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'Greg Costikyan', also known as 'Designer X', is an American game designer and science fiction writer. Costikyan's career spans nearly all extant genres of gaming, including hex-based wargames, role-playing games, boardgames, card games, computer games, online games and mobile games. Several of his games have won Origins Awards.

Contents

Games

Awards and recognition

External links

References

Games

Costikyan's notable works include ''Toon'', ''Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game'', ''Pax Britannica'', ''Paranoia'', ''The Creature That Ate Sheboygan'', ''MadMaze'', and ''.
In addition, Costikyan is a widely-published author on the subject of game design and the role of games in culture. His essay, "I Have No Words and I Must Design" is widely read as a conceptual approach to framing game design.
Lately, his studies have tended towards mobile phone game design, and Costikyan has been writing and consulting for Nokia. On September 23rd, 2005, he resigned from his position at Nokia to found the startup indie game publisher Manifesto Games.^[1]
Costikyan has written four novels. The first two were parodies of genre fantasy: ''Another Day, Another Dungeon'' (1990, ISBN 0-8125-0140-3) and its sequel ''One Quest, Hold the Dragons'' (1995, ISBN 0-8125-2269-9). ''By the Sword'' (1993, ISBN 0-312-85489-7) is another irreverent fantasy about a young barbarian who is forced by circumstances to make his way in the larger world; it was originally serialized on the Prodigy online service. His latest novel, ''First Contract'' (2000, ISBN 0-312-87396-4), depicts (with much dry humor) the vast sociological and economic changes that happen after aliens arrive on Earth, and one entrepreneur's efforts to survive and make a new start.
In the 1970s and 80s, Costikyan was a leading player of Slobbovia. ''One Quest, Hold the Dragons'' includes several stories about crottled greeps, a Slobbovian meme.
Costikyan lives in New York City with his two daughters and is a 1982 graduate of Brown University. He is a frequent speaker at game industry events including the Game Developers Conference and E³.

Awards and recognition

On March 7, 2007, Greg Costikyan received the Game Developers Choice Awards Maverick Award. The award was given for his tireless efforts to create a viable channel for indie games.^[2]

External links

★ Greg Costikyan's homepage

★ Greg Costikyan's blog

★ "I Have No Words and I Must Design" (essay, full text)

★ Pen & Paper listing for Greg Costikyan

★ Review of ''First Contract''

★ GameZombie.tv Video Interview day after winning Maverick Award

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References

1. An Interview With Greg Costikyan, the “Maverick” of Manifesto Games
2. 2007 Game Developers Choice Awards To Honor Miyamoto, Pajitnov