Robert Bates (born December 11, 1953) is an American

computer game designer Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the Video game development#Pre-production, pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the Video game development#P ...

. 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 Infocom was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called ''Cornerstone (software), Cornerstone''. ...

. After Infocom's dissolution in 1989, Bates co-founded

Legend Entertainment Legend Entertainment Company was an American developer and publisher of computer games, best known for creating adventure titles throughout the 1990s. The company was founded by Bob Bates and Mike Verdu, both veterans of the interactive ficti ...

to continue publishing games in the Infocom tradition, but with added graphics. Notable games that he has designed, written, or produced include ''

Unreal II ''Unreal II: The Awakening'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by Legend Entertainment and published by Infogrames under the Atari brand for Microsoft Windows, the game was later ported to Microsoft's Xbox console by Tantalus. I ...

'' (2003), '' Spider-Man 3'' (2007), and ''

Eric the Unready ''Eric the Unready'' is an adventure game developed and published by Legend Entertainment for MS-DOS in 1993. ''Eric the Unready'' is a parody of the fantasy genre in general, though it parodies numerous other topics as well, ranging from '' Star ...

'' (1993), listed as Adventure Game of the Year by ''

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 ...

'' 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 The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

. He has twice been the chairperson of the

International Game Developers Association The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is a nonprofit professional association whose stated mission is to "support and empower game developers around the world in achieving fulfilling and sustainable careers." The IGDA is incorpo ...

, 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 Zynga Inc. () is an American developer running social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile and social networking platforms. Zynga states its missio ...

. He continues to work as an independent consultant with various publishers in the games industry.

Career

Bates was born in 1953 in

Greenbelt, Maryland Greenbelt is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and a suburb of Washington, D.C. At the 2020 census, the population was 24,921. Greenbelt is the first and the largest of the three experimental and controversial New D ...

, the fourth of eight children to Frances and James Bates. His father was a mathematician, who from 1963–1967 moved the family to Cheltenham, England. Upon returning to the United States, Bob attended

DeMatha High School DeMatha Catholic High School is a four-year Catholic high school for boys located in Hyattsville, Maryland, United States. Named after John of Matha, DeMatha is under the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and is a member of the Washington Ca ...

Hyattsville, Maryland Hyattsville is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and also a close, urban suburb of Washington, D.C. The population was 21,187 at the 2020 United States Census. History Before Europeans reached the area, the upper ...

, graduating in 1971, and then went on to

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, where he pursued a double major in

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

and

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

, receiving his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in philosophy in 1975. His first job after college was as tour guide for Washington Group Tours, a job he took since it allowed him free time between tours to pursue his writing efforts. In 1977 he met his future wife, Peggy Oriani, whom he married in January 1978, and then founded his own tour company, Potomac Tours. In 1982, with the approach of his 30th birthday, he sold the company to spend two years writing a novel, though did not finish. It was around this time that Bates' father gave his old

TRS-80 The TRS-80 Micro Computer System (TRS-80, later renamed the Model I to distinguish it from successors) is a desktop microcomputer launched in 1977 and sold by Tandy Corporation through their Radio Shack stores. The name is an abbreviation of '' ...

computer to his son, to help with the novel-writing. With the computer, Bates received a copy of the interactive fiction game ''

Zork ''Zork'' is a text-based adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. The original developers and others, as the company Infocom, expanded a ...

'', and immediately fell in love with the genre, seeing it as a way that he could pursue a writing career, making games. In 1986, Bates and a friend, David Wilt, who he knew because they sang in the same choir, the

Alexandria Harmonizers The Alexandria Harmonizers are an international champion barbershop chorus based in Alexandria, Virginia. Numbering 110 men in 2013, the chorus is the performing arm of the Alexandria Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society, under the direc ...

, started the company Challenge, Inc. to explore the possibilities of creating interactive fiction games. Needing an engine for these games, Bates reached out to the ''Zork'' publisher, Infocom, to see about licensing their fiction engine

Z-machine The Z-machine is a virtual machine that was developed by Joel Berez and Marc Blank in 1979 and used by Infocom for its text adventure games. Infocom compiled game code to files containing Z-machine instructions (called story files or Z-code ...

. Several weeks later, Infocom and Challenge had worked out a development deal, with Bates doing the design/writing, the coding being done by two contract programmers from Paragon Systems, and the publishing/marketing being done under the Infocom name. Bates envisioned a game series entitled "Immortal Legends", with his first two published game designs being the interactive fiction titles '' Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels'' (1988) and '' Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur'' (1989), on which he was both designer and writer. A third game about

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is depic ...

was never finished because Infocom was dissolved by its parent company

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

in 1989. A few months after the end of Infocom, Bates and

Mike Verdu Michael Verdu (born December 28, 1964) is an American manager and producer and author of computer games. Life Verdu was born on December 28, 1964. His father worked for a trade union, his mother was a dance instructor. Michael visited the Ren ...

(the head of Paragon Systems, which had since been acquired by American Systems Corp) founded

to produce games in the Infocom tradition. The company was backed by ASC, and located in their facility in

Chantilly, Virginia Chantilly is a census-designated place (CDP) in western Fairfax County, Virginia, Fairfax County, Virginia. The population was 24,301 as of the 2020 census. Chantilly is named after an early-19th-century mansion and farm, which in turn took the ...

