Paul Jaquays

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Paul A. Jaquays
Born October 14, 1956 (1956-10-14) (age 55)
Occupation Game designer and artist
Nationality United States
Genres Role-playing games, video games
Spouse(s) Christine Jaquays
www.jaquays.com

Paul Jaquays (born October 14, 1956[1]) is a game designer and artist of table-top role-playing games (RPGs) and video games.

Some of his notable works include the Dungeons & Dragons modules "Dark Tower" and "Caverns of Thracia" for Judges Guild; development and design of conversions on games such as Pac-Man and Donkey Kong for Coleco's home arcade video game system; and more recent design work for various video games, including the Age of Empires series, Quake 2, and Quake III Arena.

The most renowned of his many works as a fantasy artist is the cover illustration for TSR's Dragon Mountain game.[2][3]

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Living from an early age in the United States in Michigan and Indiana, Jaquays graduated from Jackson County Western High School (Michigan) in 1974 and Spring Arbor College in 1978 with a BA in Fine Art.[4][5]

[edit] The Dungeoneer and fantasy roleplaying

While still at college he became interested in science-fiction and fantasy gaming and the nascent role-playing game industry through the pages of The Space Gamer. He founded The Dungeoneer, one of the early fanzines dedicated to the subject, in 1976. The magazine was marketed as a "dungeonmaster's publication", and was noteworthy for its pioneering approach to pre-factored adventures ("F'Chelrak's Tomb" was published in June 1976, the same month as Wee Warriors' Palace of the Vampire Queen). The publication was an inspiration for many later such magazines in the United States and elsewhere.[6][7][8][9][10][11]

In addition to these "honest efforts at quality contents to interest readers", Jaquays began submitting artwork TSR's in-house gaming magazine, The Dragon, in 1976. He first appeared in the premiere issue of that publication; later contributions included the cover of issue #21.[10][12]

[edit] Judges Guild, later independent roleplaying projects, and TSR

Jaquays decided to sell his interest in The Dungeoneer just before graduating to focus on his art studio work. He later followed the new owner, Charles Anshell, to Judges Guild, which was by late 1978 providing prolific material and officially licensed products for TSR's Dungeons & Dragons line.[11]

Anshell retained a level of editorial control over The Dungeoneer, one of Judges Guild's two gaming periodicals. Jaquays worked on two stand-alone modules for Dungeons & Dragons, Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia, which were completed before he left the company in October 1979. He provided various content on a freelance basis thereafter, particularly to The Dungeoneer.[11][13]

Jaquays changed the direction of his career toward video games in the early 1980s, but continued to work as a freelancer for various table-top game publishers, including Chaosium, TSR, Game Designers Workshop, West End Games, Flying Buffalo, and Iron Crown Enterprises. In particular he did a lot of freelance work from 1986 to 1993 whilst running his own design studio.[14][15]

From 1993 to 1997, he returned to full time employment in the table-top gaming industry as an illustrator for TSR, including a six month period as Director of Graphics, leaving just before their takeover by Wizards of the Coast. During this time, he played an active role in the creation of the Dragon Dice game, both as cover artist and icon designer.[14]

[edit] Freelance artwork

In addition to his many gaming artwork contributions, including artwork spread over two decades to TSR's first-line periodicals, Dragon and Dungeon, Jaquays worked as an illustrator and cartoonist for the Jackson Citizen Patriot in 1980. During the latter 1980s he was a regular interior artist for Amazing Stories, and contributed one cover.[16][17]

[edit] Video game industry

After leaving Judges Guild, Jaquays worked for Coleco, first in a freelance capacity from 1980, then as a full-time employee from 1981 to 1985. He developed and designed arcade conversions of many well-known titles such as Pac-Man and Donkey Kong for their home arcade video game system. He eventually became director of game design.[2]

During his freelance design studio period in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he continued his involvement in the video game industry, with concept and design work for Epyx, Interplay Entertainment, and Electronic Arts.[15]

