Dave Grossman is an American

game programmer A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebases for video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface ...

and

game designer Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...

, most known for his work at

Telltale Games Telltale Incorporated (trade name: Telltale Games) was an American video game developer based in San Rafael, California. The company was founded in July 2004 by former LucasArts developers Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors and Troy Molander, following ...

and early work at

LucasArts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game brand licensing, licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as ...

. He has also written several children's books, and a book of "guy poetry" called ''Ode to the Stuff in the Sink''.

Game industry career

Grossman joined Lucasfilm Games, later known as LucasArts in 1989. At

, Grossman wrote and programmed ''

The Secret of Monkey Island ''The Secret of Monkey Island'' is a 1990 point-and-click graphic adventure game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It takes place in a fictional version of the Caribbean during the age of piracy. The player assumes the role of Guybr ...

'' and '' Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge'' together with

Ron Gilbert Ron Gilbert (born January 1, 1964) is an American video game designer, video-game designer, video game programmer, programmer, and video game producer, producer. His games are generally focused on interactive story-telling, and he is arguably bes ...

and

Tim Schafer Timothy John Schafer (born July 26, 1967) is an American video game designer. He founded Double Fine Productions in July 2000, after having spent over a decade at LucasArts. Schafer is best known as the designer of critically acclaimed games '' ...

. He later co-designed ''

Day of the Tentacle ''Day of the Tentacle'', also known as ''Maniac Mansion II: Day of the Tentacle'', is a 1993 graphic adventure game developed and published by LucasArts. It is the sequel to the 1987 game ''Maniac Mansion''. The plot follows Bernard Bernoulli a ...

''. Grossman quit LucasArts in 1994 to begin a freelance career. For

Humongous Entertainment Humongous Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Bothell, Washington. Founded in 1992, the company is best known for developing multiple edutainment franchises, most prominently ''Putt-Putt (series), Putt-Putt'', ''Fred ...

, a company co-founded by Ron Gilbert, he helped create many critically acclaimed games aimed at children, such as the ''

Pajama Sam The ''Pajama Sam'' series is a collection of point and click children's adventure and puzzle games originally created by Humongous Entertainment. After the release of the first two adventure games, the series was proving a success when the product ...

'' series. Later he also wrote children's games for Hulabee Entertainment and Disney. He then designed adventure games at

, a company founded by LucasArts veterans. He joined Telltale in 2005 as lead designer. In 2009, he returned to his ''Monkey Island'' roots, as Design Director on Telltale Games' episodic ''

Tales of Monkey Island ''Tales of Monkey Island'' is a 2009 graphic adventure video game developed by Telltale Games under license from LucasArts. It is the fifth game in the ''Monkey Island'' series, released nearly a decade after the previous installment, ''Escape fr ...

''. He left Telltale in August 2014 and joined

Amazon Alexa Amazon Alexa, also known simply as Alexa, is a virtual assistant technology largely based on a Polish speech synthesiser named Ivona, bought by Amazon in 2013. It was first used in the Amazon Echo smart speaker and the Echo Dot, Echo Studio and ...

gaming specialists, Reactive Studios, in November 2014 as Chief Creative Officer. Reactive Studios has since changed its name to EarPlay. In 2020 he joined

in developing ''

Return to Monkey Island ''Return to Monkey Island'' is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Terrible Toybox and published by Devolver Digital. The sixth ''Monkey Island'' game, it was released for macOS, Nintendo Switch, and Windows on September 19, 2022, for L ...

''. The game was released in 2022.

Children's books

Lyrick Publishing published three books written by Grossman that were based on characters from Humongous Entertainment's games. They were ''Freddi Fish: The Big Froople Match'', ''Pajama Sam: Mission to the Moon'', and ''Freddi Fish: The Missing Letters Mystery''. For Fisher-Price/Nickelodeon, Grossman authored two interactive books, ''SpongeBob SquarePants: Sleepy Time'' and ''Fairly OddParents: Squawkers''.

