Stacey Jamieson

Written by grams88

Stacey started his career at DMA Design working on various classics such as the Lemmings series and the Amiga release Walker

An ingame shot of the Amiga classic Walker. An ED209 inspired, mouse-controlled shooter.

Stacey co-founded the company 'Expression Games' who are responsible for the further development of the Hell Let Loose series, an amazing FPS strategy shooter.

The Radofin Tele-Sports. A Pong clone and the first computer Stacey remembers.

The T/S 1000, the ZX-81 for the US market

Oh No! More Lemmings ended up being the only game on the ST that Stacey ever worked on.

One of the many levels designed by Stacey and a clear wink to one of his favourite bands at the time ... The Sisters of Mercy

Andrew Eldritch of Sisters of Mercy fame was an avid Lemmings player and he called the office a few years later to ask about who made the levels with the names of his songs. Sadly i was off that day and the team had no idea who he was, so to this day i am filled with so much regret.

Did you know the game contained a multiplayer mode?

Cannon Fodder, one of Stacey's favourites of the 16-bit era

"At the time we were always in awe of anything The Bitmap Brothers released. For me they were the pinnacle of game art at the time."

Stacey continues to be a fanatical Destiny player

1) To start things off could you give us a a small introduction to those of us that haven't heard of you?

So my name is Stacey (Stace) Jamieson. I first started in the games industry at the start of 1990 as a games artist for DMA Design. Throughout the years I have worked on games such as the Lemmings series, Walker, GTA, Body Harvest while at DMA Design before moving to Vis Entertainment where I worked on Tom and Jerry - War of the Whiskers. At the end of this I made the decision to take the chance and move to China for a couple of years. Through my travels I found it was an amazing country, full of energy and opportunities at the time. While there I worked for various outsourcing companies before spending the last 10 years at EA, where I got to work on games such as the Battlefield and Battlefront series, Mirror's Edge Catalyst, Mass Effect Legendary and Need for Speed.
These days I am back in the UK and am fortunate to be a Co-Founder and Studio Art Director at Expression Games, where we now have 85 team members


2) When did you first get involved in computer systems and can you remember what your first machine was?

The first memory I have of playing games was when my parents brought home a Radofin Tele-Sports at the tail end of the 70`s. A basic Pong type machine with a large selector wheel to choose between Squash, Squash Practice, Football, and Tennis. Pretty much all the games were a variation of each other but I remember being totally captivated by this new form of home entertainment. After that I caught the bug and quickly progressed to the Atari 2600 where games like Night Rider, Missile Command and Space Invaders became firm favourites. As a natural progression and pretty much along side every kid in and around the Timex factory in Dundee (who were commisioned by Sinclair) I finally got my first "serious" computer, The Spectrum 48K, and after that the rest is history.


3) How did you first get involved in the making or participating in the great game of Oh No! More Lemmings?

So after leaving High School, I was pretty lost on what I wanted to be in life. It was a toss up between the police and waiting to enter Art College in Dundee. Luckily I had a mum that was eager to get me into a job and she spotted an advert in the local newspaper "The Courier".
She hurried through, paper in hand and said "you like playing games, you like computers, you like art, you should apply for this job as a games artist" and that was that. I hurridly put together my portfolio, that consisted of various sketches and water colour paintings and fired off my resume to DMA Design.
Luckily I got a phonecall to say they would love to get my in for a chat and off I went.
At the time DMA had about 5 employees and they were located in a small apartment in Dundee city centre. They were just finishing off the original Lemmings and were putting plans together about starting to create Oh No! More Lemmings and needed more help. I believe I was employee number 6 or 7. Myself, and another artist (Mark Ireland, pretty much started at DMA around the same time.
Those early days were focused on level design and getting to know how to construct levels for Lemmings. It was a whole new world for me and very different from my art background, although I quickly found out that I loved creating and designing challenging puzzles. We would all try and outdo each other then challenge each other to play our own arsenal of levels that we had put together. At the end we had a huge array of levels in which to choose from.


4) The levels in the game were designed very well, could you tell us some of the levels you were involved in designing? Sorry if this is hard to remember.

Now, it was a very long time ago but a couple of them are easy for me to remember. At the time of joining DMA Design, I was still going through my goth period and I was heavily into the Sisters of Mercy, so many of my levels bore the names of their songs. A couple of which that made it into the game were "This Corrosion" and "Temple of Love" alongside another band that I also loved at the time Suicidal Tendancies.
The weird thing was, I later found out that Andrew Eldritch of Sisters of Mercy fame also was an avid Lemmings player and he called the office a few years later to ask about who made the levels with the names of his songs. Sadly I was off that day and the team had no idea who he was, so to this day I am filled with so much regret.


5) The game still looks wonderful to this day. What did you think about the graphics in Oh No! More Lemmings? Did you have a favourite graphic set, such as the Brick, Snow, Rock or Bubble?