From March 1997, Jaquays was employed as level designer for id Software, best known for their Quake series of video games, before moving to Dallas-based Ensemble Studios, which had "become a haven for ex-id Software developers". He worked there from early 2002 until the company's closure in January 2009 with former tabletop and computer gaming associate Sandy Petersen, who had previously hired Jaquays at id Software as a content designer.[18][19][20][21]

Jaquays co-founded The Guildhall at SMU, a video game university located at the Plano campus of the Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, in 2003. He helped create much of the original curriculum material.[3][22][23][24]

As of October 2009 he was employed as a senior level designer with CCP North America in Stone Mountain, Georgia, the regional division of CCP hf of Iceland. The company is best known for their science fiction MMORPG EVE Online.[3]

[edit] Personal life

Having recently[when?] moved from Texas, Jaquays currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife Christine and three cats. He has two children from a previous marriage and a stepdaughter from his current marriage, and has described himself as "politically, economically, and religiously conservative".[20] One of his children worked with him on the PC version of Age of Empires 3.

[edit] Awards and honors

One of the many "unsung heroes" of the gaming industry, Jaquays' Dark Tower was nominated for the 1979 H.G. Wells award for Best Roleplaying Adventure. In November 2004, as part of the 30th Anniversary celebration for Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeon magazine produced a list of the "thirty greatest D&D Adventures of All Time". Dark Tower was the only entry on the list not published by TSR.[25]

Jaquays was co-author and illustrator for Chaosium's Griffin Mountain RuneQuest scenario. Set in Glorantha, this highly-praised scenario was nominated for the 1981 H.G. Welles award. The reworked version, Griffin Island, was nominated for the same award in 1986.[15]

Coleco's Wargames, for which Jaquays was co-designer of game play, won the 1984 Summer C.E.S. original software award.[15]

As a level designer for TSR's Castle Greyhawk module, Jaquays shared the 1989 Origins Gamer's Choice Award for Best Role-Playing Adventure.[26]

[edit] Partial bibliography of works in print

[edit] Partial list of video game credits

Title Released System name Role
Donkey Kong July 1982 ColecoVision Project leader, design, and graphics conversion
Omega Race 1983 ColecoVision Project leader, design, and graphics conversion
WarGames 1984 ColecoVision Project leader, gameplay co-designer
4x4 Off-Road Racing 1988 Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Amiga, DOS, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum Game design
The Bard's Tale IV 1991–92 (unpublished) Rewrite and integration
Quake 2 [27] December 9, 1997 Amiga (68k), AmigaOS 4 (PowerPC), Nintendo 64, Macintosh, BeOS, Linux, Windows, PlayStation, Zeebo Designer and level designer
Quake III Arena [28] December 2, 1999 Linux, Microsoft Windows, IRIX, Mac OS, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Xbox Live Arcade Designer and level designer
Quake III: Team Arena [29] December 2000 Designer and level designer
Age of Empires III October 18, 2005 Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Windows Mobile, N-Gage Artist
Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs March 7, 2006 Windows, Mac OS X Artist
Halo Wars February 26, 2009 Xbox 360 Artist and level designer

