Alan Lenton (game designer)

Alan Lenton is a British computer game designer and developer who is one of the pioneers of the massively multiplayer online game industry.

Alan is currently Server Software Architect at My Skills Games.

Previously, Alan was in charge of game design and development and overall technical matters for Interactive Broadcasting. He handled all the design and programming for new and existing games, and the maintenance of existing games. At IBgames, Alan developed massively multiplayer games for AOL, GEnie, Sierra Online, CompuServe, Minitel, and others. Like many others in the games industry, Alan worked at CompuNet during the early days of the personal computer era.

Multi-player games Alan has designed and programmed include Federation, an adventure/economic simulation set in a future universe; Iron Wolves, a submarine simulation; Age of Adventure, a role-playing game based in Victorian times; and Barbarossa, a strategy wargame based on the German invasion of Russia in 1941.

Alan lives in London with his wife Barbara. In addition to his role at My Skills Games, he is a member of the British Standards Institute C++ panel and ACCU. His degree in sociology is probably one of the reasons all his games emphasize communication, and create real cyberspace societies. Alan has been known to refer to himself as the world's only practicing sociologist!

Alan likes good wine, neat programs, and wargaming. He reads extensively and likes a variety of music particularly blues/rock. He has significant interests in social welfare and takes an active part in his real world community

Alan currently produces a free weekly newsletter, called Winding Down, which features information, reviews and analysis on computers, the Internet and society. It's available via an e-mail list, subscription details at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/winding/mailing.html.