Looking Glass Studios

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Looking Glass Studios was a computer game development company during the 1990s. The company originally formed as Looking Glass Technologies, when Blue Sky Productions and Lerner Research merged. Their games were regarded for demonstrating innovative gameplay, pioneering physics, and well-written, engaging stories. However, many of their games, despite wide critical acclaim, sold poorly in comparison to contemporary rivals.

Their best known games series were Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and . In 1997, the company merged with Intermetrics, Inc [link]. The company went out of business on May 24, 2000 during a financial crisis related to their publisher at the time, Eidos Interactive.

Originally based in Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1994 the company moved to Cambridge. A significant number of Looking Glass personnel were MIT graduates. Looking Glass also had satellite offices in Austin, TX and Redmond, Washington [link].

People

After the company folded, people from Looking Glass went on to work at Ion Storm, Irrational Games, Harmonix, Arkane Studios and to found Digital Eel, amongst other later studios. Ion Storm developed ', the third game in the Thief franchise. Ex-Looking Glass personnel have worked on such games as Deus Ex, Half-Life 2, while others worked on such games as ', among others.

The following people worked on projects with Looking Glass Studios (by no means an all-inclusive list):

Carol Lynne Angell, Sean Barrett, Seamus Blackley, Rex Bradford, Eric Brosius, Terri Brosius, Rich Carlson, Chris Carollo, Doug Church, Steve Desilets, Alex Duran, Robert Fermier, James Fleming, Matt Gilpin, Austin Grossman,Steve Haber ,Dorian Hart, Brian Jacobson, Kate Jenkins, Iikka Keränen, Darren Lafreniere, Lulu Lamer, Chris Laskowski, Marc LeBlanc, Tom Leonard, Ken Levine, Greg LoPiccolo, Art Min, Steve Nadeau, Paul Neurath, Jon Maiara, Peg O'Connell, Emil Pagliarulo, Michael Ryan, Dan Schmidt, Harvey Smith, Randy Smith, Warren Spector, Tim Stellmach, Matt Toschlog, Greg Travis, Allen Varney, Jeff Yaus.

List of titles

F-22 Interceptor for the Sega Genesis (1991)
(1992)
Car and Driver (1992)
John Madden Football '93 for the Sega Genesis (1992)
(1993)
System Shock (1994)
Flight Unlimited (1995)
(1996)
British Open Championship Golf (1997)
Flight Unlimited II (1997)
(1998)
(1999)
Command and Conquer for the Nintendo 64 (1999)
System Shock 2 (1999) (assisting Irrational Games)
Flight Unlimited III (1999)
Destruction Derby 64 for the Nintendo 64 (1999)
(2000)
Flight Combat: Thunder Over Europe (in development when company folded)

External links

[Through The Looking Glass: Honoring the Legacy of Looking Glass Studios]
[An illustrated history of Looking Glass Studios]
[IGN PC article on the closure of Looking Glass]
[Reasons for the Fall: A Post-Mortem On Looking Glass Studios]
[Final Days] a photographic tribute to Looking Glass Studios

Looking Glass Studios

Ultima Underworld series -
System Shock series System Shock - System Shock 2 (co-developed)
Thief series
Flight Unlimited series Flight Unlimited - Flight Unlimited II - Flight Unlimited III
Other games Car and Driver - British Open Championship Golf -

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Ultima Underworld series	-
System Shock series	System Shock - System Shock 2 (co-developed)
Thief series
Flight Unlimited series	Flight Unlimited - Flight Unlimited II - Flight Unlimited III
Other games	Car and Driver - British Open Championship Golf -