David Mullich

**David Mullich** was the producer of the point-and-click adventure game *Dark Seed II*. He has had a prolific career as both designer and producer of various game titles, including another famous Cyberdreams title *I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream*. His experience spans from the late 1970's into the mid-2000's, and he continues to teach and speak on game design.

Currently, he teaches Entertainment Design at the ArtCenter College of Design.

## Early Life

In 1981, Mullich received a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science from the California State University-Northridge. He was also an editorial cartoonist for the *CSUN Sundial*.

## Game Design Career

### Greenleaf Productions (1978-1980)

Mullich was a designer and programmer at Greenleaf Productions, where he worked on database programs, simulations, and role-playing games for the Apple II.

### Eduware (1980-1985)

Mullich was Vice President of Software Development, where he managed internal and external development for one of the first entertainment and educational software publishers. He also designed and directed all internally developed adventure, RPG and simulation computer games, and programmed all 6502 assembly language development tools, including graphics engine and AI routines, used by the programming department.

### Electric Transit (1985-1987)

Mullich was Development Director, and co-founded the games publisher chosen by Electronic Arts as its first affiliated label company. He also managed external development of 3-D spaceflight simulations and award-winning wilderness survival adventure simulation developed by NASA scientists and engineers.

### Walt Disney Company Software (1987-1991)

Mullich served as Associate Producer, and also produced action and children’s games based upon Disney character, film and television properties such as *DuckTales* and *Who Framed Roger Rabbit?* across multiple console and computer platforms.

### Interactive Support Group (1991-1993)

Mullich was a New Media Producer, creating driving and action games created for next generation systems that included: CD-I for Philips Interactive Media of America, and 3DO for Electronic Arts. He also developed an interactive encyclopedia for Encyclopedia Britannica.

### Cyberdreams (1993-1997)

Mullich joined Cyberdreams in 1993, at the invitation of Cyberdreams CEO Patrick Ketchum. During this time, he would be assigned two projects at once: *I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream*, based on the 1967 short story of the same name by Harlan Ellison, and the sequel to *Dark Seed*.

#### *I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream*

The game had originally been under the design of David Sears, who had been working with Harlan Ellison directly, but Sears soon left the project, and Mullich was given the assignment. Mullich was not only a major fan of Ellison himself, but was also a fan of the short story the game was based on. Despite Ellison's infamously confrontational attitude, the two men, over time, began to develop a close friendship, to the point that Mullich even felt free to offer criticism of Ellison's work. It was also Mullich's idea to cast Ellison as the voice of the supercomputer AM, joking with him, "You as an evil supercomputer is perfect typecasting!"

Mullich later recalled his experiences:

> I discovered that underneath his curmudgeonly, abrasive exterior, Harlan was actually quite a caring but insecure person. If you earned his trust, I found he was quite charitable. The night that “I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream” won the Game Developers Conference Award for “Best Game Adapted From Linear Media,” I called Harlan from the ceremony and told hem, “You won!” He immediately shot back, “WE won? That’s great!”
>
>

The game received excellent reviews, and was named *Best Adventure Game of the Year* by *Computer Gaming World.* It likewise received the award for *Best Game Adapted From Linear Media* at that year’s Game Developers Conference.

#### *Dark Seed II*

At the time, Mullich was feeling overwhelmed with working on both *I Have No Mouth* and *Dark Seed II* at once, and brought on Raymond Benson to assist with the game design. This suggestion came at the recommendation of the friend, and Benson, who had just been laid off from MicroProse, readily accepted the position. Working largely out of his home, Benson worked directly - and only - with Mullich, whom he described later as "a great guy to work with." Mullich described his work with Benson as involving them bouncing ideas off each other over the phone, which involved a "couple of battles", but in the end Benson would deliver "something terrific." Mullich had wanted a game design similar to H.P. Lovecraft, but in the end Benson came back with largely a *Twin Peaks*-inspired story - nonetheless, Mullich found that it "perfectly suited" the company's success with "dark psychological themes", and so they went with it.

Mullich then reached out and worked with science fiction author John Shirley to finesse Benson's script. According to Mullich, Shirley ended up coming up with around a dozen new ideas for the story. Mullich then added additional dialogue to make the ideas fit in the story, using the assistance of Keith Herber of the *Call of Cthulhu* roleplaying game fame.

