Michael Cranford

Michael Cranford is an ethicist, game developer, and software architect.

Game designer 
Cranford is best known as a game designer and game programmer. He was the designer and programmer of 1985's The Bard's Tale and 1986's The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight role-playing video games published by Interplay Productions. He also programmed the Apple 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 and had agreed to provide feedback and advice for the new game.

Academic career 
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 studied architecture at the University of California at 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. His current work focuses on web application development and voice-interactive interfaces.

Publications 
 
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Personal life
Cranford is a Christian with no denominational affiliation. He was divorced in October 2013, though he refused to participate in the divorce due to his religious convictions. He has three children from the marriage: Logan, Leilani and Dylan.

References

External links

The Bard's Tale Compendium - more information about Michael Cranford's popular game series
GDC 2018 will host a Classic Game Postmortem of The Bard's Tale! - Cranford's upcoming lecture at the 2018 Game Developer's Conference

Category:American video game designers
Category:Biola University alumni
Category:Biola University faculty
Category:University of Southern California alumni
Category:UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design alumni
Category:Living people
Category:People from San Clemente, California
Category:Video game programmers
Category:Interplay Entertainment people
Category:1963 births