PART 1
0:18 to 0:50
Born Wednesday the 20th of August 1969 in Maryfield hospital, Stobswell Dundee. His parents lived around the corner on Clepington Road, briefly moved on Pitfour Street on the West End before moving back to the Arbroath Road (opposite Baxters park) until he was 15.
0:50 to 2:20
First Memory - East side of Dundee (childhood). School - Gleblands primary school. First memory at 4 years old although has memories from younger age (2/3) however they are not functional memories. Attended nursery at Wallacetown. While attending nursery and pre-school his great grandmother had a large part in looking after him, she lived at 57 Provost Road in Dundee
2:23 to 7
Family -Unusual background from a Dundonian: Dutch grandfather escaped Holland as part of the Dutch navy he was a chief engineer on a submarine in 1939. His grandfather on his mother side was captain of the Polish parachutes, he was a teacher in Ukraine who also escaped. Grandmother on his fathers side (Veronica Ross) who is Irish descendant who worked in the Scottish mills. Maternal grandmother (Audrey Johnston) daughter of Charles Johnston, he was successful in the jute trade in India in pre-war and post-war who invested stores (Johnston Stores) in Beechwood and Coupar.
7 to 9:10
His mother grew up in Coupar with her older brother and younger brother. Unfortunately her younger brother was murdered as a child (10 years old) She then moved to Dundee to live with her Gran who was the widow of Charles Johnston. She lived on the top of Provost Road (57) and attended Morgan academy secondary school. His father is the oldest of three- 10/12 year age gap between him and sisters. his father attended St. Patricks (closed down in the early 70's) for secondary school he attended St. Michaels then moved to Fintry when it was built. He lived in Fintry for many years and lived in Fineald Terrace.
09:10 to 13:10
Grandfather becoming a driving instructor and lived until the 80's. His maternal grandmother remarried and lived in several places down South, she passed away in the mid 1990's. She was always in retail and owned several shops for example: A cook shop and a flower shop. His paternal grandparents lived close to him all of his life, they lived in Belstead Avenue in Dundee. His paternal grandfather worked in engineering and joined a well known company ( Robert Kelly and son) he left the company and joined the NCR and eventually returned to become the manager at Kelly's, he went to a company in Abroath called Williamson engineering and joined the low and boner group where he ran a number of engineering businesses.
13:10 to 13:57
Time in Nairobi (Africa) in summer holidays for 6 weeks - aged 9. Nairobi is the only place in Africa he has ever travelled to.
13:58 to 16:54
His father following his grandfathers footsteps: he went to NCR and became an engineer however disliked the job. He then went on to study and the University of Dundee (politics and history) he was politically active: he was involved with George Galloway and Brain Wilson and was involved in wider Scottish debates. His father was a vice president within politics.
16:55 to 18
Chris's mother going back to work after she had given birth at 19: she worked in various of administration jobs. There were a lot of extended family to look after Chris while his parents were at University and work - his grandparents had a main part in looking after him especially his grandmother who worked at St. Michaels.
21:30 to 25:30
Upgrade with school - in 1970's he had a refurbished school (old building but modernised inside) only negative was - carpeted gym which caused friction burns
29 to 30
Childhood home and school - very interactive with school colleagues and lived next to a lot of his school friends who lived on Baffin street and Eden Street next to the Arbroath Road, his social place was Baxter park that’s located on the Arbroath Road and he was going there since a very young age.
30:30 to 32:25
Friends parents employment/unemployment: not tons of poverty.
32:30 to 40
Secondary school - St. Saviours, was orignially supposed to be going to Morgan but his father got him into St.Saviours. He was the only Glebelands pupil to go there which was challenging to adjust but he enjoyed the 6 years of attendance. Located in Drumgeith Park. His main interests in school were basketball, music and computing. At one point it looked as if he was going to get a basketball scholarship and study in America.
42 to 44
Joining a band in High School, his best friend's father was the head of the music department and let him and his friend use the schools instruments which influenced him into becoming part of a band. Another influential factor is that his father enjoyed music when he was at school himself. This led him into being a professional musician (mainly played pop and rock)
44:25 to 45
Landed a job with Rainbow music (part time Saturday job while at school)
45 to 50
First started off in a school band and then became part of a band who were trying to get signed and wanted to go on tour (played in Dundee and all over the country) he played the piano/keyboard. Did his first professional gig at the age of 15. Music was his main way of making money. Decided at the age of 19 he did not want to pursue his career as a musician anymore (during his first year at University). Band was called Big Blue 72. Played in many different places including during the Dundee university freshers' week. Parents were always very supportive. His grandfather was not always as supportive.
50 to 55
St Saviours high school become the very first school to produce a computing department - his father and Jim Scott, a maths teacher, put together the computing course and there were also computing clubs that Chris and his best friend Paddy were immersed in. They were the first school to offer a course in computing. His father got a promotion at Rockwell to become the head of department of computing. Later became a lecturer in computing at Murray House, Edinburgh. Struck up a good friendship with the janitor at the time who was able to let them in and use the equipment.
