Chris Crawford on Designing the Game "Balance of Power"

Aug 1, 2003

📄 Contents

␡

The UnWar Game
Early Efforts
The Rubber Map
Thank You, National Enquirer
Research
Building the Map
Memory Headaches
Making It a Game
Publisher Woes
I Get by with a Little Help from the Press
The Wheel of Fortune

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Chris Crawford on Game Design

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The Wheel of Fortune

During my latter years at Atari, I became known as "Mr. Atari" among user groups and developed quite a reputation. I was a big shot and, as befits my youth, it went to my head. I actually started to believe the adulation that splattered all over me. But then Atari collapsed, and overnight I became Mr. Nobody. I couldn't understand why I was so suddenly passé. For two years I labored in solitude, ignored and unadulated. But then Balance of Power became a big hit and I was Mr. Bigshot again. This time I was a little more suspicious of the capriciousness of fame; this round lasted about eight years, largely because I added a number of games and the Computer Game Developers' Conference (CGDC) to my fame portfolio. But once I left the CGDC, the crowd turned its back on me and once again I find myself bereft of the screaming masses of nubile nymphs. Miser me! I suspect, however, that once interactive storytelling gets rolling, I'll be back up there in the spotlight with flashbulbs popping and a starlet on each arm. And if that does happen, I'll remember Lesson 57.

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