Greg Costikyan (born July 22, 1959, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

), sometimes known under the pseudonym "Designer X", is an American

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 ...

and

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

writer. Costikyan's career spans nearly all extant genres of gaming, including: hex-based

wargames ''WarGames'' is a 1983 American science fiction techno-thriller film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film, which stars Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, and Ally Sheedy, follows Dav ...

role-playing games A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal ac ...

boardgames Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a co ...

card games A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ...

, computer games,

online games An online game is a video game that is either partially or primarily played through the Internet or any other computer network available. Online games are ubiquitous on modern gaming platforms, including PCs, consoles and mobile devices, and s ...

and

mobile games A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone ( feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to ...

. Several of his games have won

Origins Awards The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so (for example) the 1979 a ...

. He co-founded

Manifesto Games Manifesto Games was an ecommerce retailer of downloadable computer games, specializing in independently developed games aimed at hardcore gamers. It was founded in October 2005 by Greg Costikyan and Dr. Johnny L. Wilson, former editor of ''Comp ...

, now out of business, with Johnny Wilson in 2005.

Personal life and education

Greg Costikyan is the son of attorney and politician Edward N. and Frances (Holmgren) Costikyan. He and Warren Spector, a game designer, were friends since high school. He is a 1982 graduate (

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

) of

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. (subscription required) He married Louise Disbrow (a securities analyst), September 4, 1986. They have three children. He is a frequent speaker at game industry events including the

Game Developers Conference The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tutori ...

and E³.

Career

Greg Costikyan has been a game designer since the 1970s. Costikyan worked at SPI until it was closed by TSR in 1982; he came to

West End Games West End Games (WEG) was a company that made Board game, board, Role-playing game, role-playing, and wargaming, war games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York City, but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Its product line ...

in 1983. His 1983 game '' Bug-Eyed Monsters'' brought West End Games into the science-fiction and fantasy genres, and the following year he licensed his ''

Paranoia Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concer ...

'' role-playing game to West End Games for publishing after trying unsuccessfully to find a publisher. Costikyan designed '' Toon'' (1984) for

Steve Jackson Games Steve Jackson Games (SJGames) is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and (until 2019) the gaming magazine ''Pyramid''. History Founded in 1980, six years after the cr ...

after developing it from an idea suggested by

Jeff Dee Jeff Dee is an American artist and game designer. He was the youngest artist in the history of pioneering role-playing game company TSR when he began his work at the age of eighteen. He also designed the ''Villains and Vigilantes'' superhero gam ...

; Costikyan felt that the game system was largely "arbitrary" and that the theme behind the game was more important. West End Games acquired licensing to make a game based on ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'', and Costikyan designed '' Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game'', published in 1987, with help from Doug Kaufman and others. Costikyan and Eric Goldberg left West End Games in January 1987, forming the short-lived Goldberg Associates. When West End Games declared bankruptcy in 1998, Costikyan and Goldberg tried to recover the rights to ''Paranoia''; although West End's founder

Scott Palter Daniel Scott Palter (died February 17, 2020) was a game designer who worked primarily on wargames and role-playing games. Early life and education Scott Palter received an Bachelor of Arts, AB from Dartmouth College, Dartmouth, then a Juris Doct ...

fought this, a judge gave the rights back to the creators in 2000. Costikyan designed the role-playing game ''

Violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or Power (social and p ...

'' (1999) under the pseudonym "Designer X" for

Hogshead Publishing Hogshead Publishing was a British game company that produced role-playing games and game supplements. History In October 1994, James Wallis founded Hogshead Publishing, a company which specialised in role-playing and storytelling games. Wallis b ...

, and made the game widely available under a

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

license. Costikyan and Goldberg licensed ''Paranoia'' to

Mongoose Publishing Mongoose Publishing is a British manufacturer of role-playing games, miniatures, and card games, publishing material since 2001. Its licenses include products based on the science fiction properties '' Traveller'', ''Judge Dredd'', and ''Parano ...

, which began producing new books for the game in 2004. Costikyan was the CEO of

, a start-up devoted to providing a viable path to market for independently developed computer games. He subsequently worked as a consultant for several years before joining Guerillapps as lead game designer in March 2010 to develop its game "

Trash Tycoon Trash Tycoon was an upcycling social network game developed by Guerillapps in 2011. The game applies traditional social gameplay features with the issues of waste, water, and green. Gameplay includes cleaning a town overrun by trash, recycling, a ...

" for

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

. In May 2011, he joined Disney Playdom as senior games designer and in January 2014 assumed the same role at Loop Drop. In June 2015, Costikyan joined Boss Fight Entertainment as senior games designer. He has written on games, game design, and game industry business issues for publications including: the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', '' Wall Street Journal Interactive'', ''

Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (P ...

