Looking Glass Studios, Inc. (previously known as Blue Sky Productions and LookingGlass Technologies, Inc.) was an American company that made video games and was located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company was started in 1990 by Paul Neurath and Ned Lerner as Blue Sky Productions. In 1992, it combined with Lerner's Lerner Research to form LookingGlass Technologies. From 1997 to 1999, the company was part of Intermetrics and was renamed Looking Glass Studios. After facing financial difficulties, the studio closed in May 2000.
Some well-known games created by Looking Glass include Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and the Thief series.
History
Co-founders of Looking Glass, Paul Neurath and Ned Lerner, met at Wesleyan University. Lerner studied physics, while Neurath studied environmental science. They worked together on the game Deep Space: Operation Copernicus (1987) before Lerner moved to the West Coast to create games for Electronic Arts. Neurath worked at Origin Systems, which had relocated to New Hampshire in 1984. He worked on projects like Ogre (1986) and Omega (1989). His largest project was leading the design of Space Rogue (1989), which he collaborated with Lerner on technical details. Space Rogue inspired the creation of Wing Commander (1990) because it combined storytelling with space combat elements.
Before Space Rogue was completed, Origin Systems moved back to Texas with most of its staff. Neurath, who did not want to move, used the former Origin office to start his own studio, Blue Sky Productions, in Salem, New Hampshire, in 1990. Lerner, who had his own company called Lerner Research, provided money to help start the studio.
Neurath wanted to create a first-person dungeon crawler similar to Dungeon Master (1987). He hired people from the local area, including Doug Church, a programmer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Church and Chris Green of Lerner Research created a three-dimensional, texture-mapped demo of the game. Animation was done by former Origin artist Douglas Wike. The demo was shown at the 1990 Summer Consumer Electronics Show to attract publishers. Richard Garriott and Warren Spector of Origin Systems saw the demo and decided to fund the game.
The demo, originally named Underworld, was later renamed part of the Ultima series. The initial funding for the game was $30,000, allowing Neurath to hire his first team at Blue Sky Productions. The final cost of making the game was about $400,000, and it was released in March 1992 as Ultima Underworld (1992). By the end of production, the company moved to a new office in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Blue Sky Productions began work on the sequel to Ultima Underworld while Neurath and Lerner discussed merging their companies. Lerner Research had just finished Car & Driver (1992) and needed more help to develop EA’s next Madden title for the Sega Genesis. They decided to change their name to differentiate themselves from Blue Sky Software. They first used the name "Flying Fish Designs" but eventually chose "Looking Glass," inspired by the book Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll and the idea that their games transported players to new worlds. They decided against "Looking Glass Studios" because their focus was on technology.
LookingGlass Technologies Inc. was officially formed on June 29, 1992, with Neurath as president and Ned Lerner as vice president and treasurer. The first game released by the new studio was John Madden Football '93 (1992), followed by Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds (1993). Origin became part of Electronic Arts in September 1992, and EA handled all future publishing for the studio.
Doug Church led a team that developed System Shock (1994), a game that combined first-person shooter mechanics with immersive systems. The game was successful but initially released on floppy disks, which removed voice dialog from data logs, a unique storytelling feature. A CD-ROM version later included voice acting by a team from the local band Tribe, including Greg LoPiccolo, Eric Brosius, and Terri Brosius, who also voiced the villain SHODAN in the game.
LookingGlass moved to a new office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in Fall 1994. They received $3.8 million in investment from venture capital firms that year. In 1995, the company started publishing its own games, beginning with Flight Unlimited (1995), designed by Seamus Blackley. The game was known for its realistic physics and sold 300,000 copies by mid-1997. The series had several sequels.
Terra Nova: Strike Force Centuri (1996) was a large multimedia project. Full-motion cutscenes were filmed in the LookingGlass offices using a greenscreen, with staff members acting and producing the film. The game included technological features like procedural animation, but the high production costs caused financial strain.
Due to the failure of Terra Nova and British Open Championship Golf (1997), Neurath sought outside investment to keep the company running. Intermetrics, a Massachusetts-based software company, acquired LookingGlass in 1997. The company’s official name became Intermetrics Entertainment Software, LLC, but it continued operating as Looking Glass Studios.
After the acquisition, several co-founders and employees left. Ned Lerner formed Multitude with LookingGlass programmer Art Min. Designer Ken Levine, artist Rob Fermier, and programmer Jonathan Chey left to create Irrational Games. Irrational initially worked from the LookingGlass offices, co-developing System Shock 2 (1999) and the canceled Deep Cover before becoming independent.
During the production of Thief: The Dark Project (1998), LookingGlass hired Warren Spector from Origin Systems to lead a development team in Austin, Texas, which opened in 1995. Spector later left to join Ion Storm, but the Texas office remained open to create console games for publishers. Projects included a Nintendo 64 version of Command & Conquer, Destruction Derby 64 (1999), and canceled games like Tamiya Racing and Mini Racers.
LookingGlass continued to struggle financially, facing challenges in finding publishers. Eidos Interactive published Flight Unlimited II (1997) and both Thief games. Electronic Arts published System Shock 2 and Flight Unlimited III (1999). In 1999, Intermetrics sold its ownership of LookingGlass, leaving it without financial support. Publishing deals with Eidos, Sony, and Microsoft also failed.
On May 24, 2000, Neurath called a meeting with all employees and announced the studio was closing. Employees left that day, and public statements followed. Irrational Games continued work on Deep Cover until it was canceled. Many former LookingGlass staff, including Terri Brosius, joined Irrational. Development on Thief III was handed to a team led by Steve Pearsall until it was canceled. A Flight Unlimited spin-off, Flight Combat, was completed by Mad Doc Software as Jane’s Attack Squadron (2002), the final game credited to LookingGlass Studios.
During the late 1990s, LookingGlass faced increasing financial pressure due to costly projects and loss of funding. Many projects needed resources but did not generate enough revenue. The studio relied heavily on outside funding and publishers. After the release of Thief II: The Metal Age, funding was withdrawn, leaving the company without reliable financial support.