Chris Crawford on Game Design

Art Over Money

I've never been much of a businessman; that doesn't make me an artist, but the choices I have made over the years certainly indicate as much. My failure to make sequels to my games (with the exception of Balance of Power, which I did as penance for Siboot, which bombed and cost the publisher, Mindscape, a pretty penny). Time and again, I have chosen the noble artistic road, forsaking the path of wealth. I'm sure that, had I been more receptive to my publishers' importunations, I could have made more money than I actually did. In the nearly two decades that I have been a freelance computer game designer, I have earned about as much as I would have earned as a schoolteacher. In the process, I have explored more game design concepts ...