Seamus Blackley
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Jonathan "Seamus" Blackley (born 1968) is an American video game designer and former agent with
Creative Artists Agency Creative Artists Agency, LLC (CAA) is an American talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles, California. With 1,800 employees in March 2016, it is regarded as an influential company in the talent agency business and manages numerous client ...
representing video game creators. He is best known for creating and designing the original
Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...
in 2001.


Career

After entering
Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...
to study electrical engineering, Blackley switched to study physics and graduated in 1990, . As an undergraduate, he published his first paper in the ''Journal of Magnetic Resonance''. After college, he studied
high energy physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the scale of protons and neutrons, while the stu ...
at the
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located in Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics. Fermilab's Main Injector, two miles (3.3 k ...
, until the Superconducting Supercollider project was cancelled in 1993. Blackley then went to work at Blue Sky Productions, later called
Looking Glass Studios Looking Glass Studios, Inc. (formerly Blue Sky Productions and LookingGlass Technologies, Inc.) was an American video game developer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company was founded by Paul Neurath with Ned Lerner as Blue Sky Produ ...
. In addition to his work on ''
Ultima Underworld ''Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss'' is a 1992 action role-playing game developed by Blue Sky Productions (later Looking Glass Studios) and published by Origin Systems. Set in the fantasy world of the ''Ultima'' series the story takes pla ...
'' and ''
System Shock ''System Shock'' is a 1994 first-person action-adventure game, action-adventure video game developed by LookingGlass Technologies and published by Origin Systems. It was directed by Doug Church with Warren Spector serving as producer. The game ...
'', Blackley helped to create the sophisticated physics system in '' Flight Unlimited''. He is mentioned in the ''Flight Unlimited'' manual as follows: Following the completion of '' Flight Unlimited'' in 1995, Blackley planned to use that game's
computational fluid dynamics Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical analysis and data structures to analyze and solve problems that involve fluid dynamics, fluid flows. Computers are used to perform the calculations required ...
(CFDs) code to create a combat flight simulator called '' Flight Combat''. However, a new manager at
Looking Glass Studios Looking Glass Studios, Inc. (formerly Blue Sky Productions and LookingGlass Technologies, Inc.) was an American video game developer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company was founded by Paul Neurath with Ned Lerner as Blue Sky Produ ...
demanded that Blackley instead design a direct sequel to ''Flight Unlimited'' as to directly compete with ''
Microsoft Flight Simulator ''Microsoft Flight Simulator'' is a series of Flight simulation video game, flight simulator programs for MS-DOS, Classic Mac OS, and Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was an early product in the Microsoft application portfolio and diff ...
''. Blackley refused and was fired, leaving the company in late 1995. After Looking Glass, Blackley worked at
DreamWorks Interactive Danger Close Games (formerly DreamWorks Interactive LLC and EA Los Angeles) was an American video game developer based in Los Angeles. The company was founded in March 1995 as joint venture between DreamWorks SKG and Microsoft (later moved to M ...
as executive producer of '' Jurassic Park: Trespasser'', a video game sequel to the film '' The Lost World: Jurassic Park''. ''Trespasser'' was designed to use a physics-rich game engine for much of the animation for the game. The game was to have been shipped by late 1997 as part of a deal that Dreamworks had made with a computer chip manufacturer, but the game was only partially completed; the chip deal fell through, and the budget for the game was significantly cut. Though the title was eventually published in 1998, its failure became renowned, and Blackley took full responsibility for its faults. During press events for ''Trespasser'', Blackley had met
Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...
, then the CEO of
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
. Gates had been impressed with the technical achievements of ''Trespasser'', and he helped Blackley to secure a job at Microsoft in February 1999 as Program Manager for Entertainment Graphics, initially working on
DirectX Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with "Direct" ...
. During 1999,
Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...
introduced the
PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...
, which they marketed as a platform for the living room that would outdo Microsoft Windows and Linux. Blackley said that this announcement raised concerns within Microsoft of how they could challenge Sony. Blackley had already recognized that part of Microsoft's problems for gaming support was the vast number of possible configurations they had to deal with, and their attempts with technologies like DirectX to standardize these. While on a flight from Boston back to Seattle after visiting his girlfriend, Blackley came up with the idea of having Microsoft design its own console, with standardized hardware, and able to tap into a larger pool of hardware resources due to the company's influence as to beat Sony at its own game. This led to the initial
Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...
proposal, which Gates eventually approved, and helped assemble the team that designed and built the device. He then promoted the Xbox to game developers around the world. Blackley left Microsoft in 2002 to co-found Capital Entertainment Group with former Microsoft co-worker Kevin Bachus after his time developing the Xbox. CEG aimed to reform the financing models available in the game industry, following the Hollywood studio model, to provide more flexibility and creative control to game makers, and loosen the grip publishers had on control of the game industry. CEG was unable to complete a game before folding in 2003. In 2007, Blackley received the P.T. Barnum Award from Tufts University for his exceptional work in the field of media and entertainment. From 2003 through May 2011, Blackley represented video game developers at the
Creative Artists Agency Creative Artists Agency, LLC (CAA) is an American talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles, California. With 1,800 employees in March 2016, it is regarded as an influential company in the talent agency business and manages numerous client ...
, evolving the position of video games within the entertainment industry. In February 2012, Blackley cofounded Innovative Leisure in order to recruit game programmers from the
Golden age of arcade video games The golden age of arcade video games was the period of rapid growth, technological development, and cultural influence of arcade video games from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The release of ''Space Invaders'' in 1978 led to a wave of shoo ...
to write mobile games. In 2017 Blackley took a post running the research and development team for the augmented reality startup Daqri to explore methods of producing more powerful holograms and in 2018 became the CEO of tech startup Pacific Light and Hologram. In 2019, Blackley appeared as himself on the 172nd episode of the webseries ''
Angry Video Game Nerd ''Angry Video Game Nerd'' (''AVGN''; originally known as ''The Angry Nintendo Nerd'') is an American retrogaming review comedy web series starring and created by James Rolfe. The series centers on Rolfe's titular skit character, often simply ...
'', answering questions regarding development of the video game ''
Trespasser In the law of tort, property, and criminal law a trespasser is a person who commits the act of trespassing on a property, that is, without the permission of the owner. Being present on land as a trespasser thereto creates liability in the ...
''. During the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, Blackley gained attention for instructional
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
threads on baking
sourdough bread Sourdough is a type of bread that uses the fermentation, fermentation by naturally occurring yeast and lactobacillaceae, lactobacillus bacteria to raise the dough. In addition to leavening the bread, the fermentation process produces lactic acid ...
using ancient yeast and historical baking methods.


References


External links


Seamus Blackley's game credits on MobyGames

Seamus Blackley Speech at DICE '03



1999 Gamasutra Post-Mortem on Trespasser

Video Interview with Seamus Blackley
at
Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blackley, Seamus American video game designers Microsoft employees Living people Date of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Tufts University alumni 1968 births