Michael Berlyn

Michael Berlyn
Berlyn, Michael Steven
Born	October 21, 1949 Brookline, Massachusetts
Died	March 30, 2023
Occupation	Founder, Software Developer

Career

Originally trained/working as a writer: he published two novels in the early 1980s (The Integrated Man, Crystal Phoenix) before turning more fully to interactive fiction and games.
Around 1979-1981, he got interested in computer adventures. He and his wife “Muffy” McClung Berlyn used some of his writing income to purchase an Apple II, which he used both for writing and for exploring what computers could do for storytelling.

Founder of Sentient Software; published early text and adventure-style games.
Earliest authored commercial titled include: Oo-Topos (1981), Cyborg (1981).

Joined Infocom in 1982.
Wrote/co-wrote several interactive fiction games for Infocom:
- Suspended: A Cryogenic Nightmare (1983)
- Infidel (1983)
- Cutthroats (1984) (with Jerry Wolper)
- Fooblitzky (1985) (co-designer)
Eventually left Infocom. One of the reasons given is Infocom’s policy of not hiring the spouses of authors, which prevented his wife from working there.

After leaving Infocom, he and his wife founded Brainwave Creations, doing freelance work for various companies. Among Brainwave’s titles is Tass Times in Tonetown (1986).
Later, he worked with Accolade, designing and/or producing titles such as Altered Destiny (1990), Search for the King (1990) and Snoopy’s Game Club (1992).
In 1993, he created Bubsy: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind, a platformer character-driven mascot game.
Also worked on Bubsy 3D (1996) as designer/producer.

In 1992, helped co-found Blank, Berlyn & Co., which was later renamed Eidetic, and ultimately evolved into Bend Studio under Sony.
At Eidetic, besides Bubsy, he worked on small projects (crossword/word games for the Apple Newton, etc.) and also Zork: The Undiscovered Underground (a short text adventure commissioned by Activision in 1997) with Marc Blank.
In 1998, founded Cascade Mountain Publishing, aiming to publish ebooks and interactive fiction. The venture did not last long; it shut down around 2000.

After Cascade Mountain, Berlyn stepped away from mainstream big-budget game development for a while, citing dissatisfaction with the
Later on he focused on casual games and smaller projects.
Outside of games, he also:
- Continued writing (novels) — his last novel The Eternal Enemy was published in 1990.
Founded/led a light-jazz band called Hot Mustard (all his own music/performance).
Later in life, he was diagnosed with cancer in 2014.
Michael Berlyn passed away in March 2023, at age 73.