Mark Crowe | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | United States |
| Occupation(s) | Video game designer, artist, writer |
| Employer | Guys from Andromeda |
| Website | www.guysfromandromeda.com |
Mark Crowe is an American video game designer, artist, and writer who developed several adventure games, mostly for Sierra On-Line and its subsidiary Dynamix. He later worked at Pipeworks Software as Studio Design Director. Crowe is best known for creating the Space Quest series, mostly with his fellow "Guy from Andromeda", Scott Murphy.
Crowe started working at Sierra in its Art Department, creating designs for boxes and manuals. [1] [2] Crowe worked on several Sierra games, including Winnie the Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood and King's Quest II , before collaborating with Scott Murphy on The Black Cauldron . Crowe was the Art Director for the game when Murphy was added as a programmer.
During the development of The Black Cauldron, Murphy and Crowe discovered their mutual fondness for science fiction. Eventually, they created a four-room concept to propose to Sierra founder Ken Williams that would eventually become the beginning scenes of Space Quest . First released in 1986, Space Quest was a quick hit among adventure game fans and Murphy worked with Crowe to develop another three games, ending with Space Quest IV in 1991. [3] During this time, Crowe also worked on games from other series, including King's Quest , Leisure Suit Larry , and Police Quest . [2] [4] After Space Quest IV, Crowe moved to work at Eugene, Oregon, home of Sierra subsidiary Dynamix, where he developed Space Quest V without Murphy's input. During his time at Dynamix, Crowe worked on several other games, including the Earthsiege series. [2]
Following major layoffs at Sierra and Dynamix in 1999, Crowe joined some of his former co-workers from Dynamix at Pipeworks Software, where he served as Studio Design Director. [4] At Pipeworks, Crowe worked on a number of games including Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian . [2] [5]
In 2012, Crowe left Pipeworks to join with Murphy and Chris Pope to start their own company called Guys from Andromeda. Following a successful Kickstarter campaign, they began work on a project called SpaceVenture as a spiritual successor to the Space Quest series. [6]
In 2015, after Murphy needed some time away from the project for personal reasons, Crowe and Pope shifted focus on to a portion of SpaceVenture that didn't require as much writing. The game sequence features a character called Cluck Yegger and is built to play a key role in the game. To bring more funding into the project, Crowe and Pope decided to make the Cluck Yegger sequence into a game and release it to the public. The game was named Cluck Yegger in Escape From The Planet of The Poultroid . [7] It was released privately to backers of SpaceVenture on October 29. 2015, [8] and then was greenlit on Steam and released publicly on November 9, 2015. [9]
Space Quest is a series of six comic science fiction adventure games released between 1986 and 1995. The games follow the adventures of a hapless janitor named Roger Wilco, who campaigns through the galaxy for "truth, justice, and really clean floors".
Sierra Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genre, including the first such game, Mystery House. It is known for its graphical adventure game series King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, Gabriel Knight, Leisure Suit Larry, and Quest for Glory, and as the original publisher of Valve's Half-Life series.
King's Quest is a graphic adventure game series, released between 1980 and 2016 and created by the American software company Sierra Entertainment. It is widely considered a classic series from the golden era of adventure games. Following the success of its first installments, the series was primarily responsible for building the reputation of Sierra. Roberta Williams, co-founder and former co-owner of Sierra, designed all of the King's Quest games until the series' reboot in 2015.
Jane Jensen is an American video game designer and author. She is mostly known as the creator of the Gabriel Knight series of adventure games, and also co-founded Oberon Media and Pinkerton Road video game development companies. Jensen also writes under the name Eli Easton.
Dynamix, Inc. was an American developer of video games from 1984 to 2001, best known for the flight simulator Red Baron, the puzzle game The Incredible Machine, the Front Page Sports series, Betrayal at Krondor, and the online multiplayer game Tribes.
Jim Walls is an American video game designer. He is notable for having designed the successful Police Quest series of adventure games for Sierra On-Line.
The Coles is a colloquial term referring to Corey Cole and Lori Ann Cole, a husband and wife team who are both video game designers. Working together they designed the Quest for Glory series. They have also each designed games independently.
