Background and formation (1980s–1993) David Perry, a
video game programmer from
Northern Ireland, created his first video game in 1982, when he was 15, for the
Sinclair ZX81 that he had at home. This led him to move to
London, England, shortly following his 17th birthday, where would work with several early video game developers on games for the
ZX Spectrum. By 1991, Perry had moved to
Irvine, California, to work for the internal development studio of Virgin Games' American branch. Playmates agreed, and Perry, once he had gained
lawful permanent resident status in the U.S., set up Shiny Entertainment using Playmates' funds in October 1993. Offices for the company were set up in
Laguna Beach, California, and Perry was appointed as the company's
president. Several developers formerly of Virgin Games followed Perry and joined Shiny, bringing its employee count to "around nine". The deal was announced by Interplay at the
Electronic Entertainment Expo 1995, with Shiny retaining its identity and management under the new ownership. Meanwhile, Perry instituted a strict no-sequels policy at Shiny to ensure that new games developed by the studio would be surprising and associated with the developer, rather than with a franchise.
Further games (1996–2001) The next game produced by Shiny was
MDK, produced fully in 3D. After
MDK shipped, Shiny employees
Nick Bruty and Bob Stevenson left the company to form
Planet Moon Studios with the same development principles as Shiny. Further Shiny games—
Wild 9,
R/C Stunt Copter,
Messiah, and
Sacrifice—were developed in parallel at the company, leading to what Perry said was simultaneously diluting focus and talent, and none of the games sold as well as
MDK.
Enter the Matrix, which was in development at Shiny at time, also changed hands to the buyer. He was succeeded by Michael Persson, who became the studio's
studio head. Perry went on to found GameConsultants.com, a
consultancy firm for video game investors, in May 2006, and by September had joined
Acclaim Games and was working on a
massively multiplayer online game called
2Moons. Shortly following Perry's resignation, Atari announced that it was reducing its staff count by 20% and sell all of its internal studios, both actions also affecting Shiny. On October 9, 2007, Foundation 9 announced that Shiny and The Collective were being merged; both studios had relocated their teams to new offices in
Irvine, California, from where the merged company would operate under the lead of Persson. In March 2008, the new studio was named
Double Helix Games. == Games developed ==