Finally, Mullich worked directly with H.R. Giger himself. Mullich traveled to Zurich to visit Giger, and was accompanied by art director Peter Delgado and 3-D artist Gregg Haggman. They attempted to get his approval on the use of his artwork, as well as to permit a chance to make changes. Mullich later recalled the unique experience:

> After spending several minutes looking at our point-and-click adventure, Giger told us that he had a completely different idea for the game. He wanted to know if we could turn it into a game where the player climbed up a series of catwalks inside a pyramid, and when he got to the top, he would find himself in another pyramid, with the game being a succession of pyramids. Using my best diplomatic demeanor, I told him that that was very creative idea, but since this was a sequel to the previous game, fans would expect it to be an adventure game like the first one was. This did not please Giger at all. “Mia, Mia”, he muttered to himself, referring to the name of his ex-wife, who was now acting as his agent. After a few moments, he wandered off to another part of the house, leaving us alone in the living room. After about fifteen minutes, I asked my art director, Peter, to look for him (Peter had met Giger on a previous visit, and the two seemed to get along well). When Peter returned, he said that he found Giger sitting in his bedroom, apparently talking to his deceased girlfriend Li, who had committed suicide twenty years ago. We decided it would be a good time to leave.
>
>

The men would return the next day, speaking with Giger's ex-wife and agent, Mia. She pressed the issue he had raised the day before, and Mullich offered a compromise where the main character would walk around the world on catwalks while displaying Giger's artwork in the background. That pleased Giger and Mia both.

The game was released in 1995, and received largely negative reviews. Mullich claims that one reviewer went so far as to privately tell Cyberdreams' marketing director that Mullich should be fired. Mullich was largely surprised by the reaction, as - between *Dark Seed II* and *I Have No Mouth* - he personally felt "*Dark Seed II* was turning out to be the better game." Keying in on the problem, Mullich confessed:

> ...I eventually decided that the main problem was that I cast the wrong actor to do the main character’s voice — he was much too depressing, and no one wants to play a depressing character...
>
>

### Other Projects

Mullich also had a hand in some other Cyberdreams titles, such as *Noir: A Shadowy Thriller* and *Wes Craven's Principles of Fear. Noir* would be released in 1996, but *Fear* was never released, due to the company folding in 1997.

### New World Computing/The 3DO Company (1997-2002)

Mullich became Senior Director, leading thirty designers, artists and programmers to oversee the best-selling “Heroes of Might & Magic” fantasy strategy game franchise.

### Activision (2002-2005)

Mullich served as a Producer, where he managed external development of “Star Trek” themed real-time strategy game prototypes and award-winning “Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines” role-playing game, based upon Valve’s “Half Life 2” engine, for one of the industry’s largest and most successful software publishers. Also produced voice-overs for “Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland”.

### Abandon Interactive Entertainment (2005-2008)

Mullich was Development Director, and worked on the children’s virtual trading card MMO *Freaky Creatures*. He also managed development of mobile phone games for NBC Sports and casual games for Disney.

### Spin Master Ltd. (2008-2010)

Mullich served as Executive Producer, producing children’s multiplayer online games, casual games, and websites. Among these projects included *Bakugan Dimensions* and *Zoobles.com*.

### Jet Morgan Games, 2012-2013

Mullich served again as Executive Producer, this time designing and producing games such as Disney’s *Pair of Kings*, *Pyramid of Puzzles*, *FijitFriends.com,* and Bandai America’s *Power Rangers Megaforce* card game website.

## Later Career

### Electric Sheep Consulting (2010-Present)

Mullich is designer and producer for Electric Sheep Consulting. He is also a consultant on the design, development, and production of casual games, social games, multiplayer online games, game-based learning, classroom management systems, websites and other online entertainment and educational projects.

### ArtCenter College of Design (2018-Present)

Mullich is a professor at ArtCenter, located in Los Angeles, and teaches courses in the following subjects: Game Design Fundamentals; Math, Economics & Games; Game Systems; and Game Concept Development.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.mobygames.com/game/win3x/dark-seed-ii/credits
2. ↑ https://www.artcenter.edu/about/get-to-know-artcenter/people/detail.html?breadcrumb=568ed9784d9b6fb625f3e262&accdID=0332685
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmullich
4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 https://davidmullich.com/experience/
5. ↑ https://davidmullich.com/2018/10/08/life-as-a-videogame-character/
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 https://davidmullich.com/2018/07/02/in-memory-of-harlan-ellison/
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 https://davidmullich.com/2016/08/08/getting-a-bad-review-is-no-fun/
8. ↑ https://davidmullich.com/2015/11/09/how-james-bond-influenced-my-career/
9. ↑ https://lparchive.org/Darkseed-2/Bonus/
10. ↑ *Dark Seed II: The Official Strategy Guide*, pg. 169
11. ↑ *Dark Seed II: The Official Strategy Guide*, pg. 170
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 https://davidmullich.com/2014/05/05/memories-of-h-r-giger/