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards is a graphic adventure game, developed by Sierra On-Line, and published in 1987. It was developed for the PC, DOS, and the Apple II and later ported to other platforms, such as the Amiga, Atari ST, Apple IIGS, Macintosh, and Tandy Color Computer 3. It utilizes the Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI) engine. In 1991, Sierra released a remake titled Leisure Suit Larry 1: In the Land of the Lounge Lizards for PC DOS, Apple Macintosh, and Amiga. This version used the Sierra's Creative Interpreter (SCI) engine, featuring 256 colors and a point-and-click, icon-driven user interface.
Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness is an adventure game/role-playing video game hybrid. It is the fourth installment of the Quest for Glory computer game series by Sierra On-Line. It was the first and only game of the series to drop the numerals from the title.
Space Quest: Chapter I – The Sarien Encounter is a graphic adventure game, created by Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe, and released in October 1986 by Sierra On-Line. It is the first game in the Space Quest series, and sees players assume the role of a lowly janitor on a research ship, who becomes involved in stopping an alien race using a new form of technology for evil purposes.
Space Quest V: Roger Wilco – The Next Mutation is a graphic adventure game, created by Dynamix, and released by Sierra On-Line for MS-DOS on February 5, 1993. The game is the fifth entry in the Space Quest series, and the first game to be only designed by Mark Crowe. The story, set within a spoof of the Star Trek franchise, focuses on players taking control of Roger Wilco, who achieves his dreams of becoming a star captain but winds up involved in saving the galaxy from a deadly threat posed by a man-made virus.
Space Quest 6: Roger Wilco in the Spinal Frontier is a point-and-click adventure game developed and published by Sierra On-Line in 1995. It is the sixth and final game in the Space Quest series.
Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon is a 1989 graphic adventure game by Sierra On-Line, and the third game in the Space Quest series. Players assume the role of Roger Wilco, a lowly space janitor, who becomes involved in rescuing a pair of computer programmers from a sinister video game company. The game received positive reviews from critics, and contributed further to the series' commercial success for Sierra. A sequel, Space Quest IV, was released in 1991.
Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel is a 1987 police procedural adventure video game developed and published by Jim Walls and Sierra On-Line. Police Quest follows police officer Sonny Bonds as he investigates a drug cartel in the town of Lytton, California.
Take a Break! Pinball is a 1993 pinball computer game collection by Dynamix/Sierra On-Line. It contained several individual boards based on various Dynamix or Sierra series such as King's Quest, Space Quest, The Adventures of Willy Beamish, Leisure Suit Larry, and Nova 9: The Return of Gir Draxon. It is the second game in the Take a Break! series of casual Windows games. It was designed for Windows 3.x.
Chris Pope is an American internet personality, video game developer, producer, social media professional, podcaster. Pope is best known by fans as the SpacePope.
Broken Age is a point-and-click adventure video game developed and published by Double Fine. Broken Age was game director Tim Schafer's first return to the genre since 1998's Grim Fandango, and was released for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox One platforms. The game was developed in two acts; the first was released on January 28, 2014, and the second was released on April 28, 2015. A retail version of the complete game for Windows, macOS, and Linux, published by Nordic Games, was released on April 28, 2015. A Nintendo Switch version was released on September 13, 2018.
Scott Murphy is an American video game designer, programmer, and writer who developed several adventure games, mostly for Sierra On-Line. He is best known for creating the Space Quest series, mostly with his fellow "Guy from Andromeda", Mark Crowe.
Serena is a freeware horror adventure game developed by several video game development companies, including Senscape, CBE Software, Infamous Quests, Digital Media Workshop and Guys from Andromeda. It was released for Windows, Linux and OS X. The game previews the Dagon Engine that was supposed to be used in Asylum. The main characters are voiced by Josh Mandel and Sarah Wilson, as well as a cameo from Guys from Andromeda's Scott Murphy. Gameplay is first-person perspective, with fixed background screens and a point-and-click interface.
Cluck Yegger in Escape From The Planet of the Poultroid is an indie survival horror point-and-click video game designed by Mark Crowe and Chris Pope of Guys From Andromeda LLC. The game centers around a heroic rooster character named Cluck Yegger, who after crash landing on the planet Poultroid in front of a chicken factory called BFC, must defend himself from mutated chickens that have been sent by his nemesis, the evil "Colonel Zanderz". The game is an offshoot of the Kickstarted video game called "SpaceVenture" created by the Two Guys From Andromeda. It was released privately to backers of SpaceVenture on October 29. 2015, and then was greenlit on Steam and released publicly on November 9, 2015.
