Ian Livingstone
Encyclopedia
Ian Livingstone OBE
(born December 1949 in Prestbury, Cheshire
, England) is an English fantasy author
and entrepreneur
. He is a co-writer of the first Fighting Fantasy
gamebook
, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
, and co-founder of Games Workshop
.
, and left armed with (he claims) only one A level in Geography. He has retained his close links with the school on numerous occasions including to donate money for a refurbishment of the ICT
suite, and also to give a speech and present awards to the GCSE graduates of 1998.
in early 1975 with flatmates John Peake and Steve Jackson
, and began distributing Dungeons & Dragons
and other TSR
products later that year.
Under the direction of Livingstone and Jackson, Games Workshop expanded from being a bedroom mail order company to a successful gaming manufacturer and retail chain. In June 1977, partially to advertise the opening of the first Games Workshop store, Livingstone and Jackson launched the gaming magazine White Dwarf, which Livingstone edited for the first 74 issues.
They opened a number of Games Workshop stores and then Ian and Steve together with Bryan Ansell
founded Citadel Miniatures
in Newark to make miniatures for games.
Ian Livingstone has been the host of the executive level GameHorizon conference for the last 3 years.
series, but following an instruction from publishers Penguin
to write more books "as quickly as possible", the pair wrote subsequent books separately. The series has sold over 14 million copies to date, with Livingstone's Deathtrap Dungeon
selling over 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom
alone.
, and in 1993 he returned to the company, this time as a major investor and board member. In 1995 Domark was acquired by the video technology company Eidos plc, which had floated on the London Stock Exchange
in 1990, and formed the major part of the newly created Eidos Interactive
. In 2005 Eidos was taken over by SCi
and Livingstone was then the only former board member to be retained, taking on the role of product acquisition director. He contributed to the Tomb Raider project entitled Tomb Raider: Anniversary (an enhanced version of the original Tomb Raider
game), which was released in 2007. In 2009, Japanese video-game company Square Enix
completed a buyout of Eidos Interactive and Ian was promoted to Life President of Eidos.
was released in 2011 and is a "complete bottom up review of the whole education system relating to games." (and visual effects)
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(born December 1949 in Prestbury, Cheshire
Prestbury, Cheshire
Prestbury is a village, civil parish and ecclesiastical parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. Prestbury is a long, narrow parish covering 1,165 hectares to the west of the Peak Park foothills and to the east of the sandstone ridge which is...
, England) is an English fantasy author
Fantasy author
The definition of a fantasy author is somewhat diffuse, and a matter of opinion – Jules Verne considered H. G. Wells to be a fantasy author – and there is considerable overlap with science fiction authors and horror fiction authors...
and entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
. He is a co-writer of the first Fighting Fantasy
Fighting Fantasy
Fighting Fantasy is a series of single-player fantasy roleplay gamebooks created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. The first volumes in the series were published by Puffin in 1982, with the rights to the franchise eventually being purchased by Wizard Books in 2002...
gamebook
Gamebook
A gamebook is a work of fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making effective choices. The narrative branches along various paths through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages...
, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is a single-player adventure gamebook written by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, and illustrated by Russ Nicholson. Originally published by Puffin Books in 1982, the title is the first gamebook in the Fighting Fantasy series. It was later republished by Wizard...
, and co-founder of Games Workshop
Games Workshop
Games Workshop Group plc is a British game production and retailing company. Games Workshop has published the tabletop wargames Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000...
.
Early life
Livingstone attended Altrincham Grammar School for BoysAltrincham Grammar School For Boys
-Admissions:The school is non-fee paying with admission via an entrance exam. It had foundation school status which allowed a degree of independence from the local education authority, but from 2011 under the UK Government's Free School Programme it attained Academy status.-Foundation:The school...
, and left armed with (he claims) only one A level in Geography. He has retained his close links with the school on numerous occasions including to donate money for a refurbishment of the ICT
Information and communication technologies
Information and communications technology or information and communication technology, usually abbreviated as ICT, is often used as an extended synonym for information technology , but is usually a more general term that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of...
suite, and also to give a speech and present awards to the GCSE graduates of 1998.
Games Workshop
Livingstone co-founded Games WorkshopGames Workshop
Games Workshop Group plc is a British game production and retailing company. Games Workshop has published the tabletop wargames Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000...
in early 1975 with flatmates John Peake and Steve Jackson
Steve Jackson (UK)
Steve Jackson is a game designer, writer and game reviewer.-History:In early 1975, Steve Jackson co-founded the company Games Workshop with John Peake and Ian Livingstone....
, and began distributing Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
and other TSR
TSR, Inc.
Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
products later that year.
Under the direction of Livingstone and Jackson, Games Workshop expanded from being a bedroom mail order company to a successful gaming manufacturer and retail chain. In June 1977, partially to advertise the opening of the first Games Workshop store, Livingstone and Jackson launched the gaming magazine White Dwarf, which Livingstone edited for the first 74 issues.