57:20 to 1:05
Attending University of Edinburgh and his time travelling to America, he wanted a job over the summer. He and his father were attempting to help him get a job, found a contact in NCR (were very successful at the time, redefining how cash machines for banks were designed). Chris signed on as a student in 1988 to take part in a student programme. He was given £15,000 as a budget from his boss at the NCR to go over to America to help make a product for a database company in Michigan. He was also asked to help with the creation of automated driving tests which were way ahead of it's time. He travelled to various places around America such as: Ohio, Michigan, San Francisco, Silicone Valley and Sacramento. He enjoyed the fact that everyone in Silicon Valley was interested in computers and wanted to talk about it.
1:06 to 1:07
Still in touch with Jimmy Adamson (previous boss at NCR who has now retired). Jimmy claims that Chris is one of few individuals that he had truly believed in. He bought a mobile phone in 1989 to keep in contact with NCR. He was the first person ever to be thrown out of the library for using a mobile phone.
1:08 to 1:15
Chris opened up his business as soon as he graduated from University, met Anna Stewart who was an intern with him at NCR, she was an artist and they worked collaboratively. Anna also set up her own business with NCR as a principal client. Chris's business involved his father and NCR and different companies throughout. As him and Anna worked together - Chris would focus on the programming and Anna would produce the art work. He created an office at his Mum and Dad's house and he worked with no staff. Studying at the University of Edinburgh and Dundee they have given him a lot of support: whilst studying at The University of Dundee, they were understanding of what his goals were and allowed him to start his own companies and understood why he was absent for weeks due to his busy schedule. Due to his absence he was required to a meeting which his tutors told him he may be graduating with a 2:1 or a first which he was surprisingly shocked at. Eventually graduated with a 2:1. Has kept an attitude of I have nothing to lose throughout his career.
1:15 to 1:19
Opened up first business - VIS (Van Der Kuyl Interactive Systems). He got his cousin involved with the business as well. He also got one of his friends involved. He also got his friend Paddy involved.
PART 2 -
0:22 to 2
Chris sold his business to Balgray communications group in 1994. Balgray communications group was a well known Dundee creative company (interior design) (photography businesses), Achieved by Peter Bailey. Early 90's the digital revolution changed the way the workers worked.
2 to 4
Van Der Kuyl interaction systems which incorporated into VIZ (company that was part of Balgray) Started to develop products for people in the tourist industry, Scottish whisky heritage centre, interactive report and sales brochures.
4:17 to 5:15
Video Games (Chris had not officially made a game as of yet) Looked at other success in the city (DMA designs produced Lemmings) Competition all around the world producing video games: mainly competing for talent.
05:29 to 7
In 1995 coming to the conclusion they are not interested in making video games which lead them to Balgray. In early 1996 Chris finally formed a company (VIZ entertainment)
7:23 to 8:40
Approached by Abertay University who offers a virtual environments course then changed it to a computers game degree at Undergraduate level.
08:54 to 10:30
Moved the company in 1996/97 to Dunfermline, because it was equally inconvient travelling from Dundee and Edinburgh. Opened back in Dundee 4 years later. They grew and had a studio in Edinburgh and an animation studio in Glasgow, they had a number of studios which became big very quickly. Acquired many studios throughout the country.
10:31 to 11:16
The game 'State of Emergency' was one of the company's biggest success - developed in their Edinburgh studio. Worked with a publisher called Rockstar, the same publisher who published Grand Theft Auto. Their game was published in 2002 and became a world wide sensation which was such a big success for the company.
11:18 to 11:54
One year after their success (2003) - The company had a big fall out with the publishing company as Chris and his colleagues had the impression that they were being missaccounted. This then led the publishing company not wanting to work with them which ended their relationship.
11:55 to 13:40
Pressure to sell the company, sold the company in 2003 to American games publisher named "Bam". Chris officially owning the company to begin with then sold it to Balgray and managed to have a small ownership within it, brought in four finders (Paddy Burns, Scott Maxwell, Robbie Graham, Kirk Euin) who also had a small share. Peter Bailey and Ian Richtie were also added (seven holders). Brought in an investment from a company in London (Elder street Investments) who brought individuals and groups to invest in Chris and colleagues company alongside a multi national investor (Three Eye) and new Scottish company (Scottish Equity Partners).
13:42 to 15:40
After selling the company to BAM, Chris became president of this company and the share holders owned round about half of BAM. Chris had to split his time between Scotland and San Jose (America). Within a year of buying Chris's company (BAM) went bust. However employees managed to gain full time employment before the company was shut down. Chris managed to keep a small team and he and his partner Paddy Burns opened up a studio in Edinburgh and this is how the start of 4 J studios began.
