Daniel James (game Developer)
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Daniel James (born 1971,
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
), is a
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
-
Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...
based in
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
. He is a co-founder and CEO of
Three Rings Design Three Rings Design, Inc. was an American video game developer based in San Francisco. It was founded on March 30, 2001, by Daniel James (game developer), Daniel James and Michael Bayne. The company was named in honor of the Three Rings of the El ...
, the company behind the
MMOG A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players to interact in the same online game world. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent open world, although there are games th ...
s '' Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates'', '' Bang! Howdy'', '' Whirled'' and '' Spiral Knights''.


Biography

James was born in 1971 in London, the only child of Allan James, a filmmake

who worked on titles such as '' Out of Africa (film), Out of Africa'' and ''
Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...
'', and Hope James, an interior designer and art teacher. James attended
Holland Park School Holland Park School is a coeducational Comprehensive school, comprehensive secondary school and sixth form located in Holland Park, London, England. Opened in 1958, the school was considered a flagship for comprehensive education, nicknamed 'th ...
and
Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College West London College, legally known as the Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College is a large further and higher education college in West London, England, formed in 2002 by the merger between Ealing Tertiary College and Hammersmith and West ...
, and got involved with MUDs early, playing Essex MUD at the age of 12, in 1982. While still at university, he worked as a god on Avalon: The Legend Lives and co-founded the Avalon dial-up service in 1990, moving services to the internet in 1994, the same year that he graduated from the
University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...
, with a degree in Computer Science and Philosophy. In 1995, he founded another company, Sense Internet. In 1998, he moved to the United States to work for
Sierra Online Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game gen ...
, as a designer on Middle-earth Online. While in the United States, he met Michael Bayne and they founded
Three Rings Design Three Rings Design, Inc. was an American video game developer based in San Francisco. It was founded on March 30, 2001, by Daniel James (game developer), Daniel James and Michael Bayne. The company was named in honor of the Three Rings of the El ...
to create ''
Puzzle Pirates ''Puzzle Pirates'' (also known as ''Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates'') is a massively multiplayer online game developed by Three Rings Design (Later owned by Grey Havens LLC). During the 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interac ...
''. It was launched in 2003. It has been followed by '' Bang Howdy'', '' Whirled'', '' Corpse Craft'' and '' Spiral Knights'', in partnership with
SEGA is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...
. In March 2011 Three Rings announced a partnership with the BBC to create an online game based on
Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...
. He is a member of the
IGDA The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is a nonprofit professional association whose stated mission is to "support and empower game developers around the world in achieving fulfilling and sustainable careers." The IGDA is incorp ...
Online Games An online game is a video game that is either partially or primarily played through the Internet or any other computer network available. Online games are ubiquitous on modern gaming platforms, including PCs, consoles and mobile devices, a ...
SIG, and a frequent speaker or moderator at industry conferences such as
E3 (short for Electronic Entertainment Expo) was an annual trade event for the video game industry organized and presented by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). It was held principally in Los Angeles from 1995 to 2019, with its fina ...
, GDC, and the
Austin Games Conference Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...
.


The First Church of the Grey Goo

According to
ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is a global multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization headquartered in the United States responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several dat ...
's
WhoIs WHOIS (pronounced as the phrase "who is") is a query and response protocol that is used for querying databases that store an Internet resource's registered users or assignees. These resources include domain names, IP address blocks and autonomo ...
James & Three Rings Design are the registrant for the website of The First Church of the Grey Goo. The site proclaims and praises the inevitability of nanomachines replacing mankind as "prophesied" by
Bill Joy William Nelson Joy (born November 8, 1954) is an American computer engineer and venture capitalist. He co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 along with Scott McNealy, Vinod Khosla, and Andy Bechtolsheim, and served as Chief Scientist and CTO ...
. It is unclear whether this site is an attempt at humor, earnest, or related to an upcoming or unreleased video game. Registration was on February 16, 2000 and expires in 2016. There have been no changes to the site since its first archiving by the
Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 2001, the service allows users to go "back in ...
on June 25, 2001. On February 11, 2020 the site's domain information has been updated, and expires in 2022.


References


Daniel James' personal website

Daniel James' blog

DreamStation interview
September 29, 2003


IGDA Online Games webpage





External links


Official Three Rings Website

Puzzle Pirates Website

Whirled Website

Spiral Knights Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:James, Daniel 1971 births Living people British video game designers Canadian video game designers Three Rings Design Alumni of the University of Leeds People educated at Holland Park School