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William Pugh (born 1994/1995) is a British game designer best known for his work on ''
The Stanley Parable ''The Stanley Parable'' is a 2013 story-based video game designed and written by developers Davey Wreden and William Pugh (game designer), William Pugh. The game carries themes such as choice in video games, the relationship between a game cre ...
'', and for founding the game development studio
Crows Crows Crows William Pugh (born 1994/1995) is a British game designer best known for his work on ''The Stanley Parable'', and for founding the game development studio Crows Crows Crows. Early life and career William Pugh's parents are art teachers. H ...
.


Early life and career

William Pugh's parents are art teachers. He developed an interest in video games after playing a
Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, in North America on September 29, 1996, and in Europe and Australia on March 1, 1997. As the successor to the Super Nintendo E ...
during a hospital visit when he was six. He studied at the
Leeds College of Art Leeds Arts University is a specialist arts further and higher education institution, based in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with a main campus opposite the University of Leeds. History It was founded in 1846 as the Leeds Sc ...
for two weeks, but dropped out to work on video games. Pugh taught himself video game environment design through working on modifications, or mods, of video games by
Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or Slurry, slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically Pip ...
. He made levels for ''
Team Fortress 2 ''Team Fortress 2'' (''TF2'') is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation in 2007. It is the sequel to the 1996 ''Team Fortress'' Mod (video gaming), mod for ''Quake (video g ...
'', campaigns for ''
Left 4 Dead 2 ''Left 4 Dead 2'' is a 2009 first-person shooter video game developed and published by Valve. The sequel to '' Left 4 Dead'' (2008) and the second game in the '' Left 4 Dead'' series, it was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in November ...
'', and puzzles in ''
Portal Portal may refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * ''Portal'' (series), a series of video games developed by Valve ** ''Portal'' (video game), a 2007 video game, the first in the series ** '' Portal 2'', the 2011 sequel ** '' Portal Stori ...
''. His work earned him a Saxxy Award, a fan-voted award for ''Team Fortress 2''-based creations. Pugh first heard of the
Source Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute ...
engine mod of ''
Half-Life 2 ''Half-Life 2'' is a 2004 first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It was published for Windows on Valve's digital distribution service, Steam. Like the original ''Half-Life'' (1998), ''Half-Life 2'' is played ent ...
'' known as ''The Stanley Parable'' from ''
Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a 2011 sandbox game developed and published by the Swedish video game developer Mojang Studios. Originally created by Markus Persson, Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java (programming language), Java programming language, the ...
'' creator
Markus Persson Markus Alexej Persson ( , ; born 1 June 1979), known by the pseudonym Notch, is a Swedish video game programmer and Video game designer, designer. He is the creator of ''Minecraft'', which is the List of best-selling video games, best-selling ...
's
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feed. Pugh wanted to work on a larger project and so contacted the mod's creator,
Davey Wreden Davey Wreden (born September 29, 1988) is a game designer and developer, best known for his work on ''The Stanley Parable'', '' The Beginner's Guide'', and '' Wanderstop''. Career ''The Stanley Parable'' Wreden started developing video gam ...
. They decided to work on a remastered, standalone version of ''The Stanley Parable'' together. Development of the full game took two years, mainly through remote collaboration software
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and
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. Pugh started an unnamed development studio following the game's release to work on several projects, saying that "we've got the money and freedom to just go wild, so we've been doing exactly that". Pugh presented on ''The Stanley Parable'' development at the 2015
Game Developers Conference The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Award for Game of the Year, Game Developers Choice Awards and ...
. Reflecting on the game's release, he said he was less interested in the technical work of sound and texture editing, and would instead prefer to outsource those jobs to focus on writing.


Crows Crows Crows

Pugh founded the independent video game studio Crows Crows Crows in October 2015. The studio's first game was '' Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist'', a free title released in December 2015. The meta-fictional game, in which the player explores and interacts with the backstage elements of a video game demonstration while waiting to play it, includes voice work from
Justin Roiland Mark Justin Roiland (born February 21, 1980) is an American voice actor, animator, writer, and producer. He co-created the Adult Swim animated sitcom ''Rick and Morty'', for which he voiced the protagonists Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith from 2013 ...
, of ''
Rick and Morty ''Rick and Morty'' is an American Adult animation, adult animated science fiction Animated sitcom, sitcom created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon for Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult Swim. The series follows the misadvent ...
'', and
Simon Amstell Simon Marc Amstell (born 29 November 1979) is an English comedian, writer and director. He wrote and directed the films '' Carnage'' (2017) and ''Benjamin'' (2018). His work on television has included presenting '' Popworld'' and '' Never Mind t ...
. Crows Crows Crows has released two other games using the
itch.io Itch.io (stylized in all lowercase) is a website for users to host, sell and download indie video games, indie role-playing games, game assets, comics, zines and music. Launched in March 2013 by Leaf Corcoran, the service hosts over 1,000,000 ...
platform. ''The Magpie Collection'' is a series of ten short games by various developers including Pugh, compiled by the studio, which were developed following an
IndieGoGo Indiegogo is an American crowdfunding website founded in 2008 by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. The site is one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. Indiegogo allows peo ...
to raise money to help replace equipment stolen from several developers at the 2015
A Maze A Maze (stylized as A MAZE.) is an international series of events celebrating independent and arthouse games, immersive media and digital culture. Founded in 2008 by artistic director Thorsten Wiedemann, A MAZE hosts the International Games and P ...
event in Berlin. ''The Temple of No'', released in June 2016, is a text-based adventure game using the
Twine Twine is a strong Thread (yarn), thread, light String (structure), string or cord composed of string in which two or more thinner strands are twisted, and then twisted together (Plying, plied). The strands are plied in the opposite direction to ...
platform. Roiland announced in September 2015 that he would be working on a virtual reality game for the
HTC Vive HTC Vive is a line of Virtual reality, virtual and mixed reality Virtual reality headset, headsets produced by HTC, HTC Corporation. The brand currently encompasses headsets designed for use with Personal computer, personal computers as well a ...
with Pugh. The collaboration, called ''
Accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entity, economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activit ...
'', was released as a free download on Microsoft Windows in 2016. Pugh and Roiland's collaboration began after a chance Twitter conversation in September 2015. Roiland, who was in the proximity of the offices of
Respawn Entertainment Respawn Entertainment, LLC is an American video game development studio founded in 2010 by Jason West and Vince Zampella and owned by Electronic Arts since 2017. West and Zampella previously co-founded Infinity Ward and created the ''Call of D ...
in California, called out on Twitter if anyone at Respawn was a fan of ''Rick and Morty'' and could give him a tour. Pugh reached out to reply, lying about working at Respawn as he was still in the United Kingdom, and offering him a tour. Pugh sent further messages to Roiland feigning that he just missed him, but eventually fessed up. Roiland recognized Pugh's name from ''The Stanley Parable'' and was impressed by the whole "weird switcheroonie". Pugh then flew out to Los Angeles where he and Justin spent a week performing a
game jam A game jam is an event where participants try to make a video game from scratch. Depending on the format, participants might work independently, or in teams. The event duration usually ranges from 24 to 72 hours. Participants are generally program ...
to develop the basics of ''Accounting'', which was then developed into a full game through remote collaboration.


Works


References


Further reading

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pugh, William (game designer) Living people British video game designers Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth uncertain Indie game developers Year of birth missing (living people) 1990s births 21st-century British people