The graphics, did exactly what they needed to be and that was to be a flexible toolset for making challenging puzzles. As much as we wanted to make backgrounds and spice them up more they needed to be clear and functional and gameplay centric. As for a favourite graphics set? well as much as I loved the rock graphics set, it always felt very busy visually, so I am more of a classic brick and metal plate kind of guy.


6) This is a question I love asking...Did you get to play the game yourself and how far did you get in the game?

So we all got to play the game, daily. Our play sessions always consisted of playing through everyone else's levels and ranking them for fun and challenge. I think to this day I didn't complete the game fully (as it was meant to be played) but it was more through a random set of play tests on specific levels.


7) What did you think of the Oh No! More Lemmings' two player mode with the ten levels where green and blue Lemmings battle it out to see who saves the most Lemmings.

I think it was an amazing progression of the gameplay and a real pity we didn't make more of it in the end. It introduced a sense of urgency and competiveness to the traditional gameplay. It really allowed you to release your evil side for not only trying to save your own Lemmings but to also make sure you tried to sabotage your opponent as much as you could along the way.


8) Going back to the original Lemmings game, did any of the original levels inspire you in relation to the creation of the Oh No! More Lemmings' levels?

Without a doubt. The first days at DMA Design were spent playing the original game and getting to know the mechanics inside out. Also learning from the team about what makes a compelling gameplay experience. My on-boarding experience had a focus on the original Lemmings and being mentored by Gary Timmons on how to make and animate a Lemming and building the world graphics.


9) Did you have a favourite Lemmings skill, such as the Miner, Builder, Climber, Parachutist, Bomber, Blocker, Basher, Digger? (I hope I haven't missed any)

I always loved the Bomber Lemming as to me it always felt like an interesting mechanic. You were not just using a specfic skillset to get to another location but you were making a conscious decision on if, and where, you should ultimately sacrifice one of your own critters. Much of the time you would be left scratching your head on whether there was another way in order to save them all. I really liked that decision-making process with the Bomber.


10) Was there anything you disliked about the Oh No! More Lemmings game?

To be honest, no. Although as creatives we all have high ambitions in how we want to improve never titles but in this instance. Oh No! More Lemmings did exactly what it set out to do and that was to give the players more of what they loved.


11) Do you have any favourite games you like from the Atari ST or Amiga?

A large part of my game dev background in the early days was on the Amiga and I have very fond memories of that time. The first new fully developed IP that I worked on at DMA Design was a game called Walker. Outside of that, the Amiga, for me was my first serious computer and my style of gaming changed considerably because of that. I became addicted to games such as Monkey Island, Cannon Fodder and Sensible Soccer (which we used to play at lunchtimes in the studio) but I think at the time we were always in awe of anything the Bitmap Brothers released. For me they were the pinnacle of game art at the time.


12) Do you still keep in contact with others you have worked with in the past?

We do still have a Facebook group and there is a tradition for the team to get together every year at the same Indian restaurant that we used to have studio parties at. Sadly I spent the last 17 years abroad, but I managed to attend my first DMA Reunion last year. It's amazing to catch up on what everyone has been doing and how many of them have continued to be driving forces within the industry.


13) What do you think about modern games and would you describe yourself as a gamer?

I still love playing and making games to this day and feel incredibly lucky to have had the chance to get into it when I did. The gaming industry can be the most incredible industry in the world to work in. I mean we all get to work on things that we are all so passionate about every day, but on the flipside we have seen that at times it can also be one of the worst. With the recent turmoil thats been happening in our industry, it has shown that sometimes financial gains can outweigh supporting creativity and innovation.
My time now has been very much focused on supporting my teams and setting them up for success but I do still try to get on the consoles and play as much as I can. These days I am still a Destiny player, especially since the newest DLC dropped but I do try to explore as many different genres as possible.

14) I'm into my TV shows and films. Do you have any favourite TV programmes or films that you like to watch?

Recently I just finished watching Shogun. Got to say that it totally blew me away with its rich visuals and compelling storytelling. For movies? I immediately jump at anything Sci-Fi, from Ad Astra (what a beautifully shot movie, the cinematography blew me away) and District 9 to Interstellar and the Star Wars Universe. Although sadly that's been a bit of a hit and miss recently.


15) I'm into my board games and was wondering if you are into them as well. What are your favourite board games?

Sadly this is an area I haven't really had much experience in. I have played a few but it was certainly more on my friend's part with them explaining the rules and being the driving force behind it.

16) ST Graveyard usually asks this at the end of the previous interviews, so here I go. If you could have a drink with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and what would you ask?

Oh now that's a tough one, but I think I would have to say it would be Andrew Eldridge. Finally get to have that chat that I missed out on 25 years ago.


Thank you for doing the interview, that will be of great interest to everyone.