Chris Crawford (game designer)

Chris Crawford is a noted computer game designer and writer, responsible for a number of important games in the 1980s, for founding The Journal of Computer Game Design and for organizing the Computer Game Developers' Conference.

After receiving a B.S. in physics from UC Davis in 1972 and an M.S. in the same from University of Missouri, Columbia in 1975, Crawford taught at a community college and the University of California, then turned his game design hobby into a job at Atari in 1979.

He worked on a number of games at Atari, including the best-selling Eastern Front, and as manager of their Games Research Group, wrote The Art of Computer Game Design.

Laid off in the Atari collapse of 1984, he went freelance and produced the innovative Balance of Power in 1985, which was both highly-regarded and a best-seller, reaching 250,000 units sold. Additional creative strategy games followed.

More recently he has been working on the Erasmatron, an authoring tool for interactive electronic storyworlds.

Table of contents

1 Books 2 Games 3 External link

Books

• The Art of Computer Game Design (1982)
• Balance of Power (1986)
• The Art of Interactive Design (No Starch Press, 2002) ISBN 1886411840
• Chris Crawford on Game Design (New Riders Press, 2003) ISBN 0131460994

Games

• Tanktics
• Legionnaire
• Wizard (never released)
• Energy Czar
• Scram
• Eastern Front
• Gossip (video game)
• Excalibur
• Balance of Power (1985)
• Patton Versus Rommel (1986)
• Trust & Betrayal: The Legacy of Siboot (1987)
• Balance of Power: The 1990 Edition (1989)
• The Global Dilemma: Guns & Butter (1990)
• Balance of the Planet (1990)
• Patton Strikes Back (1991)

External link

• Chris Crawford website