Sir Ian Livingstone (born 29 December 1949) is an English fantasy author and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

. He co-founded

Games Workshop Games Workshop Group (often abbreviated as GW) is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are ''Warhammer (game), Warhammer'' and ''Warhammer 40,000''. Founded in 1975 by John Peake ...

in 1975 and helped create

Eidos Interactive Eidos Interactive Limited (formerly Domark Limited) was a British video game publisher based in Wimbledon, London. Among its franchises were '' Championship Manager'', '' Deus Ex'', ''Hitman'', '' Thief'' and ''Tomb Raider''. Domark was founded ...

as executive chairman of Eidos Plc in 1995. Along with Steve Jackson, he is also the co-creator of the '' Fighting Fantasy'' series of role-playing

gamebook A gamebook is a work of printed fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making choices. The narrative branches along various paths, typically through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages. Each narrative typically does not ...

s, and the author of many books within that series.

Early life

Livingstone attended Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, where, according to him, he only earned one

A-level The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational ...

, in Geography. He has kept his close links with the school and has visited it on numerous occasions.

Career

Games Workshop

Livingstone co-founded

in early 1975 with flatmates John Peake and Steve Jackson. They began publishing the monthly newsletter ''

Owl and Weasel ''Owl and Weasel'' was a newsletter for board gamers, role-playing gamers and wargamers, published in London, England, by Games Workshop. A total of 25 issues were published from February 1975 until April 1977; it was edited by Steve Jackson a ...

'', and distributed copies of the first issue to

fanzine A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleas ...

Albion Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than "Britain" today. The name for Scot ...

'' subscribers; Brian Blume received one of these copies, and sent them a copy of the new game ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'' in return. Livingstone and Jackson found this game to be more imaginative than games produced in the UK at the time, and so worked out an arrangement with Blume for an exclusive deal to sell ''D&D'' in Europe. They began distributing ''Dungeons & Dragons'' and other TSR products later in 1975. Livingstone and Jackson organised a convention for their first time in late 1975, which became known as the first

Games Day Games Day is a yearly run gaming convention sponsored by Games Workshop. It was started in 1975, after another games convention scheduled for August that year cancelled. Games Workshop decided to fill the resulting gap by running a gaming day of t ...

. Because they were selling products out of their flat, customers would come there looking for a store that did not exist; because of this their landlord evicted them in summer 1976. Under the direction of Livingstone and Jackson, Games Workshop expanded from a bedroom mail order company to a successful gaming manufacturer and retail chain, with the first Games Workshop store opening in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...

in 1977. In June of that year, partially to advertise the opening, Livingstone and Jackson launched the gaming magazine ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a Compact star, stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very density, dense: in an Earth sized volume, it packs a mass that is comparable to the Sun. No nuclear fusion takes place i ...

'', with Livingstone as the editor. Livingstone chose the title, which had meaning relevant to both the fantasy and science fiction genres: a ''white dwarf'' could be a reference to both a stellar phenomenon and to a fantasy character. Livingstone ended his run as editor after ''White Dwarf'' #74 (February 1986). In 1980, Livingstone and Jackson began to develop the concept of the '' Fighting Fantasy''

series, the first volume of which (''

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain ''The Warlock of Firetop Mountain'' is a single-player adventure gamebook written by Steve Jackson (UK game designer), Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, and illustrated by Russ Nicholson. Originally published by Puffin Books in 1982, the titl ...

'') was published in 1982 by

Puffin Books Puffin Books is a longstanding children's imprint of the British publishers Penguin Books. Since the 1960s, it has been among the largest publishers of children's books in the UK and much of the English-speaking world. The imprint now belongs to ...

. Livingstone and Jackson sold Games Workshop in 1991 for million. The pair, together with Bryan Ansell, founded

Citadel Miniatures Citadel Miniatures Limited is a company which produces metal, resin and plastic miniature figure (gaming), miniature figures for tabletop wargames such as ''Warhammer Fantasy Battle'' and ''Warhammer 40,000''. In the past, Citadel Miniatures w ...

in Newark to make miniatures for games. Livingstone has also invented several board games, including ''Boom Town'', ''

Judge Dredd Judge Joseph Dredd is a fictional character created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra. He first appeared in the second issue of the British weekly anthology Comic book, comic ''2000 AD (comics), 2000 AD'' (1977). He is the magazi ...

'', ''Automania'', '' Legend of Zagor'', and ''Dragonmasters''.

''Fighting Fantasy''

In 1982, Jackson and Livingstone co-wrote ''

'', the first book in the '' Fighting Fantasy'' series, but following an instruction from publishers

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

to write more books "as quickly as possible" the pair wrote subsequent books separately. The series had sold over 18 million copies as of 2017, with Livingstone's ''

Deathtrap Dungeon ''Deathtrap Dungeon'' is a single-player Gamebook#Adventures, adventure gamebook written by Ian Livingstone, and illustrated by Iain McCaig. Originally published by Puffin Books in 1984, the title is the sixth gamebook in the ''Fighting Fantasy'' ...

