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'''Jennell Jaquays'''<ref name="jaquaysaboutjennell"/> (born October 14, 1956) is an American [[game designer]] and [[game artist|artist]] of table-top [[role-playing game]]s (RPGs) and [[video game]]s.
'''Jennell Jaquays'''<ref name="jaquaysaboutjennell"/> (born October 14, 1956 as '''Paul Jaquays''') is an American [[game designer]] and [[game artist|artist]] of table-top [[role-playing game]]s (RPGs) and [[video game]]s.


Some of her notable works include the ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' modules "[[Dark Tower (module)|Dark Tower]]" and "Caverns of Thracia" for [[Judges Guild]]; development and design of conversions on games such as ''[[Pac-Man]]'' and ''[[Donkey Kong]]'' for [[Coleco]]'s [[ColecoVision|home arcade]] video game system; and more recent design work for various video games, including the ''[[Age of Empires]]'' series, ''[[Quake 2]]'', and ''[[Quake III Arena]]''. The most renowned of her many works as a [[fantasy artist]] is the cover illustration for [[TSR, Inc.|TSR]]'s ''Dragon Mountain'' game.<ref name="jaquaysaboutpaul">{{cite web | last = | first = | title = Paul Jaquays: What's the Story? | url= http://web.archive.org/web/20091010233312/http://www.jaquays.com/paul/about.htm | publisher = Jaquays.com | accessdate = March 22, 2012}}</ref><ref name="escapistinterview">{{cite journal | last = Varney | first = Allen | title= Gaming's Renaissance Man | url = http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/days-of-high-adventure/6847-Gamings-Renaissance-Man | date = December 3, 2009 | journal = [[The Escapist (magazine)|The Escapist]] | accessdate = March 22, 2012}}</ref>
Some of her notable works include the ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' modules "[[Dark Tower (module)|Dark Tower]]" and "Caverns of Thracia" for [[Judges Guild]]; development and design of conversions on games such as ''[[Pac-Man]]'' and ''[[Donkey Kong]]'' for [[Coleco]]'s [[ColecoVision|home arcade]] video game system; and more recent design work for various video games, including the ''[[Age of Empires]]'' series, ''[[Quake 2]]'', and ''[[Quake III Arena]]''. The most renowned of her many works as a [[fantasy artist]] is the cover illustration for [[TSR, Inc.|TSR]]'s ''Dragon Mountain'' game.<ref name="jaquaysaboutpaul">{{cite web | last = | first = | title = Paul Jaquays: What's the Story? | url= http://web.archive.org/web/20091010233312/http://www.jaquays.com/paul/about.htm | publisher = Jaquays.com | accessdate = March 22, 2012}}</ref><ref name="escapistinterview">{{cite journal | last = Varney | first = Allen | title= Gaming's Renaissance Man | url = http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/days-of-high-adventure/6847-Gamings-Renaissance-Man | date = December 3, 2009 | journal = [[The Escapist (magazine)|The Escapist]] | accessdate = March 22, 2012}}</ref>

Revision as of 12:13, 26 October 2012

Jennell Jaquays
BornPaul Jaquays
(1956-10-14) October 14, 1956 (age 68)
OccupationGame designer and artist
NationalityAmerican
GenreRole-playing games, video games
Website
www.jaquays.com

Jennell Jaquays[1] (born October 14, 1956 as Paul Jaquays) is an American game designer and artist of table-top role-playing games (RPGs) and video games.

Some of her notable works include the Dungeons & Dragons modules "Dark Tower" and "Caverns of Thracia" for Judges Guild; development and design of conversions on games such as Pac-Man and Donkey Kong for Coleco's home arcade video game system; and more recent design work for various video games, including the Age of Empires series, Quake 2, and Quake III Arena. The most renowned of her many works as a fantasy artist is the cover illustration for TSR's Dragon Mountain game.[2][3]

Personal life

Jennell Jaquays was born biologically male as Paul Jaquays on October 14, 1956,[4] and lived from an early age in Michigan and Indiana.

