Gary Penn

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}

{{Use British English|date=September 2016}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Gary Penn

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| birth_place = Berkhamsted,{{cite web | url=http://gb64.com/oldsite/zzap_ratings.htm | title=The ZZAP! Reviewers | work=Zzap!64, Issue 2 (republished at gamebase64.com) | date=June 1985 | accessdate=19 October 2011}} England

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| occupation = Head of Development at Denki

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Gary Penn is a former British games reviewer who wrote for Zzap!64{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2009/jan/29/gameculture-xbox?INTCMP=SRCH | title=The Denki Difference: how one small studio is bringing back the spirit of DMA Design... | work=The Guardian Games blog | date=30 January 2009 | accessdate=19 October 2011}} in the 1980s and is a video game industry veteran. He later was editor of The One from 1988 to 1990https://uk.linkedin.com/in/garypenn {{Self-published source|date=June 2022}} and was Creative Director at DMA Design where he supervised the release of the first Grand Theft Auto game in 1997.{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2009/jan/29/gameculture | title=Gary Penn on the rules of game design | work=The Guardian Games blog | date=2 February 2009 | accessdate=19 September 2011 | author=Stuart, Keith}} Penn has described the game as taking years to develop and almost being cancelled.{{cite web|url=https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/the-replay-interviews-gary-penn|title=Gamasutra – The Replay Interviews: Gary Penn|date=31 January 2011}}

Penn won the Games Media Legend award in 2007.{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2007/oct/12/gamesmediaawards?INTCMP=SRCH | title=Games Media Awards | work=The Guardian Games blog | date=12 October 2007 | accessdate=19 October 2011}}

As of September 2011, he is head of development at Denki.

Penn claims his magazine background helped him setting up a "Hollywood-style" studio system there:

{{cquote|"It is something that was born of having a magazine background," he explains. "You don't have slippage, you're doing the same thing 12, 13, 14 times a year, so you get more practiced. It's like the notion of repertoire in the theatre, you have these tools, these methods of doing things, whereas in the game development business we always seem to be re-inventing the wheel."}}

Penn is the author of the book Sensible Software 1986–1999.{{Cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Jonathan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uPAnDwAAQBAJ&q=gary+penn+sensible+software&pg=PA58|title=The Blizzard – The Football Quarterly: Issue Twenty Three|last2=Osborn|first2=George|last3=Smyth|first3=Rob|last4=Fryer|first4=Rupert|last5=Young|first5=James|date=2016-12-01|publisher=Blizzard Media Ltd|language=da}}

Penn listed Bomberman for the TurboGrafx-16, the arcade version of Defender, Doom, Elite for the BBC Micro, PaRappa the Rapper, Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow, Populous for the Amiga, The Sentinel for the Commodore 64, Super Mario Bros., and Tetris for the Game Boy as his favorite games in 2000.{{sfn|Edge|2000|p=63}}