Bob Bates
Robert Bates (born December 11, 1953) is an American
computer game designer. One of the early designers of
interactive fiction games, he was co-founder of Challenge, Inc., which created games in the 1980s for the pioneering company
Infocom. After Infocom's dissolution in 1989, Bates co-founded
Legend Entertainment to continue publishing games in the Infocom tradition, but with added graphics. Notable games that he has designed, written, or produced include ''
Unreal II'' (2003), ''
Spider-Man 3'' (2007), and ''
Eric the Unready'' (1993), listed as Adventure Game of the Year by ''
Computer Gaming World'' magazine and also included on the 1996 list of "150 best games of all time". In 1998 he wrote the award-winning game ''Quandaries'' for the
U.S. Department of Justice. He has twice been the chairperson of the
International Game Developers Association, which honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. Bates has written extensively about game design and development in works such as the 2001 book ''Game Design: The Art and Business of Creating Games'', which is commonly used as a game design textbook in college courses. From 2011–2014, Bates was Chief Creative Officer for External Studios at
Zynga. He continues to work as an independent consultant with various publishers in the games industry.
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