Bob Bates

Robert Bates (born December 11 1953), better known as Bob Bates, is a U.S. computer games designer, and writer of books about game design and development.

Overview

His first published game designs were the two interactive fiction titles ' and ' for Infocom. A third game was never finished because Infocom was closed in 1989. Soon after the end of Infocom, Bates and Mike Verdu founded Legend Entertainment to produce games in the Infocom tradition. Games designed by Bates for Legend include: "Timequest", the "Gateway" series, "Eric the Unready", "Companions of Xanth", "Callahan's Crosstime Saloon" and the company's final game "".

Bates is also the author of two books on game design and development: "Game Design: The Art and Business of Creating Games" and "The Game Developer's Market Guide".

In his 21-year career are included more than 35 games that have sold in total over 5 million units and won over 55 industry awards, including two Adventure Game of theYear awards. He has worked on #1 titles for both the PC (Unreal 2) and for consoles ("Spider-Man 3"). He is currently Secretary of IGDA, co-founder of the Game Designers Workshop, and serves on the board of the Games Convention Developers Conference.

External links

* [http://www.bobbates.com Bob Bates.com] - official website
* [http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,1096/ Bob Bates' Rap Sheet] at MobyGames
* [http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/interviews/168/ Interview with Bob Bates at Adventure Classic Gaming (2001)]
* [http://www.infocom-if.org/authors/bates.html Infocom Authors - Bob Bates]
* [http://www.g-wie-gorilla.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=111&Itemid=18 Interview with Bob Bates with emphasis on his adventures and storytelling (2005)]