15:40 to 16:15
Reason for naming the company the 4 J's - named after the 3 J's (Jute, jam and Journalism) and Chris thought the fourth J should be 'joysticks' in 2005. New principles for the business were: to live within our means and to only work with people we respected.
17:25 to 17:45
They worked between Dundee and Edinburgh. The Dundee studio was mainly for the creativity of the game and bringing it all together and the Edinburgh studio was run by Paddy which was based on the technology of the game - The Edinburgh studio were working extremely well to the point that they were going to help make the company stand out the most.
18:30 to 20:13
In the eary 2000's Facebook and social media started to begin, the company came to the realisation that they were not up to date and needed to step up their game and learn about the new technology. Approached by investing banker in Edinburgh called Noble Grosser run by Sir Angus Grosser to observe a business he owned half of with DC Thomson, he was asked to look at a business called Scotland Online and 6-9 months later he was again approached by the same company telling him they enjoyed his ideas. He offered to help the team without taking it as a job and then hired people later on so he can leave (2007) and he stayed there until 2013.
22:50 to 26:45
In 2011, Chris and Paddy received a phone call from Microsoft and invited them up to Stockholm to help them transfer the game 'Minecraft' from the PC to Xbox which was extremely difficult. They made a deal with Microsoft with the payment as they didn't want to take a massive risk of losing money. The game launched on a Tuesday and they made all their money back in fifteen minutes and they have sold 40 million copies.
27 to 28:05
Two of the most successful games in the world have been produced by people who attended St Saviours High School in Dundee (Chris, Paddy and John White) John transferred from Whitfield High School (known as Braeview academy today) as there were more IT learning facilities at St. Saviours. John is one of the lead programmers for the famous game 'Grand Theft Auto'.
28:05 to 31
As Chris was negotiating the deal with Minecraft he was again approached by DC Thomson telling him they enjoyed working with him and he should be working towards gaming with them and did not like that he owned another business outside of DC Thomson and offered Chris to buy the company and invest in them to produce games. it had taken DC Thomson around 12 months to offer the company a structured deal and cancelled the deal as Chris's company had already finished Minecraft and had a feeling it would have been successful.
31 to 33
Time taken to create the Minecraft - around a year and there was a very small team working on it (10 people)Had a very amicable relationship with DC Thompson even after he parted with them. 4J has continued to grow.
33:23 to 35
Microsoft bought Minecraft from Swedish Marcus Person and Notch Person for 2.5 billion dollars (1 game). Microsoft phoned Chris when it became public and informed him he was one of the main reasons why they bought Minecraft. Minecraft has been used not only by children but also by many others who wish to create a virtual world and show it to other people.
37 to 38
Promoted youtuber 'Stampy' however as he was 21 and the Minecraft game was aimed at 7-12 year olds he had to change his language criteria in order for them to promote him. Their twitter page has at least 650,000 followers and they tweeted to promote Stampy which has led him into having billions of views and around 10 million subscribers.
39 to 48
Chris was elected as one of the youngest fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh - about very worthy academic. He was the youngest fellow in about 150 years (aged 31). They eventually asked him to hold office and the office he held was Convener of Young Peoples Committee and he held Christmas lectures. One year at the Christmas lectures he wanted to involve the Minecraft youtubers and get them to lecture others. It was done in Dundee, Caird Hall. Halloween 2015 tickets came out for the Caird hall at £5 a ticket. It was one of the biggest ticket queues in a long time, it was bigger than The Beatles and Led Zeppelin - the event happened on St. Andrews day. The show was Chris interviewing Stampy where he showed the audience how he made something in the game. The audience was very excited and very engaged during the live shows.
48 to 51:10
The V&A museum opening in 2018, Chris hopes that it has an involvement with the gaming industry. He hopes Dundee is the place to hold the ultimate legal deposit library for games. He hopes to continue in the gaming industry for a long time.
51:10 to 55:17
He toured with Dundonian Michael Marra in the 1990's. He was doing front house engineering and he was also a sound engineer for a tour of Germany. During this tour all of the concerts were sold out. This influenced Chris to question himself 'Why not Dundee?' to have one of the largest digital centres.
55:17 to 57:19
Chris is helping to push towards Dundee having a digital centre - working alongside companies, planning on working with the council and school children, helping the science centre, University of Dundee and Abertay.
57:20 to 59:55
Business expansion - moving premises, currently developing their headquarters at the docks down at the City Quay. Their project has the title of 'Shed 25' it will be a great location as there are plans for the biggest leisure centre will be built next to it. Chris and Paddy have invested in several companies: one in Edinburgh called 'TV Squared' and another gaming company in England called 'Team 17'.
59:55 to 1:05:11
There are parallels between his own life and the development of Dundee. They have both grown in confidence over time. He thinks the investment in Dundee, eg the V and A museum and the Waterfront development, will bring lots of benefits to the city.
