P. David Lebling is an interactive fiction

Interactive fiction

Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as video games. In common usage, the term refers to text...

 game designer (implementor) and programmer who has worked at various companies, including Infocom

Infocom

Infocom was a software company, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced one notable business application, a relational database called Cornerstone....

 and Avid.

He was born in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, grew up in Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

, and attended MIT

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

, where he obtained a degree in political science before becoming a member of its Laboratory for Computer Science.

After encountering the original Adventure

Colossal Cave Adventure

Colossal Cave Adventure gave its name to the computer adventure game genre . It was originally designed by Will Crowther, a programmer and caving enthusiast who based the layout on part of the Mammoth Cave system in Kentucky...

game (also called Colossal Cave), he was fascinated by the concept and—together with Marc Blank

Marc Blank

Marc Blank is an American game developer and software engineer. He is best known as part of the team that created one of the first hit text adventure computer games, Zork....

, Tim Anderson

Tim Anderson (Zork)

Tim Anderson is a computer programmer who helped create the adventure game Zork, one of the first works of interactive fiction and an early descendant of ADVENT . The first version of Zork was written in 1977–1979 in the MDL programming language on a DEC PDP-10 computer by Anderson, Marc Blank,...

 and Bruce Daniels

Bruce Daniels

Dr. Bruce Daniels is an American computer programmer and business executive who has worked for Hewlett Packard, Apple Computer, Oracle, Borland, Sun Microsystems and his own start-up Singular Software, which created Mac database management software...

—set out to write an adventure game with a better parser, which became Zork

Zork

Zork was one of the first interactive fiction computer games and an early descendant of Colossal Cave Adventure. The first version of Zork was written in 1977–1979 on a DEC PDP-10 computer by Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling, and implemented in the MDL programming language...

. In 1979, he became one of the founders of Infocom.

His games include Zork

Zork

Zork was one of the first interactive fiction computer games and an early descendant of Colossal Cave Adventure. The first version of Zork was written in 1977–1979 on a DEC PDP-10 computer by Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling, and implemented in the MDL programming language...

 I, II and III, Starcross

Starcross (computer game)

Starcross is a 1982 interactive fiction game designed and implemented by Dave Lebling and published by Infocom. Like most Infocom titles, it was developed for many systems. It was released for DOS, as a PC Booter, Apple II, Atari ST and Commodore 64. It is Infocom's fifth game.The game was...

, Suspect

Suspect (computer game)

Suspect is an interactive fiction computer game designed by Dave Lebling and published by Infocom in 1984. It is the last murder mystery Infocom released, bringing an end to a popular genre of titles such as Deadline and The Witness...

, Spellbreaker

Spellbreaker

Spellbreaker is an interactive fiction computer game written by Dave Lebling and released by Infocom in 1985, the third and final game in the "Enchanter Trilogy". Like most of Infocom's games, it was released for many of the time's popular computer platforms, such as the Commodore 64, Atari ST and...

, The Lurking Horror

The Lurking Horror

The Lurking Horror is an interactive fiction computer game released by Infocom in 1987. The game was written by Dave Lebling and inspired by the horror writings of H. P. Lovecraft...

and James Clavell's Shogun

James Clavell's Shogun

James Clavell's Shōgun is an interactive fiction computer game written by Dave Lebling and released by Infocom in 1989. Like most of Infocom's games, it was released for several popular computer platforms of the time, such as the Apple II and PC. As the title indicates, the game is based on the...

.

After Infocom's end in 1989, Lebling worked on a GUI

Graphical user interface

In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...

 spreadsheet

Spreadsheet

A spreadsheet is a computer application that simulates a paper accounting worksheet. It displays multiple cells usually in a two-dimensional matrix or grid consisting of rows and columns. Each cell contains alphanumeric text, numeric values or formulas...

 program, joined Avid

Avid Technology

Avid Technology, Inc. is an American company specializing in video and audio production technology; specifically, digital non-linear editing systems, management and distribution services. It was created in 1987 and became a publicly traded company in 1993...

 (a company doing special effects for broadcast and film), and designed server applications at Ucentric.

Lebling currently resides in Concord, Massachusetts

Concord, Massachusetts

Concord is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 17,668. Although a small town, Concord is noted for its leading roles in American history and literature.-History:...

 with his wife and two daughters. He is a programmer for British defense contractor BAE Systems

BAE Systems

BAE Systems plc is a British multinational defence, security and aerospace company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that has global interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. BAE is among the world's largest military contractors; in 2009 it was the...

.

External links

• Interview with Dave Lebling at Adventure Classic Gaming (2001)