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Steve Meretzky was
born (May 1, 1957) and raised in Yonkers,
NY.
In the summer of
1975 he started studying at the MIT
and left with a degree in Construction Management. For two
years he worked in the construction industry, but soon felt
an uncontrollable urge to become more creative and do something
different.
Steve's roommate
during these days was Mike Dornbrook. Mike at that time was
the one and only tester at Infocom and he tested the games
on their dining room table, as Infocom didn't have any space
for that yet. Steve occasionally had a look at what Mike was
doing and, whenever Mike wasn't around, started bug-hunting
himself just for the fun of it.
When Mike had to
leave for business school Marc Blank
needed someone to test the upcoming "Deadline"
and, based on his previous experience with the task and his
already sparked up interest, it was only natural to ask Steve.
So Steve finally
became a paid tester in November 1981, but, probably sensing
his great talent, it was only a year later that Marc asked
him if he would like to write a game of his own. Steve said
yes and that proved to be a wise choice, as some of the most
popular Infocom games were written by him. Along with Dave
Lebling, Steve was one of the only two writers of interactice
fiction ever admitted to the Science
Fiction Writers of America. In September 1999 the US magazine
PC Gamer
named a list of 25 "Game Gods" in the history of
computer gaming. Steve was among them.
After Infocom's
downfall Steve continued to write games, including "Leather
Goddesses of Phobos 2" for Activision and the "Spellcasting"
series for Bob Bates'
company Legend. Together with Mike Dornbrook and another friend
from MIT, Leo DaCosta, in 1994 he started his own company,
Boffo Games,
where he wrote "Hodj
'n' Podj" and "The
Space Bar". The latter was a great adventure, but
unfortunately failed, due to a general low in the adventure
gaming market.
Steve gave Boffo
Games up and in 2000, after an interlude at GameFX (now part
of THQ)
as designer, became creative director at the online-gaming
portal WorldWinner,
while also acting as a consultant for companies like Disney,
Hasbro,
Blizzard
and, last but not least, Harmonix,
the company Mike Dornbrook moved to in 1997.
In 2005 he reduced
his involvement with WorldWinner to that of an advisor and
focused his main interest on working with Floodgate
Entertainment, a software developer largely composed of
the people once behind the famous Looking
Glass Studios, but left there to become senior designer
at Blue
Fang Games, the developer of Zoo
Tycoon, in January 2007.
Steve was and is
also active in the politics and development of the gaming
industry. He is a charter member of the International
Game Developers Association and for two years was on its
Board of Directors. Post
Mortem, the monthly gathering of Boston area game developers,
can name him as one of its founders and since 2002 he helps
in organizing and moderating the Casual
Games Summit at the Game
Developers Conference. He is also a co-organizer of the
annual Game Designers Workshop, which as one of its founders
lists Bob Bates, and a speaker at
various industry events.
Many thanks
to Steve Meretzky for contributing to this biography.
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