William Pugh (born 1994/1995) is a British game designer best known for his work on ''

The Stanley Parable ''The Stanley Parable'' is a story-based video game designed and written by developers Davey Wreden and William Pugh. The game carries themes such as choice in video games, the relationship between a game creator and player, and predestination ...

''.

Early life and career

William Pugh's parents are art teachers. He developed an interest in video games after playing a Nintendo 64 during a hospital visit when he was six. He studied at the

Leeds College of Art Leeds Arts University is a specialist arts further and higher education institution, based in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with a main campus opposite the University of Leeds. History It was founded in 1846 as the Leeds Schoo ...

for two weeks, but dropped out to work on video games. Pugh taught himself video game environment design through working on modifications, or mods, of video games by

Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fittings ...

. He made

levels Level or levels may refer to: Engineering *Level (instrument), a device used to measure true horizontal or relative heights *Spirit level, an instrument designed to indicate whether a surface is horizontal or vertical *Canal pound or level *Regr ...

for ''

Team Fortress 2 ''Team Fortress 2'' is a 2007 multiplayer first-person shooter, first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to the 1996 ''Team Fortress'' Mod (video gaming), mod for ''Quake (video game), Quake'' and ...

'', campaigns for '' Left 4 Dead 2'', and puzzles in ''

Portal Portal often refers to: * Portal (architecture), an opening in a wall of a building, gate or fortification, or the extremities (ends) of a tunnel Portal may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * ''Portal'' (series), two video games ...

''. His work earned him a Saxxy Award, a fan-voted award for ''Team Fortress 2''-based creations. Pugh first heard of the Source engine mod of '' Half-Life 2'' known as ''

'' from ''

Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before being ...

'' creator Markus Persson's

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

feed. Pugh wanted to work on a larger project and so contacted the mod's creator, Davey Wreden. They decided to work on a remastered, standalone version of ''The Stanley Parable'' together. Development of the full game took two years, mainly through remote collaboration software Dropbox and

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...

. Pugh started an unnamed development studio following the game's release to work on several projects, saying that "we've got the money and freedom to just go wild, so we've been doing exactly that". Pugh presented on ''The Stanley Parable'' development at the 2015 Game Developers Conference. Reflecting on the game's release, he said he was less interested in the technical work of sound and texture editing, and would instead prefer to outsource those jobs to focus on writing.

Crows Crows Crows

Pugh founded the independent video game studio Crows Crows Crows in October 2015. The studio's first game was '' Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist'', a free title released in December 2015. The meta-fictional game, in which the player explores and interacts with the backstage elements of a video game demonstration while waiting to play it, includes voice work from

Justin Roiland Mark Justin Roiland (born February 21, 1980) is an American voice actor, animator, writer, producer, and director. He is best known as the co-creator of Adult Swim's ''Rick and Morty'' and its subsequent Rick and Morty (franchise), franchise. H ...

, of ''

Rick and Morty {{Infobox television , image = Rick and Morty title card (cropped).png , alt = , caption = , genre = {{Plainlist, * Animated sitcom * Adult animation * Science fiction * Black comedy * ...

'', and Simon Amstell. Crows Crows Crows has released two other games using the

itch.io Itch.io (stylized as itch.io) is a website for users to host, sell and download indie games. Launched in March 2013 by Leaf Corcoran, the service hosts over 500,000 games and items (assets, ebooks, music) . Itch.io also allows users to host ...

platform. ''The Magpie Collection'' is a series of ten short games by various developers including Pugh, compiled by the studio, which were developed following an IndieGoGo to raise money to help replace equipment stolen from several developers at the 2015 A MAZE event in Berlin. ''The Temple of No'', released in June 2016, is a text-based adventure game using the Twine platform. Roiland announced in September 2015 that he would be working on a virtual reality game for the HTC Vive with Pugh. The collaboration, called ''

Accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "languag ...

'', was released as a free download on Microsoft Windows in 2016. Pugh and Roiland's collaboration began after a chance Twitter conversation in September 2015. Roiland, who was in the proximity of the offices of

Respawn Entertainment Respawn Entertainment, LLC is an American video game development studio founded by Jason West and Vince Zampella. West and Zampella previously co-founded Infinity Ward and created the '' Call of Duty'' franchise, where they were responsible for ...

in California, called out on Twitter if anyone at Respawn was a fan of ''Rick and Morty'' and could give him a tour. Pugh reached out to reply, lying about working at Respawn as he was still in the United Kingdom, and offering him a tour. Pugh sent further messages to Roiland feigning that he just missed him, but eventually fessed up. Roiland recognized Pugh's name from ''The Stanley Parable'' and was impressed by the whole "weird switcheroonie". Pugh then flew out to Los Angeles where he and Justin spent a week performing a

game jam A game jam is an event where participants try to make a video game from scratch. Depending on the format, participants might work independently, or in teams. The event duration usually ranges from 24 to 72 hours. Participants are generally program ...

to develop the basics of ''Accounting'', which was then developed into a full game through remote collaboration.

Works

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pugh, William (game designer) Living people Video game designers Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth uncertain Indie video game developers Year of birth missing (living people)

Early life and career

Crows Crows Crows

Works

References

Further reading

External links