevenson left the company to form Planet Moon Studios with the same development principles as Shiny. Further Shiny games—Wild 9, R/C Stunt Copter, Messiah, and Sacrifice—were developed in parallel at the company, leading to what Perry said was simultaneously diluting focus and talent, and none of the games sold as well as MDK. Enter the Matrix, which was in development at Shiny at time, also changed hands to the buyer. He was succeeded by Michael Persson, who became the studio's studio head. Perry went on to found GameConsultants. com, a consultancy firm for video game investors, in May 2006, and by September had joined Acclaim Games and was working on a massively multiplayer online game called 2Moons. Shortly following Perry's resignation, Atari announced that it was reducing its staff count by 20% and sell all of its internal studios, both actions also affecting Shiny. On October 9, 2007, Foundation 9 announced that Shiny and The Collective were being merged; both studios had relocated their teams to new offices in Irvine, California, from where the merged company would operate under the lead of Persson. In March 2008, the new studio was named Double Helix Games.