Doug Church (born November 16, 1968, in Evanston, Illinois) is an American video game designer and producer. He started out at MIT in the late 1980s. Instead of finishing up there, he left and joined Looking Glass Studios, where the team was producing MS-DOS-based immersive sim games like Ultima Underworld, Ultima Underworld II, System Shock and the Thief series. His colleague Warren Spector has pointed out that Church was likely the one who first came up with the term "immersive simulation".
Later, Church joined Eidos Interactive as Technical Director, lending programming and design support across a series of titles from Ion Storm and Crystal Dynamics, including Tomb Raider: Legend. He left Eidos in 2005 and headed to Electronic Arts.
In 2003, the International Game Developers Association gave him its Community Contribution award. Part of that nod went to his time co-chairing the IGDA's educational committee and helping build links between the game industry and academia. He became a regular participant at Indie Game Jam events over the years, including putting together "Angry God Bowling" as an IGJ prototype.
In 2009, IGN listed him among the top 100 game creators of all time.
From July 2005 to 2009, Church worked at Electronic Arts' Los Angeles office as team leader on a project supervised by filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
On March 16, 2011, Valve announced that Church had been hired for an undisclosed position and project. He remained there for several years before moving on.
In August 2016, OtherSide Entertainment announced that Church had been hired as a creative consultant for the development of System Shock 3. More recently, he has served as project leader on Nightdive Studios' 2023 remake of the original System Shock. He has also received credits on Valve's 2022 Portal: Companion Collection, as well as Embark Studios titles The Finals and ARC Raiders.
Games YearTitleRole1992Ultima Underworld: The Stygian AbyssProgrammer, additional support1993Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of WorldsLead programmer, designer, additional support1994System ShockLead programmer1995Flight UnlimitedProgrammer1996Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri1997Flight Unlimited IIProgrammer, additional support1998Thief: The Dark ProjectProgrammer1999System Shock 22000Thief II: The Metal AgeEngine programmer2001FreQuency"Synth and Related Playstation 2 Voodoo"Deus Ex: Game of the Year EditionDesign, additional programming2002Freedom ForceSpecial thanks2003WhiplashDeus Ex: Invisible WarBackyard Wrestling: Don't Try This at Home2004Thief: Deadly Shadows2006Tomb Raider: LegendDesign2012Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
References
External links November 2004 Gamasutra interview with Church "Formal Abstract Design Tools for Games" a notable early effort to develop a common language of game design methodology.