Stuart Smith (game designer)
Stuart Smith is an American computer game designer and programmer.
He is best known for his adventure games, and was a pioneer in the development of graphical adventures in the early 1980s. He was also a unique designer for his time because of his desire to faithfully build history and mythology into his games. This paralleled the interests of his contemporaries like Bruce Shelley and Sid Meier, and foreshadowed some of their later hits.
Smith's titles include:
- Fracas (1980), published by Computersmiths
- Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1981), published by Quality Software
- Return of Heracles (1982) (Sometimes listed as Return of Herakles), published by Quality Software
- Adventure Construction Set (1984), one of Electronic Arts' major early hits
- Age of Adventure (1986), Electronic Arts
Shelley and Meier worked most often in strategy games rather than adventures, a genre where their classical interests found better support in the games business. Where subtly educational content was welcomed in strategy games, it gradually fell from favor in adventures. In the late 1980s Smith elected to provide more stability for his family and took a position as a programmer outside the industry.
John Romero searched for and has found Stuart Smith[1]
Although he is known today primarily for Adventure Construction Set, Smith was and is highly respected by his peers for his attention to detail and professionalism as a designer.