Game Design

In 1989, Bob co-founded Legend Entertainment and served as its President until the company�s 1998 sale to GT Interactive (now Atari). He continued as Legend�s Studio Head and as an active game designer/producer until the studio closed in January of 2004. Bob is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events, and he is also the co-founder and organizer of the Game Designer�s Workshop, an annual invitation-only conference attended by many of the top storytelling game designers in the business. Bob is the author of one of the industry�s bestselling books on game development, "Game Design: The Art and Business of Creating Games" (Premier Press/Course PTR), which is currently being used as a textbook by several colleges and universities. He is also the editor of the "Game Developer�s Market Guide" (Premier Press/Course PTR) and "Game Design, Second Edition".

Bob Bates began his career writing text adventures for Infocom in 1986. Since then he has written, co-designed, produced, or made significant contributions to more than 50 videogames. Titles he has worked on have won not only critical acclaim (74 industry awards and nominations, including two Adventure Game of the Year awards), but also financial success (over 6 million units sold, including a #1 PC game (Unreal2) a #1 console game (Spider-Man3 for PS2 and Wii), and two #2 Facebook games (FrontierVille, and Empires & Allies).

In 1989 Bob co-founded Legend Entertainment and served as its President and an active game designer/producer until the studio closed in January of 2004. Since then he has worked as an independent game designer, writer, and creative director. For three years he also held the position of Chief Creative Officer for External Studios at Zynga.

Bob is the twice-past Chairman of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA). A frequent speaker at worldwide industry conferences and events, he is also the co-founder and organizer of the Game Designer’s Workshop, an annual invitation-only conference attended by many of the top storytelling game designers in the business. Bob is also on the advisory boards of the Game Design Degree Program at George Mason University and of Project Horseshoe, a game-designer think-tank.

Bob is the author of one of the industry’s bestselling books on game development, Game Design: The Art and Business of Creating Games, which is used as a textbook by several colleges and universities. He has lectured on game design at MIT, Columbia, George Washington University, and Carnegie Mellon, and he is also the editor of the Game Developers Market Guide from Premier Press. In early 2007 he co-authored “When Worlds Collide” a 269-page report on the Serious Games Industry for a government think tank.

Bob’s most recent game, Thaumistry: In Charm’s Way, is a classic text adventure that is available on multiple platforms. Bob’s most recent book is a fantasy novel entitled The Ritual.

Bob is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the IGDA, and was selected as the IGDA’s 2010 Person of the Year.