. Games designed by Bates for Legend included '' Timequest'', ''

'', and '' John Saul's Blackstone Chronicles''. He also contributed design and writing to other company games, including the '' Gateway'' series and the company's final game '' Unreal II: The Awakening''. In 1998 Legend was acquired by

GT Interactive GT, Gt or G-T may refer to: Arts and entertainment Games * GT Interactive, an American video game developer * GameTrailers, a video game website * ''Golden Tee Golf'', golf video game * ''Gran Turismo'' (series), a series of racing video games ...

, which itself was acquired by

Infogrames Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA) is a French video game holding company headquartered in Paris. Its subsidiaries include Atari Interactive and Atari, Inc. It is the current owner of the Atari brand through Atari Interactive. Bec ...

, later renamed as

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...

. In 2004, Legend was closed. Bates then went on to do independent consulting until 2011 when he was hired by Mike Verdu, now at Zynga, to be Chief Creative Officer for External Developers, a job Bates held until early 2014, at which point he returned to independent consulting. In 2017, Bates launched a

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

for his game '' Thaumistry: In Charm’s Way'', which was successfully funded having raised $35,238 from 1,053 backers.

Recognition

In the course of his career since 1986, Bates has written, designed, produced, or overseen more than 45 games, with over six million units sold. According to Bates' website, the games have collectively won over 70 industry awards, including two Adventure Game of the Year awards. He has twice been Chairperson of the

in 2005 and 2009, and has served on the advisory board of

GDC Europe 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 ...

Awards

* Lifetime Achievement Award, IGDA, 2010 * Person of the Year Award, IGDA, 2010 * Adventure Game of the Year, ''Eric the Unready'', October 1993, ''

'' magazine ** 1996, listed at #103 on list of "150 Best Games of All Time", ''Computer Gaming World'', November 1996

Writing

* ** 2nd edition published in 2004 * * *

Games

* '' Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels'',

, 1987 * '' Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur'', Infocom, 1989 * ''

Spellcasting 101 ''Spellcasting 101: Sorcerers Get All the Girls'' is a 1990 adventure game. It was the first installment of the '' Spellcasting'' series created by Steve Meretzky during his time at Legend Entertainment. All three games in the series tell the s ...

'', (with Steve Meretzky),

, 1990 * '' Timequest'', Legend Entertainment, designer, 1991 * '' Spellcasting 201'', (with Steve Meretzky), Legend Entertainment, 1991 * '' Gateway'', Legend Entertainment, 1992 * '' Spellcasting 301'', (with Steve Meretzky), Legend Entertainment, 1992 * ''

'', designer, Legend Entertainment, 1993 * ''

Companions of Xanth ''Companions of Xanth'' is an adventure game published in 1993 by Legend Entertainment. Gameplay The game is based on Piers Anthony's ''Xanth'' novels and loosely follows the plot of his 1993 novel '' Demons Don't Dream'', in which a young man u ...

'', (with Michael Lindner), Legend Entertainment, 1993 * ''

Shannara ''Shannara'' is a series of high fantasy novels written by Terry Brooks, beginning with ''The Sword of Shannara'' in 1977 and concluding with ''The Last Druid'' which was released in October 2020; there is also a prequel, '' First King of Shan ...

'', producer, Legend Entertainment, 1995 * '' Callahan's Crosstime Saloon'', (with Steve Riley et al.), Legend Entertainment, 1997 * ''Quandaries'', ethics training game for the

, Legend Entertaimment, 1998 * '' John Saul's Blackstone Chronicles'', (designer of one portion), Mindscape, 1998 * '' Unreal II: The Awakening'', writer, Legend Entertainment, PC version, 2003 * '' Panzer Elite Action: Fields of Glory'', producer/designer, 2006 * '' Spider-Man 3'', designer,

Vicarious Visions Blizzard Albany (formerly Vicarious Visions, Inc.) is an American video game developer based in Albany, New York. The studio was acquired by Activision in January 2005. After releasing its last game as part of that company, ''Tony Hawk's Pro Ska ...

, PS2/Wii version, 2007 *''

Cursed Mountain ''Cursed Mountain'' is a 2009 action-adventure survival horror video game co-developed for the Wii by Sproing Interactive and Deep Silver Vienna, and published by Deep Silver. A Europe-exclusive port for Microsoft Windows was developed and r ...

'', writer, Deep Silver, 2010 * ''

FrontierVille ''The Pioneer Trail'', formerly known as ''FrontierVille'' is a defunct simulation, role-playing video game available for play on social networking sites such as Facebook. Developed by Zynga, and launched on June 9, 2010, it was a freemium game ...

'',

, 2010 (writer of romance plot) * '' Empires & Allies'', Zynga, 2011 * '' Thaumistry: In Charm’s Way'', 2017

References

External links

Bob Bates' Rap Sheet
at MobyGames
Interview with Bob Bates with emphasis on his adventures and storytelling (2005)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Bob American video game designers Living people Interactive fiction writers Infocom People from Greenbelt, Maryland 1953 births Georgetown College (Georgetown University) alumni