The whizz-kid with a winning game plan

from self-destruction. That's Lemmings, awardwinning creation of David

Jones, a 26-year-old Scot. DAVID OGILVY explains.

ALEMMING-LIKE success may sound like a contradiction in terms, but for

David Jones, the Stephen Hendry of Scotland's computer software

industry, the creation of the best-selling Lemmings computer game has

opened up sensational new horizons for his company, DMA Design.

The suicidal habits of the furry rodents have not been reflected in

the fortunes of the company founded by David four years ago when he was

just 22.

The irresistible rise of DMA is the stuff of which capitalist

fairy-tales are made. As an apprentice electronics engineer, David

learned his trade building Spectrum computers for Sir Clive Sinclair in

Dundee's giant Timex factory. Voluntary redundancy allowed him to take

up a college course in computer sciences which he was never to complete.

In his first year at college David decided to try his hand at computer

game design. A year later he had completed his first game and, to his

delight, had it accepted by a publisher. Business beckoned and now the

college drop-out counts ten of his former classmates among his

workforce, which has grown from two to 22.

Turnover reached #300,000 last year and is expected to pass #1 million

this year. The business, solely owned by David, has twice had to move to

larger premises, and earlier this year the company opened a retail

''softwarehouse'' selling direct to the public and providing a

ready-made market-research facility. The transition from working in a

bedroom at home to a suite of smart offices in Dundee's Technology Park

has been completed with a deceptive ease.

The Lemmings game, to be followed at Christmas with the launch of

Lemmings II, has now sold more than one million copies at an average

price of #20 each and has won a string of prestigious international

awards.

David, who has lost none of his passion for computer games, can

scarcely believe his good fortune. ''There are times when this isn't

really like a job,'' he beams, before recalling the early days. ''I

bought a Commodore Amiga with part of my redundancy money. At that time

these were fairly new machines and it took a year to complete my first

game.

''It was called Menace and, when I took it to a specialist games fair

in London, a publisher took it up. It did really well and I involved

some of my classmates in converting the game for use on other systems.

The second game I produced was Blood Money which sold 40,000 units.

''I decided to take a year out of my studies and see if I could make a

go of it because the games were taking up most of my time and my college

work was suffering. I've not been back to college since.''

It was Lemmings, the third game to be developed, which put David on

the road to software stardom and even persuaded computer game giant

Nintendo to visit DMA's headquarters earlier this year.

''We launched Lemmings in February 1991,'' reveals David, ''and on the

launch day we shipped out one order of 50,000 units for the Amiga. That

was as many as we could have expected to sell over a year. After a push

in the specialist magazines, the game basically sold itself and has been

converted for use on all systems.

''A US company has developed the game for arcade machine use. I

believe this is a first because it is usually arcade games that are

developed for home use and not the other way around.''

He believes that the attraction of the game lies in its simplicity.

''It gets progressively harder, but you always know you can do it. Then

there's the satisfaction of knowing that you have saved the lemmings --

it is a non-violent game.''

There is no hint of resting on laurels. DMA has its finger on the

pulse of a rapidly-changing market and is spending the kind of

percentage of profit on research and development that would hearten

advocates of the reconstruction of British industry.

The company's four office units comprising 2500 sq ft house a staff

with an average age of 24. New games and characters are developed by

designers and artists and converted for different systems. This year

#250,000 has been invested in new hardware to meet new challenges.

David praises the key people who have helped him and stresses the

effort involved. ''Programming for games is one of the hardest things a

young programmer can undertake. It takes three or four people a year to

complete and has to be written in machine code. With a business

programme, you just go for an obvious end result. But with games, it has

to look and feel right to be challenging and enjoyable. We have scrapped

ideas halfway through the development stage because they were just not

good enough.''

In addition to Lemmings II, DMA will release two further new games

this year, Walker and Hired Guns. David explains: ''Research and

development is very important to us. We have got to have the edge on

fierce competition.

''The next development will probably be compact disc games systems and

it will be best to be in on that soon. These will be like small CD films

and will be complicated and expensive to design.''

With two European Game of the Year awards under his belt for Lemmings

David has shown a shrewd knowledge of his market. The opening of his new

shop is intended to add an important dimension to the business. ''It

will help us keep an eye on the market as well as allow us to test-run

new games. Kids can really suss out a game in a matter of minutes.''

At the age of 26, David Jones still has plenty of goals. ''It is

possible for us to expand into publishing our own games. That would be a

major step, requiring another ten people or so. It will be nice to try

other projects.''