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Paul Jaquays Biography (Quake3World.com)". Archived from the original on 2005-04-26. http://web.archive.org/web/20050426113233/http://quake3world.com/bios/Paul-Jaquays.shtml. Retrieved 2009-11-01. 
  2. ^ a b "Paul Jaquays – About Paul". http://www.jaquays.com/paul/about.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-05. 
  3. ^ a b c Varney, Allen (Dec, 3 2009). "Gaming's Renaissance Man". The Escapist. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/days-of-high-adventure/6847-Gamings-Renaissance-Man. Retrieved 2009-12-03. 
  4. ^ "Personal Biography (Paul Jaquays)". http://www.classmates.com/profile/user/view/story?registrationId=34743711. Retrieved 2009-12-05. 
  5. ^ Jaquays, Paul (1979). "My Life and Role-Playing". Different Worlds (Albany, California: Chaosium) (1): 24–26. 
  6. ^ "Dungeoneer Magazine – issues 1–6 (Acaeum.com)". http://www.acaeum.com/jg/DungeoneerMags1-6.html. Retrieved 2009-12-05. 
  7. ^ "Controlled Chaos Media: Biographies – Paul Jaquays". http://cchaosmedia.com/company/biographies/. Retrieved 2009-12-05. 
  8. ^ Jaquays, Paul (June 1976). "F'Chelrak's Tomb". The Dungeoneer (Spring Arbor, Michigan: The Fantastic Dungeoning Society) (1): 9–12. 
  9. ^ Alexander, Phil (July 1977). "Editorial". Underworld Oracle (Edinburgh, United Kingdom: Cyclops Productions) (1): 2. 
  10. ^ a b Gygax, Gary (June 1979). "From the Sorceror's Scroll (Editorial)". The Dragon (TSR) (26): 39. 
  11. ^ a b c Jaquays, Paul. "History of the Dungeoneer Fanzine". http://www.acaeum.com/jg/HistoryDungeoneer.html. Retrieved 2009-11-01. 
  12. ^ Gold, Lee (June 1976). "Languages or, Could you repeat that in Auld Wormish? (illustration by Jaquays)". The Dragon (TSR) (1): 9. 
  13. ^ Fawcett, William (December 1980). "Here comes the Judges Guild". The Dragon (TSR) (44). 
  14. ^ a b Sacco, Ciro Alessandro (May 6, 2009). "Interview with Paul Jaquays". http://www.acaeum.com/forum/about8390.html. Retrieved 2009-12-01. 
  15. ^ a b c d "Paul Jaquays – Product List". http://jaquays.com/paul/product.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-05. 
  16. ^ "Paul Jaquays – Art & Illustration". http://www.jaquays.com/paul/illustrationart.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-05. 
  17. ^ "Paul Jaquays at isfdb.org". http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Paul_Jaquays. Retrieved 2009-12-05. 
  18. ^ "Paul Jaquays (at Allgame)". Allgame. http://www.allgame.com/person.php?id=2214. Retrieved 2009-12-05. 
  19. ^ "GameSpot Expert Advice: Paul Jaquays". http://uk.gamespot.com/features/3d_design/paul.html. Retrieved 2009-12-01. 
  20. ^ a b "quake2.com: Interview with Paul Jaquays". http://www.quake2.com/qworkshop/features/interviews/jaquays.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-01. 
  21. ^ "Ensemble Studios to close". http://www.el33tonline.com/past/2008/9/10/ensemble_studios_to_close/. Retrieved 2009-12-01. 
  22. ^ "Paul Jaquays on the Guildhall". The Guildhall at SMU. March 26, 2003. http://guildhall2.smu.edu/news/jaquays-qa.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-01. 
  23. ^ "The Guildhall at SMU advertisement". The Guildhall at SMU. March 26, 2003. http://guildhall2.smu.edu/news/jaquays-ad2003.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-05. 
  24. ^ Schnurman, Mitchell. "University in Dallas hopes to win with video games", Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Redistributed by Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, July 30, 2003.
  25. ^ Mona, Erik; James Jacobs (November 2004). "The 30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time". Dungeon (Bellevue, Washington: Paizo Publishing) (116). http://dnd.wikia.com/wiki/Dungeon_Design_Panel. Retrieved 2009-12-05. 
  26. ^ "Game Info – WG7: Castle Greyhawk (at RPG.net)". RPGnet. http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=1203. Retrieved 2009-12-05. 
  27. ^ "Quake II – Game Credits". Allgame. http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=6662&tab=credits. Retrieved 2009-12-05. 
  28. ^ "Quake III Arena – Game Credits". Allgame. http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=18813&tab=credits. Retrieved 2009-12-05. 
  29. ^ "Quake III Team Arena – Game Credits". Allgame. http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=25693&tab=credits. Retrieved 2009-12-05. 

[edit] External links

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