Other works

Grossman claimed that his interests in other works were often inspired by his father, "I guess I've inherited a certain restless tinkerer's curiosity from my father (who mainly works in words, wood, photography and architecture, often in combination)." This include his interests in writing, drawing, sculpture, and music. Grossman is the author of "Ode to the Stuff in the Sink: A Book of Guy Poetry," which he self-published in 2002. It contains a selection of illustrated poems dedicated to different aspects of male life, including inability to dance, old stuff in the fridge, and unwillingness to clean anything. The book is available from Dave Grossman's personal website, Phrenopolis.com. Many of the poems were first published in his Poem of the Week electronic mailing list. Grossman co-designed a successful robot toy for Fisher-Price.

Game contributions

*''

'' (1990), JVC,

*'' Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge'' (1991), LucasArts *'' Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle'' (1993), LucasArts *'' Pajama Sam In: No Need To Hide When It's Dark Outside'' (1996),

*'' Pajama Sam 2: Thunder and Lightning Aren't so Frightening'' (1998), Humongous Entertainment *'' Freddi Fish 4: The Case of the Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch'' (1999), Humongous Entertainment *'' Pajama Sam 3: You Are What You Eat From Your Head To Your Feet'' (2000), Humongous Entertainment *''

Moop and Dreadly in the Treasure on Bing Bong Island ''Moop and Dreadly in the Treasure on Bing Bong Island'' is a 2002 point-and-click adventure game produced by Hulabee Entertainment and published by Plaid Banana Entertainment. Plot In their first adventure, Dreadly has a map that shows the lo ...

'' (2001), Hulabee/Plaid Banana *''

Ollo in the Sunny Valley Fair ''Ollo in the Sunny Valley Fair'' is a 2002 point-and-click adventure game produced by Hulabee Entertainment and published by Plaid Banana Entertainment. Plot Ollo is helping Rose, a friend of his, grow a tomato for the annual fair. The tomato be ...

'' (2002), Hulabee/Plaid Banana *''

Piglet's Big Game ''Disney's Piglet's Big Game'' is a 2003 action-adventure video game developed by French developer Doki Denki Studio and Hulabee Entertainment, and published by Gotham Games, Disney Interactive Studios, and THQ. The game centers around Piglet an ...

'' (2003),

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

*''

Bone A bone is a Stiffness, rigid Organ (biology), organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red blood cell, red and white blood cells, store minerals, provid ...

'' ( episodic),

*'' Sam & Max Season One'' ( episodic, "Season One" 2006–2007), Telltale Games *'' Sam & Max Season Two'' ( episodic, "Season Two" 2007–2008), Telltale Games *''

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People ''Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People'' is an episodic graphic adventure developed by Telltale Games and based on the ''Homestar Runner'' web cartoon, with Strong Bad as the lead character. A total of five episodes were released for Mi ...

'' ( episodic, 2008), Telltale Games *''

'' (2009–2010) Telltale Games *'' Back to the Future: The Game'' (2010–2011) Telltale Games *''

'' (2020-2022) Terrible Toybox Grossman also made contributions to '' The Dig'', ''

Total Annihilation ''Total Annihilation'' is a real-time strategy video game created by Cavedog Entertainment, a sub-division of Humongous Entertainment, and was released on September 26, 1997 by GT Interactive for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. Two expansion packs ...

'', and ''

Insecticide Insecticides are substances used to kill insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against insect eggs and larvae, respectively. Insecticides are used in agriculture, medicine, industry and by consumers. Insecticides are claimed to b ...

'', and was a script editor on ''

Voodoo Vince ''Voodoo Vince'' is a 2003 platforming video game created by Clayton Kauzlaric, developed by American studio Beep Industries and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox. Unlike other Xbox games, however, this one is not compatible wi ...

''. He also designed the trophies / Steam achievements for the remastered version of ''

''.

References

External links

Phrenopolis.com, Dave Grossman's website

Telltale company blog co-written by Dave Grossman

Developer interview at Adventure Classic Gaming

Interview at AdventureGamers.com

Dave Grossman - La Isla del Mono
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grossman, Dave Living people Lucasfilm people Video game designers Video game programmers Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people)