Jaquays graduated from Michigan's Jackson County Western High School in 1974 and Spring Arbor College in 1978 with a BA in Fine Art.[5][6] She has two children from her first marriage, as well as a stepdaughter from her second marriage.[1] Jaquays announced in December 2011 that she identifies as a "transsexual lesbian female."[7] She resides in Atlanta, Georgia.[1]

Career

The Dungeoneer and fantasy roleplaying

While still at college, Jaquays became interested in science-fiction and fantasy gaming and the nascent role-playing game industry through the pages of The Space Gamer. She founded The Dungeoneer, one of the early fanzines dedicated to the subject, in 1976. Marketed as a "dungeonmaster's publication," the magazine was noteworthy for its pioneering approach to pre-factored adventures ("F'Chelrak's Tomb" was published in June 1976, the same month as Wee Warriors' Palace of the Vampire Queen). The publication was an inspiration for many later such magazines in the United States and elsewhere.[8][9][10][11][12][13] In addition to these "honest efforts at quality contents to interest readers," Jaquays began submitting artwork to TSR's in-house gaming magazine, The Dragon, in 1976. She first appeared in the premiere issue of that publication; later contributions included the cover of issue #21.[12][14]

Judges Guild, later independent roleplaying projects, and TSR

Jaquays decided to sell the interest in The Dungeoneer just before graduating to focus on art studio work. She later followed the new owner, Charles Anshell, to Judges Guild, which was by late 1978 providing prolific material and officially licensed products for TSR's Dungeons & Dragons line.[13] Anshell retained a level of editorial control over The Dungeoneer, one of Judges Guild's two gaming periodicals. Jaquays worked on two stand-alone modules for Dungeons & Dragons, Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia, which were completed before she left the company in October 1979. She provided various content on a freelance basis thereafter, particularly to The Dungeoneer.[13][15]

Jaquays began a career change toward video games in the early 1980s, but continued to work as a freelancer for various table-top game publishers, including TSR, Chaosium, West End Games, Flying Buffalo, and Iron Crown Enterprises. She produced illustrations for Game Designers' Workshop (GDW), most notably creating all the starship illustrations in Traveller Supplement 9 - Fighting Ships. A number of these became the basis for starship models from Ad Astra Games and the deckplans found in Mongoose Traveller Supplement 3 - Fighting Ships.

From 1986 to 1993, she did a lot of freelance work while running a design studio.[16][17] From 1993 to 1997, she returned to full-time employment in the table-top gaming industry as an illustrator for TSR, including a six-month period as Director of Graphics, leaving just before their takeover by Wizards of the Coast. During this time, she played an active role in the creation of the Dragon Dice game, both as cover artist and icon designer.[16]

Freelance artwork

In addition to many gaming artwork contributions, including artwork spread over two decades to TSR's first-line periodicals, Dragon and Dungeon, Jaquays worked as an illustrator and cartoonist for the Jackson Citizen Patriot in 1980. During the late 1980s, Jaquays was a regular interior artist for Amazing Stories, and contributed one cover.[18][19]

Video game industry

After leaving Judges Guild, Jaquays worked for Coleco, first in a freelance capacity from 1980, then as a full-time employee from 1981 to 1985. She developed and designed arcade conversions of many well-known titles such as Pac-Man and Donkey Kong for their home arcade video game system. Jaquays eventually became director of game design.[2] During a freelance design studio period in the late 1980s and early 1990s, she continued to be involved in the video game industry, with concept and design work for Epyx, Interplay Entertainment, and Electronic Arts.[17]

From March 1997, Jaquays was employed as level designer for id Software, best known for their Quake series of video games, before moving to Dallas-based Ensemble Studios, which had "become a haven for ex-id Software developers." She worked there from early 2002 until the company's closure in January 2009 with former tabletop and computer gaming associate Sandy Petersen, who had previously hired Jaquays at id Software as a content designer.[20][21][22][23] Jaquays co-founded The Guildhall at SMU, a video game university located at the Plano campus of the Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, in 2003. She helped create much of the original curriculum material.[3][24][25][26] As of October 2009, she was employed as a senior level designer with the North American division of Iceland's CCP Games.[3]

Awards and honors

One of the many "unsung heroes" of the gaming industry, Jaquays' Dark Tower was nominated for the 1979 H.G. Wells award for Best Roleplaying Adventure. In November 2004, as part of the 30th Anniversary celebration for Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeon magazine produced a list of the "thirty greatest D&D Adventures of All Time." Dark Tower was the only entry on the list not published by TSR.[27] Jaquays was co-author and illustrator for Chaosium's Griffin Mountain RuneQuest scenario. Set in Glorantha, this highly-praised scenario was nominated for the 1981 H.G. Wells award. The reworked version, Griffin Island, was nominated for the same award in 1986.[17] Coleco's Wargames, for which Jaquays was co-designer of game play, won the 1984 Summer C.E.S. original software award.[17] As a level designer for TSR's Castle Greyhawk module, Jaquays shared the 1989 Origins Gamer's Choice Award for Best Role-Playing Adventure.[28]