They opened a number of Games Workshop stores and then Ian and Steve together with Bryan Ansell
Bryan Ansell
Bryan Ansell is a British role-playing and war game designer. He founded Asgard Miniatures before creating Citadel Miniatures in the late 1970s...
founded Citadel Miniatures
Citadel Miniatures
Citadel Miniatures Limited is a company which produces metal, resin and plastic miniature figures for tabletop wargames such as Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000....
in Newark to make miniatures for games.
Ian Livingstone has been the host of the executive level GameHorizon conference for the last 3 years.
Fighting Fantasy
In 1981 Jackson and Livingstone co-wrote the first book in the Fighting FantasyFighting Fantasy
Fighting Fantasy is a series of single-player fantasy roleplay gamebooks created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. The first volumes in the series were published by Puffin in 1982, with the rights to the franchise eventually being purchased by Wizard Books in 2002...
series, but following an instruction from publishers Penguin
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
to write more books "as quickly as possible", the pair wrote subsequent books separately. The series has sold over 14 million copies to date, with Livingstone's Deathtrap Dungeon
Deathtrap Dungeon
Deathtrap Dungeon is a single-player adventure gamebook written by Ian Livingstone, and illustrated by Ian McCaig. Originally published by Puffin Books in 1984, the title is the sixth gamebook in the Fighting Fantasy series...
selling over 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
alone.
Videogame industry
In the mid 1980s Livingstone did some design work for video game publisher DomarkDomark
Domark Software was a video games software house based in the United Kingdom. The name was derived from the given names of its founders, Dominic Wheatley and Mark Strachan...
, and in 1993 he returned to the company, this time as a major investor and board member. In 1995 Domark was acquired by the video technology company Eidos plc, which had floated on the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
in 1990, and formed the major part of the newly created Eidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive Ltd. is a British video game publisher and is a label of Square Enix Europe. As an independent company Eidos plc was headquartered in the Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton....
. In 2005 Eidos was taken over by SCi
SCi
Square Enix Limited, doing business as Square Enix Europe, is a British publisher of video game software wholly owned by Square Enix. Square Enix Europe has its head office in the Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton....
and Livingstone was then the only former board member to be retained, taking on the role of product acquisition director. He contributed to the Tomb Raider project entitled Tomb Raider: Anniversary (an enhanced version of the original Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. It was originally released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn, with MS-DOS and PlayStation versions following shortly thereafter...
game), which was released in 2007. In 2009, Japanese video-game company Square Enix
Square Enix
is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...
completed a buyout of Eidos Interactive and Ian was promoted to Life President of Eidos.
Skills Champion
In 2010 Livingstone was asked to act as the Skills Champion by Ed Vaizey, tasked with producing a report reviewing the UK video games industry. The report, co-authored with Alex Hope of visual effects firm Double NegativeDouble Negative (VFX)
Double Negative is a British full-service visual effects/computer animation company located in Soho, London. The company was set up in 1998 with a team of 30 staff and has since grown to over 900 staff, making it one of Europe's largest provider of visual effects for film.In 2009, Double Negative...
was released in 2011 and is a "complete bottom up review of the whole education system relating to games." (and visual effects)
Awards
- In 2002, Livingstone won the Gift of the Academy in the BAFTABritish Academy of Film and Television ArtsThe British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
Interactive Entertainment Awards for outstanding contribution to the community.
- Livingstone was awarded an Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, for "Services to the Computer Games Industry" in the New Years Honours List 2006.
- In 2011, Livingstone was made an honorary doctor by Bournemouth UniversityBournemouth UniversityBournemouth University is a university in and around the large south coast town of Bournemouth, UK...
.
External links
- Biography
- GameSpot Interview - Interview with GameSpotGameSpotGameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
about the Tomb Raider series and the console warsHistory of video game consoles (seventh generation)In the history of video games, the seventh generation of consoles is the current generation , and includes consoles released since late by Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony... - Ian Livingstone Article at Titannica the Fighting Fantasy Wiki hosted by WikiaWikiaWikia is a free web hosting service for wikis . It is normally free of charge for readers and editors, deriving most of its income from advertising, and publishes all user-provided text under copyleft licenses. Wikia hosts several hundred thousand wikis using the open-source wiki software MediaWiki...
- Ian Livingstone's speech at the Game Based Learning Conference, London, March 2009
- Ian Livingstone interview on Yog Radio about Games Workshop and Fighting Fantasy, June 2010
- Ian Livingstone interview - Interview with SquareGo about working as Life President for Square-Enix Europe
- http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/40045/ian-livingstone-interview-facebook-gaming Interview with Pocket-lint talking about Facebook gaming, Fighting Fantasy, and his new venture Appertyze.