The Origin of Worms
Originally created in 1993 by Andy Davidson as a simple diversion for himself and his classmates,
Worms began its life as Lemartillery, an Amiga artillery game using repurposed graphics from the popular puzzle game
Lemmings. Though he had not intended at first to sell the game, the overwhelming amount of positive feedback he received regarding his efforts convinced Davidson that his idea was worth pursuing commercially, and thus he began the process of finding a company interested in converting his work into a full retail product. Realizing at that point that reused Lemmings assets would not suffice when showing the game to developers, he changed the focus of the game from mammals to heavily armed annelids, and rechristened it Total Wormage.
His big break would come at the European Computer Trade Show in September of 1994, where
Martyn Brown of
Team 17, noticing the potential of Davidson's idea, offered to commit resources to further develop and publish the game. Dropping the Total Wormage moniker in favor of something slightly simpler, Team 17 would release Worms in 1995 for the Amiga followed by other platforms later on. Aside from the original version, Davidson would go on to work with the company on several other iterations of the
Worms franchise, such as
Worms: The Director's Cut and
Worms 2, before leaving around the time of
Worms Armageddon's release. He has not worked in an official capacity on any Worms games since, though he continues to receive mention for "Original Concept" in Worms titles created many years after his departure.
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