Occupation Game designer Name Steve Meretzky | Role Computer game developer | |
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Born May 1, 1957 (age 67) ( 1957-05-01 ) Yonkers, New York Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology (SB) Education Massachusetts Institute of Technology Books Forces of Krill, Cavern of Doom, Conquest at Quendor People also search for George Alec Effinger, Robin Wayne Bailey, Douglas Adams | ||
Organizations founded Boffo Games | ||
Game On—what was it like to make games during the 80's?
Steven Eric Meretzky (born May 1, 1957) is an American computer game developer, with dozens of titles to his credit. He has been involved in almost every aspect of game development, from design to production to quality assurance and box design. He is best known for creating some of the famous Infocom games in the early 1980s, including collaborating with celebrated author Douglas Adams on the interactive fiction version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, one of the few games to be certified "platinum" by the Software Publishing Association. Later, he created the Spellcasting trilogy, the flagship adventure series of Legend Entertainment.
Contents
- Game Onwhat was it like to make games during the 80s
- Biography
- Gameography
- Infocom
- Activision
- Legend Entertainment
- Boffo Games
- WorldWinner
- Video games
- Books
- Articles
- References
His keen wit, prose and coding skill made him one of only two interactive fiction writers (along with Dave Lebling) admitted to the Science Fiction Writers of America, and in September 1999, PC Gamer magazine named Meretzky as one of their twenty-five "Game Gods"; those who have made an indelible mark on the history of computer gaming.
Biography
Meretzky was raised in Yonkers, New York. His father was trained as an accountant, but spent a career of 25 years selling automotive hardware. Meretzky's mother was a bookkeeper. He graduated from Yonkers High School in 1975. He went on to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in construction management in 1979. After working in the construction industry for two years, in 1981 Meretzky decided to pursue a career as a game tester for Infocom. In 1983, he became a full-time writer (an "Implementor"), scripting Planetfall and creating the famous cult figure robot sidekick "Floyd".
In 1984, he had his most famous collaboration, with Douglas Adams on the computer game version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which became one of the bestselling games of the era. Another popular game was Leather Goddesses of Phobos, whose risque writing pushed the boundaries of the art. In an interview, Meretzky said that he originally just wrote the name on a project board as a joke, but was later asked to actually develop a game to go along with the title.
In A Mind Forever Voyaging, Meretzky attempted to address social issues, but Infocom's success was declining, and the 1988 Zork Zero was one of his last titles there.
In 1994, Meretzky co-founded Boffo Games, where he was Vice President of Creation, and developed such titles as the story puzzle game Hodj 'n' Podj and the detective comedy The Space Bar until the company closed its doors in 1997.
Around the year 2000, Meretzky joined WorldWinner as a game advisor and Principal Game Designer. Meretzky is also a charter member of the Computer Game Developers Association, and a frequent speaker at industry conferences such as GDC.
Meretzky appears as himself antagonizing rapper MC Frontalot in the music video for "It Is Pitch Dark." (released on Secrets from the Future). The song references several of Meretzky's text adventure games, and the video is directed by documentarian Jason Scott Sadofsky, whose film GET LAMP is about the genre.
Several years later, Meretzky joined Blue Fang Games to work on the popular Zoo Tycoon franchise. He was employed as a vice president at social media game developer Playdom from 2008 to 2013, at which point he became vice president of creative at GSN Games. In November 2016 he became vice president for design at Swedish social games company King Digital Entertainment.
Gameography
Meretzky has been credited on games developed by: Infocom, Legend Entertainment Company, Activision Inc., Boffo Games Inc., MicroProse, GameFX, Floodgate Entertainment, and Tom Snyder Productions. In the following titles, Meretzky was sole or lead designer / creative director.
Infocom
Activision
Legend Entertainment
Boffo Games
WorldWinner
Meretzky created various mobile games during his time at WorldWinner, including Tile City, Word Cubes, Hangmania, Catch-21, SwapIt!, Blockwerx, and Triv!.
Video games
For these video games, Meretzky had a lesser role, such as in an advisory capacity: