Garfield, Richard
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author, Game.
(1963- ) US Game designer with a PhD in combinatorial mathematics, inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design Hall of Fame in 1998. Garfield is perhaps the epitome of game designer as celebrity mathematician. He is famous primarily for having invented the modern Collectible Card Game in 1993 with the release of his first published game, Magic: The Gathering (see Card Games), a remarkably complex piece of design with excellently crafted gameplay which benefited greatly from his academic talents. He went on to design many of the most innovative games in the nascent Collectible Card Game school, including Netrunner (1996) (see Cyberpunk) and Jyhad (1994) (see Card Games). Roborally (1994) – a humorous Board Game of Robot mayhem – was designed before Magic, but initially went unpublished. More recently, Garfield has become an independent designer, creating such works as Rocketville (2006 Avalon Hill), a simple, fast-moving political game influenced by recent developments in German Board Game design, set in a future City whose style is reminiscent of the classic television animation The Jetsons (1962-1963).
In 2011, Garfield published King of Tokyo, a Board Game in which players take the role of cartoon Monsters and attempt to destroy each other by rolling dice. The game has been designed specifically to be quick and easy to play. King of Tokyo takes about 30 minutes and has won numerous awards, most notably as a family or "light" game. A sequel, King of New York, was published in 2014. [NT/EMS]
see also: Battletech.
Richard Channing Garfield
born June 1963
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