'' selling over 350,000 copies in its first year alone. Livingstone wrote another twelve ''Fighting Fantasy'' gamebooks, including '' The Forest of Doom'', '' City of Thieves'' and '' Caverns of the Snow Witch'' before marking the 30th anniversary of ''The Warlock of Firetop Mountain'' with a new gamebook, ''Blood of the Zombies'', in 2012, and with ''The Port of Peril'' in 2017 for the 35th anniversary.

Video games

In the mid-1980s Livingstone did design work for video game publisher Domark; he returned to the company in 1993 as a major investor and board member. Livingstone later recounted, "After the success of Games Workshop, I retired, got bored, and invested in Domark to fund their cartridge development. I got in at just the wrong time - it was all going flat." In 1995, Domark was acquired by the video technology company Eidos, which had been floated on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

in 1990, and formed the major part of the newly created Eidos plc, known for

. Livingstone resigned as executive chairman in 2002 and became creative director. In 2005 Eidos was taken over by SCi and Livingstone was the only former board member to be retained, taking on the role of product acquisition director. Livingstone secured many of the company's major franchises, including ''Tomb Raider'' and ''Hitman''. He contributed to the Tomb Raider project '' Tomb Raider: Anniversary'' (an enhanced version of the original ''Tomb Raider'' game), which was released in 2007. In 2009, Japanese video-game company

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, video game publisher and entertainment conglomerate. It releases role-playing video game, role-playing game franchises, such as ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', and '' ...

completed a buyout of Eidos Interactive and Livingstone was promoted to Life President of Eidos, a position he resigned from in 2013. In 2014 Livingstone appeared in the documentary feature film '' From Bedrooms to Billions'' (2014) a film that tells the story of the British Video Games Industry from 1979 to present. In 2021 Freeway Fighters received an adaptation on Viber and messenger, created by a Talk-a-Bot chatbot company over Viber and messenger. Livingstone was the non-executive chairman of Sumo Group from 2015 to 2022. He is a general partner at Hiro Capital, which invested in

Skybound Entertainment Skybound Entertainment is an American multiplatform entertainment company founded by Robert Kirkman and David Alpert. It operates in concert with Image Comics. History Skybound Entertainment is the company behind the long-running comic series, ...

in 2022.

Educational

In 2010 Livingstone was asked to act as the Skills Champion by government minister Ed Vaizey, tasked with producing a report reviewing the UK video games industry. The 'NextGen' report, co-authored with Alex Hope of visual effects firm

Double Negative A double negative is a construction occurring when two forms of grammatical negation are used in the same sentence. This is typically used to convey a different shade of meaning from a strictly positive sentence ("You're not unattractive" vs "You ...

, was released in 2011; Livingstone described it as a "complete bottom up review of the whole education system relating to games." A school named Livingstone Academy was planned for 2021.

Awards and honours

*In 2002, Livingstone won the BAFTA Interactive Special Award for outstanding contribution to the industry. *Livingstone was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) in the 2006 New Year Honours, and

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours both for services to the computer gaming industry. *In 2011, Livingstone received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from

Bournemouth University Bournemouth University is a public university in Bournemouth, England, with its main campus situated in neighbouring Poole. The university was founded in 1992; however, the origins of its predecessor date back to the early 1900s. The universi ...

. *Livingstone was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in the

2022 New Year Honours The 2022 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

for services to the online gaming industry.

Bibliography

Fighting Fantasy

* ''

'' (1982) with Steve Jackson,

* '' The Forest of Doom'' (1983) * '' City of Thieves'' (1983) * ''

'' (1984) * '' Island of the Lizard King'' (1984) * '' Caverns of the Snow Witch'' (1984) * '' Freeway Fighter'' (1985) * '' Temple of Terror'' (1985) * '' Trial of Champions'' (1986) * '' Crypt of the Sorcerer'' (1987) * '' Armies of Death'' (1988) * '' Return to Firetop Mountain'' (1992) * ''Eye of the Dragon'' (2005) * ''Blood of the Zombies'' (2012) * ''The Port of Peril'' (2017) * ''Assassins of Allansia'' (2019) * ''Shadow of the Giants'' (2022)

Fighting Fantasy First Adventures: Adventures of Goldhawk

* ''Darkmoon's Curse (1995) * ''The Demon Spider'' (1995) * ''Mudworm Swamp'' (1995) * ''Ghost Road'' (1995)

Other works

* '' Dicing with Dragons'' (1982) * ''Eureka!'' (1984), Domark * ''Shadowmaster'' (1992) with

Marc Gascoigne Marc Gascoigne is a British author and editor. He is the editor, author or co-author of more than fifty books and gaming related titles, including '' Fighting Fantasy'' books, ''Shadowrun'' novels and adventures, '' Earthdawn'' novels and advent ...

* ''Casket of Souls'' (1987) *''Board Games in 100 Moves: 8,000 Years of Play'' (2019) with James Wallis *''Dice Men: The Origin Story of Games Workshop'' (2022)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Livingstone, Ian 1949 births BAFTA winners (people) British gamebook writers Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Dungeons & Dragons game designers English fantasy writers Fighting Fantasy Games Workshop Knights Bachelor Living people People educated at Altrincham Grammar School for Boys People from Prestbury, Cheshire