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Phenomenally successful puzzler Lemmings is legendary games creator Dave Jones’ proudest achievement.
Speaking to VideoGamer.com in an interview from the Brighton Develop conference, the Realtime Worlds boss said Lemmings, a game he wrote himself while at DMA Design, was “very, very special”.
Scot Dave Jones founded Realtime Worlds, now developing ambitious PC online action game APB, co-founded Rockstar North (formerly DMA Design), and had a hand in the creation of the Grand Theft Auto series and the Xbox 360 exclusive Crackdown.
When asked what game he was most proud of, Jones told VideoGamer.com: “I suppose it would be Lemmings actually. It just happened instantly. It was inspired by an animation, so the idea came together probably in an hour. We actually named the game in that hour. I have never worked on a game where you come up with an idea and you name it within an hour and then a year later it still comes out with that name.”
Puzzle game Lemmings was published by Psygnosis in 1991 originally for the Commodore Amiga. It enjoyed impressive success, and spawned a number of sequels and ports.
The aim of the game is to save at least the required number of lemmings using eight different skills that allow them to alter the 2D landscape and affect their behaviour as they march inexorably to their own destruction.
Jones added more reasons for his choice: “In terms of it being so, so different. Probably because it was the last game I personally wrote as well. Effectively after the Lemmings games the teams were too big. So I suppose for all those reasons Lemmings is the one that still resonates the most with me. It was a pivotal point. And I did write it the way it came to be. For all those reasons to me it was very, very special.”
Be sure to check out the rest of the revealing interview, where Jones dishes the dirt on his design philosophies and the development of APB.
