After some misadventures with other development contracts, we unexpectedly found ourselves back at work with Looking Glass as a company rather than as employees. We wanted to nail down a rigorous and technologically feasible design, focus on game play, and force ourselves to make decisions rather than allow ourselves to stagnate in indecision.
Frustration with the 18 months wasted on Voyager and a certain amount of hubris prompted three of us to strike out on our own to test our game design and management ideas. At the time, Looking Glass was in financial and creative disarray after a series of titles that, though critically acclaimed, had failed to meet sales expectations, the latest being Terra Nova and British Open Championship Golf. Three years ago, Ken Levine, Rob Fermier and I were developers at Looking Glass, struggling with the aftermath of Voyager, an aborted Star Trek: Voyager-licensed project. Looking Glass Studios is familiar to many as the creator of a series of highly innovative titles including the original System Shock, the Ultima Underworld series, the Flight Unlimited line and Terra Nova, among others. Let's step back and trace the origins of the companies and the project.