Works

Partial bibliography of works in print
Partial list of video game credits
Title Released System name Role
Donkey Kong July 1982 ColecoVision Project leader, design, and graphics conversion
Omega Race 1983 ColecoVision Project leader, design, and graphics conversion
WarGames 1984 ColecoVision Project leader, gameplay co-designer
4x4 Off-Road Racing 1988 Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Amiga, DOS, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum Game design
The Bard's Tale IV 1991–92 (unpublished) Rewrite and integration
Quake 2[29] December 9, 1997 Amiga (68k), AmigaOS 4 (PowerPC), Nintendo 64, Macintosh, BeOS, Linux, Windows, PlayStation, Zeebo Designer and level designer
Quake III Arena[30] December 2, 1999 Linux, Microsoft Windows, IRIX, Mac OS, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Xbox Live Arcade Designer and level designer
Quake III: Team Arena[31] December 2000 Designer and level designer
Age of Empires III October 18, 2005 Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Windows Mobile, N-Gage Artist
Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs March 7, 2006 Windows, Mac OS X Artist
Halo Wars February 26, 2009 Xbox 360 Artist and level designer

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Jennell Jaquays: The Reinvented Girl". Jaquays.com. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  2. ^ a b "Paul Jaquays: What's the Story?". Jaquays.com. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  3. ^ a b c Varney, Allen (December 3, 2009). "Gaming's Renaissance Man". The Escapist. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  4. ^ "Paul Jaquays Biography". Quake3World.com. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  5. ^ "Personal Biography (Paul Jaquays)". Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  6. ^ Jaquays, Paul (1979). "My Life and Role-Playing". Different Worlds (1). Albany, California: Chaosium: 24–26.
  7. ^ "News and Updates: Hitting Reset". Jaquays.com. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  8. ^ "Dungeoneers vol. 1 #1 to #6". Acaeum.com. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  9. ^ "Biographies – Paul Jaquays". Controlled Chaos Media. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  10. ^ Jaquays, Paul (June 1976). "F'Chelrak's Tomb". The Dungeoneer (1). Spring Arbor, Michigan: The Fantastic Dungeoning Society: 9–12.
  11. ^ Alexander, Phil (July 1977). "Editorial". Underworld Oracle (1). Edinburgh, Scotland: Cyclops Productions: 2.
  12. ^ a b Gygax, Gary (June 1979). "From the Sorceror's Scroll (Editorial)". The Dragon (26). TSR: 39.
  13. ^ a b c Jaquays, Paul. "History of the Dungeoneer Fanzine". Acaeum.com. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  14. ^ Gold, Lee (June 1976). "Languages or, Could you repeat that in Auld Wormish? (Illustration by Jaquays)". The Dragon (1). TSR: 9.
  15. ^ Fawcett, William (December 1980). "Here comes the Judges Guild". The Dragon (44). TSR.
  16. ^ a b Sacco, Ciro Alessandro (May 6, 2009). "Interview with Paul Jaquays". Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  17. ^ a b c d "Game and Product Design, Development and Editing". Jaquays.com. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  18. ^ "Art and Illustration". Jaquays.com. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  19. ^ "Paul Jaquays - Summary Bibliography". isfdb.org. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  20. ^ "Biography by All Game Guide". Allgame. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  21. ^ "GameSpot Expert Advice: Paul Jaquays". Gamespot.com. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  22. ^ "Interview with Paul Jaquays". quake2.com. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  23. ^ "Ensemble Studios to Close". el33tonline.com. September 10, 2008. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  24. ^ "Paul Jaquays on the Guildhall". The Guildhall at SMU. March 26, 2003. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  25. ^ "The Guildhall at SMU advertisement". The Guildhall at SMU. March 26, 2003. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  26. ^ Schnurman, Mitchell (July 30, 2003). "University in Dallas hopes to win with video games". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Knight Ridder Tribune Business News.
  27. ^ Mona, Erik; Jacobs, James (November 2004). "The 30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time". Dungeon (116). Bellevue, Washington: Paizo Publishing.
  28. ^ "Game Info – WG7: Castle Greyhawk". RPGnet. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  29. ^ "Quake II – Game Credits". Allgame. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  30. ^ "Quake III Arena – Game Credits". Allgame. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  31. ^ "Quake III Team Arena – Game Credits". Allgame. Retrieved March 22, 2012.

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