Michael Cranford

Michael Cranford (born June 5, 1963) is a video game designer and programmer. As a designer and programmer his works include The Bard's Tale, The Bard's Tale II, and Dark Seed. Cranford left the video game industry in 1992 to pursue an academic career as an ethicist.

Game designer

Cranford was the designer and programmer of 1985's The Bard's Tale<ref name="Tresca2010">Template:Cite book</ref> and 1986's The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight role-playing video games published by Interplay Productions. He also programmed the Apple II version of Donkey Kong, the Commodore 64 version of Super Zaxxon, as well as Maze Master (a spiritual predecessor of The Bard's Tale). His last video game was Dark Seed for Cyberdreams in 1992. He left the video game industry to pursue graduate studies, and thus was not involved in the creation of 1988's The Bard's Tale III. Almost thirty years later, however, he was approached by inXile Entertainment to assist with the development of The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep and had agreed to provide feedback and advice for the new game.<ref name="Bards_Tale_IV">Template:Cite web</ref>

Name	Year	Credited with	Publisher
Story Machine (VIC-20 port)	1983	programmer	Human Engineered Software
Maze Master	1983	designer, programmer	Human Engineered Software
Super Zaxxon (C64 port)	1984	programmer	Human Engineered Software
Donkey Kong (Apple II port)	1984	programmer	Atarisoft
The Bard's Tale	1985	designer, programmer	Electronic Arts
Borrowed Time	1985	writer	Activision
The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight	1986	designer, programmer	Electronic Arts
Centauri Alliance	1990	designer, programmer	Broderbund
Dark Seed	1992	designer	Cyberdreams

He was a professor for eight years at Biola University in La Mirada, California, gaining his Master of Divinity degree from Biola and a master's degree in Social Ethics from the University of Southern California. He is currently an adjunct professor of philosophy at Concordia University in Irvine, California. He studied architecture at the University of California, Berkeley and he holds a degree in philosophy from the University of California, and has completed a Ph.D. in Religion and Social Ethics from the University of Southern California, with a focus on ethics and technology.<ref name="academics">Template:Cite web</ref>

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The Bard's Tale Compendium - more information about Michael Cranford's popular game series