Dave Morris (game designer)
![]() |
Dave Morris | |
---|---|
Born | David John Morris 19 March 1957 Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom |
Alma mater | Magdalen College, Oxford |
Genre | Graphic novels, video games, science fiction, fantasy |
Spouse | Roz Morris |
Website | |
mirabilis-yearofwonders |
David John Morris (born 19 March 1957), known as Dave Morris, is a British author of gamebooks, novels and comics and a designer of computer games and role-playing games.
Biography
Dave Morris is a graduate of Magdalen College, Oxford,[1] where he read Physics from 1976–79.
He is co-creator of the Fabled Lands[2] series, and also wrote for the Virtual Reality,[3] Blood Sword,[4] and Golden Dragon series, as well as penning a single Fighting Fantasy gamebook, (The Keep of the Lich Lord) and a number of TV and movie novelisations.
He also wrote, with Oliver Johnson, the book series Dragon Warriors (1984–1986) for Games Workshop.[5]: 46 [6] Dragon Warriors is a role-playing game but is often mistaken for a gamebook because of its paperback format. The game, a cult hit for Transworld in the 1980s, was republished in 2009 by Magnum Opus press.
Morris has frequently collaborated with other gamebook writers, notably Jamie Thomson (Fabled Lands[5]: 46 [7] and The Keep of the Lich Lord) and Oliver Johnson (Blood Sword, Dragon Warriors and Golden Dragon). He has worked with many illustrators including Russ Nicholson,[8] Siku, Iain McCaig, Leo Hartas, and Martin McKenna.
His original novels include Knightmare (a historical fantasy adventure series set in the early 13th century that ties in with the television series of that name), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the contemporary horror novel Lost Souls. Another horror novel, Florien, was published as an ebook in 2010.[9] In 2008 his episodic comic strip Mirabilis[10] began weekly publication in Random House's subscription-based magazine The DFC.[11] Working with artist Leo Hartas, Morris founded electronic publisher Mirus Entertainment and published Mirabilis for the iPad in December 2010.[12]
In addition to his more than seventy published books,[13] Morris is a leading developer of the Empire of the Petal Throne gaming system (created by MAR Barker and published by TSR), creating a playable rules system (Tirikelu) and editing a fanzine.[14]
Morris also co-authored a book on the computer gaming industry,[15] having worked as a game designer for Eidos and Microsoft, and is a former mentor in the American Film Institute's Digital Content Lab.[16] In April 2012, he published an interactive reworking of Frankenstein in which the reader is able to give advice to the first-person narrator of the story.[17]
Morris' Dragon Warriors game was licensed to James Wallis of Magnum Opus Press, who published a new 1.1 edition of the game with supplements from 2008–2011; a new company called Serpent King Games picked up the property after the license lapsed.[5]: 307
Bibliography
Dave Morris's published works include:
Blood Sword series
- The Battlepits of Krarth (1987, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 0-340-40154-0)
- The Kingdom of Wyrd (1987, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 0-340-40155-9)
- The Demon's Claw (1987, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 0-340-41206-2)
- Doomwalk (1988, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 0-340-42397-8)
- The Walls of Spyte (1988, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 0-340-49168-X)
Chronicles of the Magi
- The Sword of Life (1997, Hodder Headline, ISBN 0-340-67298-6)
- The Kingdom of Dreams (1997, Hodder Headline, ISBN 0-340-67299-4)
- The City of Stars (1997, Hodder Headline, ISBN 0-340-67300-1)
Crystal Maze
- The Crystal Maze (with Jamie Thomson, 1991)
- Crystal Maze Challenge! (with Jamie Thomson, 1992)
Dragon Warriors series
- Dragon Warriors (1985, Transworld, ISBN 0-552-52287-2)
- The Way of Wizardry (1985, Transworld, ISBN 0-552-52288-0)
- Out of the Shadows (1986, Transworld, ISBN 0-552-52333-X)
- The Lands of Legend (1986, Transworld, ISBN 0-552-52335-6)
- Dragon Warriors (revised edition 2008, Magnum Opus Press, ISBN 978-1-906103-96-5)
