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Early life

Living from an early age in the United States in Michigan and Indiana, Jaquays graduated from Jackson County Western High School (Michigan) in 1974 and Spring Arbor College in 1978 with a BA in Fine Art.

The Dungeoneer and fantasy roleplaying

While still at college he became interested in science-fiction and fantasy gaming through the pages of The Space Gamer and, in particular, the nascent role-playing game industry which led to him founding one of the early fanzines dedicated to the subject, The Dungeoneer in 1976. Being targeted specifically as a "dungeonmaster's publication", this was noteworthy for its pioneering approach to pre-factored adventures (F'Chelrak's Tomb being published in June 1976, the same month as Wee Warriors' Palace of the Vampire Queen) and provided an inspiration for many later such magazines, not only in the US.

In addition to these "honest efforts at quality contents to interest readers" on a fannish level, Jaquays also commenced submissions of artwork to TSR's own in-house gaming magazine, The Dragon in 1976; first appearing in the premiere issue of that publication with later contributions including the cover to issue #21.

Judges Guild, later independent roleplaying projects and TSR

Having decided to sell his interest in The Dungeoneer just before graduating to focus on his art studio work, Jaquays later followed the new owner, Charles Anshell, to Judges Guild which was by late 1978 providing prolific material and officially licensed products for TSR's Dungeons & Dragons line.

As Anshell retained editorial control of The Dungeoneer in a semi-independent manner as one of Judges Guild's two gaming periodicals, Jaquays worked on two stand-alone modules for Dungeons & Dragons, Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia which were completed before leaving the company in October 1979, although he provided various content on a freelance basis thereafter, particularly to The Dungeoneer.

Despite a change of career direction towards video games in the early 1980s, Jaquays' continued to work as a freelance agent for various clients in table-top gaming, including Chaosium, TSR, Inc., Game Designers Workshop, West End Games, Flying Buffalo and Iron Crown Enterprises; particularly from 1986/87 until 1993 after leaving Coleco whilst running his own design studio.

From 1993 to 1997, he returned to full time employment in the table-top gaming industry as an illustrator for TSR, Inc., including a six month period as Director of Graphics, leaving just before their takeover by Wizards of the Coast. During this time, he played an active role in the creation of the Dragon Dice game, both as cover artist and icon designer.

Freelance artwork

In addition to his many gaming artwork contributions, including those noted above and for two decades to TSR, Inc.'s first line periodicals, Dragon and Dungeon, Jaquays also worked as an illustrator and cartoonist for the Jackson Citizen Patriot in 1980 and, during the later 1980s, was a regular interior artist for Amazing Stories, also contributing one cover.

Video game industry experience

After leaving Judges Guild, Jaquays worked for Coleco, first in a freelance capacity from 1980, then as a full-time employee from 1981 to 1985, developing and designing arcade conversions including many well-known titles such as Pac-Man and Donkey Kong for their home arcade video game system, eventually becoming Director of Game Design.

During his freelance design studio period in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he continued his involvement in the video game industry with concept and design work for Epyx, Interplay Entertainment and Electronic Arts (EA).

From March 1997, Jaquays was employed as level designer for id Software, best known for their Quake series of video games, before moving to Dallas-based Ensemble Studios, which had "become a haven for ex-id Software developers" including former tabletop and computer gaming associate Sandy Petersen who had previously hired him to id as a content designer from early 2002 until its closure in January 2009.

Jaquays also co-founded The Guildhall at SMU, a video game university located at the Plano campus of the Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, in 2003; for which he helped create much of the original curriculum material.

As of October 2009, he is employed as a Senior Level Designer with CCP North America in Stone Mountain, Georgia; the regional division of CCP hf, best known for their science fiction MMORPG EVE Online.

Having recently moved from Texas, Jaquays currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Christine and three cats. He has two children from a previous marriage and a stepdaughter from his current marriage, and has described himself as "politically, economically, and religiously conservative".

One of the many "unsung heroes" of the gaming industry, Jaquays' Dark Tower was nonetheless nominated for the 1979 H.G. Wells award for Best Roleplaying Adventure. In November 2004, as part of the 30th Anniversary celebration for Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeon magazine produced a list of the "thirty greatest D&D Adventures of All Time", on which Dark Tower was the only entry not published by TSR.

Jaquays was co-author and illustrator for Chaosium's Griffin Mountain RuneQuest scenario, set in Glorantha which was highly praised and was nominated for the 1981 H.G. Welles award. The reworked version, as Griffin Island, was also nominated for the same award in 1986.

Coleco's Wargames for which Jaquays was co-designer of game play, won the 1984 Summer C.E.S. original software award.

As a level designer for TSR's Castle Greyhawk, Jaquays shared this module's 1989 Origins Gamer's Choice Award for Best Role-Playing Adventure.