'', ''The Escapist'', ''Gamasutra'', and ''Game Developers Magazine'', and is the author of science fiction novels. He has lectured on game design at universities including: the Copenhagen ITU, Helsinki University of Art & Design, RPI, and

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...

. As of 2019, Costikyan and Goldberg both joine
Playable Worlds
a gaming startup focused on producing an as-yet-unnamed MMORPG.

Games

Costikyan's notable works include: *'' Web and Starship'' (1984, a starships combat science fiction board game) *'' Toon'' (1984, a humor role-playing game) *'' Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game'' (Origins Award Winner for ''Best Role-playing Rules of 1987'' ) *''

Pax Britannica ''Pax Britannica'' (Latin for "British Peace", modelled after '' Pax Romana'') was the period of relative peace between the great powers during which the British Empire became the global hegemonic power and adopted the role of a " global pol ...

'' (Charles S. Roberts Award Winner for ''Best Pre-20th Century Game of 1985'' ) * ''Paranoia'' (Origins Award Winner for ''Best Roleplaying Rules of 1984'' ) *''

The Creature That Ate Sheboygan ''The Creature That Ate Sheboygan'' is a science fiction board game released in 1979 by Simulations Publications (SPI). The game received good reviews and won an industry award. Gameplay ''The Creature That Ate Sheboygan'', designed by Greg Cost ...

'' (Charles S. Roberts Award Winner for ''Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Game of 1979'' ) *'' MadMaze'' *'' Violence: The Roleplaying Game of Egregious and Repulsive Bloodshed'' *'' The Price of Freedom'' (1986) Costikyan's other RPG credits include ''

Acute Paranoia ''Acute Paranoia'', published in 1986 by West End Games, is the first supplement for the light-hearted science fiction role-playing game ''Paranoia''. Contents ''Acute Paranoia'' is an anthology of articles mainly for gamemasters designed to give ...

'' (1986) for ''Paranoia'', and ''Your Own Private Idaho'' (1987) for ''The Price of Freedom''. In addition, Costikyan is a widely published author on the subject of game design and the role of games in culture. His essay "I Have No Words and I Must Design" is widely read as a conceptual approach to framing game design. Costikyan worked on game design for many years, including writing and consulting for

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...

. In September 2005, he left Nokia to join with Johnny Wilson, former editor of ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

'', in founding the startup indie game publisher

. He regularly contributed to the now defunct Manifesto Games' website, and was editor in chief of their now defunct offshoot game review blog ''Play This Thing''. In the 1970s and '80s, Costikyan was a leading player of ''

Slobbovia Slobbovia was a postal ''Diplomacy'' variant played among science fiction and gaming fans in North America and Europe from 1972 to 1986. The game was published in Slobinpolit Zhurnal (Слобинполит Журнал). It was unique among ...

''. His novel ''One Quest, Hold the Dragons'' includes several stories about ''crottled greeps'', a Slobbovian meme. In February 2009, Costikyan updated the rules and re-released his 1979

space combat game A space flight simulation is a Video game genres, genre of flight simulator video games that lets players experience space flight to varying degrees of Reality, realism. Common mechanics include space exploration, space trade and space combat. ...

, '' Vector 3'', under a

license as a free

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

download.

Books

Costikyan has written four novels. The first two were

parodies A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...

of genre

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

: ''Another Day, Another Dungeon'' (1990, ) and its sequel ''One Quest, Hold the Dragons'' (1995, ). ''By the Sword'' (1993, ) is another irreverent fantasy about a young

barbarian A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either Civilization, uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by som ...

who is forced by circumstances to make his way in the larger world; it was originally serialized on the Prodigy online service. His latest novel, ''First Contract'' (in French : Space O.P.A. - 2000, ), depicts (with much dry humor) the vast sociological and economic changes that happen after aliens arrive on Earth, and one entrepreneur's efforts to survive and make a new start. In 2013, Costikyan's non-fiction look at the role of uncertainty in game development ''Uncertainty in Games'' was published by MIT Press. A paperback edition was subsequently published in 2015. .

Awards and recognition

Costikyan is the winner of five

. On March 7, 2007, Costikyan received the Game Developers Choice Awards Maverick Award. The award was given for his tireless efforts to create a viable channel for indie games. He was inducted into the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame in 1999.

References

External links

Costikyan's personal website
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Costikyan, Greg 1959 births Living people 20th-century American novelists American male bloggers American bloggers American male novelists American male short story writers American science fiction writers American video game designers Board game designers Brown University alumni American male essayists Role-playing game designers 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American male writers Creative Commons-licensed authors 21st-century American non-fiction writers American people of Swiss descent American people of Armenian descent