- Sleeping Gods (2008, Magnum Opus Press, ISBN 978-1-906508-03-6)
- Bestiary (2008, Magnum Opus Press, ISBN 978-1-906103-99-6)
Fabled Lands series
- The War-Torn Kingdom (1995, Macmillan, ISBN 0-330-33614-2)
- Cities of Gold and Glory (1995, Macmillan, ISBN 0-330-33615-0)
- Over the Blood-Dark Sea (1995, Macmillan, ISBN 0-330-34172-3)
- The Plains of Howling Darkness (1996, Macmillan, ISBN 0-330-34173-1)
- The Court of Hidden Faces (1996, Macmillan, ISBN 0-330-34431-5)
- Lords of the Rising Sun (1996, Macmillan, ISBN 0-330-34430-7)
Fighting Fantasy series
- The Keep of the Lich-Lord (1990, Puffin Books, ISBN 978-0-140341-37-9)
Golden Dragon series
- Crypt of the Vampire (1984, Transworld, ISBN 978-0-583307-49-9)
- Temple of Flame (with Oliver Johnson) (1984, Transworld, ISBN 978-0-583307-48-2)
- The Eye of the Dragon (1985, Transworld, ISBN 978-0-583307-61-1)
- Castle of Lost Souls (with Yve Newnham) (1985, Transworld, ISBN 978-0-583307-62-8)
Heroquest series
- The Tyrant's Tomb (1993, Corgi Books, ISBN 0-552-52777-7)
- The Screaming Spectre (1993, Corgi Books, ISBN 0-552-52776-9)
- The Fellowship of Four (1993, Corgi Books, ISBN 0-552-52721-1)
Knightmare series
- Knightmare (1988, Transworld, ISBN 0-552-52540-5)
- The Labyrinths of Fear (1989, Transworld, ISBN 0-552-52608-8)
- Fortress of Assassins (1990, Transworld, ISBN 0-552-52638-X)
- The Sorcerer's Isle (1991, Transworld, ISBN 0-552-52714-9)
- The Forbidden Gate (1992, Transworld, ISBN 0-440-86317-1)
- The Dragon's Lair (1993, Transworld, ISBN 0-440-86328-7)
- Lord Fear's Domain (1994, Transworld, ISBN 0-440-86336-8)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series
- Buried Treasure (1990, Transworld, ISBN 0-440-40391-X)
- Sixguns and Shurikens (1990, Transworld, ISBN 0-440-80218-0)
- Sky High (1990, Transworld, ISBN 0-440-40389-8)
- Red Herrings (1990, Transworld, ISBN 0-440-40390-1)
- Dinosaur Farm (1991, Transworld, ISBN 0-440-40491-6)
- Splinter to the Fore (1991, Transworld, ISBN 0-440-40492-4)
Virtual Reality series
- Down Among the Dead Men (1993, Reed Consumer Books, ISBN 0-749-71485-9)
- Necklace of Skulls (1993, Reed Consumer Books, ISBN 0-749-71487-5)
- Heart of Ice (1994, Reed Consumer Books, ISBN 0-749-71674-6)
- Twist of Fate (1994, Reed Consumer Books, ISBN 0-749-71675-4)
Other works
- A Minotaur at the Savoy (2011, Mirus Entertainment, ISBN 978-0-956-67789-1)
- Can You Brexit? Without Breaking Britain (with Jamie Thomson, 2018)
- Frankenstein (2012, Profile Books, ISBN 978-1-847-65831-9)
- Game Architecture and Design (with Andrew Rollings, 2003, Pearson Education, ISBN 0-735-71363-4)
- Game Guru: Role-Playing Games (with Leo Hartas, 2004, ILEX Press, ISBN 1-904-70544-8)
- Game Guru: Strategy Games (with Leo Hartas, 2004, ILEX Press, ISBN 1-904-70545-6)
- Machinima : Making Animated Movies in 3D Virtual Environments (with Dave Lloyd and Matt Kelland, 2005, ILEX Press, ISBN 1-904-70564-2 )
- Mirabilis: Year of Wonders, Volume One (2011, Printmedia Productions, ISBN 978-0-956-71211-0 )
References
- ^ Biography at Magnum Opus Press Archived 21 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The War-Torn Kingdom by Dave Morris & Jamie Thomson, 1995, Pan Books, ISBN 978-0330336147 (et al.)
- ^ Virtual Reality: Necklace of Skulls by Dave Morris & Mark Smith, 1993, Mammoth, ISBN 978-0749714871 (et al.)
- ^ The Battlepits of Krarth by Dave Morris & Oliver Johnson, 1987, Knight Books, ISBN 978-0340401545 (et al.)
- ^ a b c Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
- ^ The Dragon Warriors role-playing game Archived 2 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Fabled Lands blog
- ^ Concept art process for The Shadow King
- ^ Megara Entertainment
- ^ Mirabilis The Year of Wonders blog
- ^ Mirabilis comic book
- ^ Mirabilis comic book reader app
- ^ Published works of Dave Morris at Library Thing
- ^ The Eye of All-Seeing Wonder
- ^ Game Architecture and Design, by Andrew Rollings and Dave Morris, 2003, New Riders, ISBN 978-0735713635
- ^ Law & Order: Motive, Means, Opportunity at the AFI
- ^ 'The Divided Self: Remaking Frankenstein as an Interactive Novel' in the Huffington Post