Born in 1949, Mike Berlyn entered the world of video games as a writer for text adventure games at Sentient Software and Infocom in the early 1980s. From this period, we can remember games that are now almost forgotten , such as Suspended: A Cryogenic Nightmare (1983), Infidel (1983) and Cutthroats (1984). In parallel, he works with his wife Muffy as professor of creative writing at Harvard. In 1986, Mike Berlyn began to stand on his own feet by founding the Brainwave Creations mini-studio with his wife. The couple publish Tass Times in Tonetown at Activision, an adventure game described as surreal and avant-garde in magazines Compute! And macworld. Berlyn’s prose, lively, dynamic and immersive, gives him a small success of esteem. At the end of the 1980s, the writer made a detour to Cape Cod in California to become a producer on Keef the Thief, one of Naughty Dog’s very first games.
A few years later, in 1992, Mike Berlyn founded Blank, Berlyn & Co., Inc with his partner Mark Blank. At this time, Berlyn got tired of adventure games. His chance discovery of the first Sonic the Hedgehog obsesses him. On behalf of Accolade, he creates his own platform mascot: Bubsy, with relatively similar gameplay. The first game, published on Super Nintendo and Megadrive, generated enthusiastic reviews in the world press at the time (83% at joystick !). Alas, the transition to 3D was absolute carnage for the small team, already re-stamped Eidetic. Published in 1996, Bubsy 3D becomes the laughing stock of video gaming with its harsh controls, colorimetrically aggressive art direction, and clumsy camera. If Mike Berlyn is not the only one to have broken his teeth on this thorny transition, his production has become a kind of symbol. In France, we mainly knew him through the Player of the Attic, that is to say. This episode was unfortunately enough to erase the memory of the first Bubsy and bury the mascot.
After which, the Eidetic studio was approached by 989 Studios, a division of Sony Computer Entertainment, to make Siphon Filter. Mike Berlyn will leave the studio in full development. He explained his gesture in the columns of Game Developer in 2005 : “I didn’t like the direction the industry was taking, who was running it, or the nature of the products being developed. I preferred to leave before the end of the project, and I asked that my name not appear in the credits. I left my own business. When you want to put monks or nuns in my game, and have them hold a weapon to encourage players to shoot them, I find that violates the rules of good taste. I’m not saying it offends me. But I think it’s in bad taste.” Mike Berlyn then devoted himself to small games casual, including Triblettes, still archived on the Big Fish Games website. He said he enjoyed creative independence, working peacefully with his wife, and the simplicity of small budgets. For their part, Eidetic have become Bend Studio, a member of the PlayStation Studios family. Their latest big project is Days Gone.
In parallel with its activities of game designer, Mike Berlyn was interested in other modes of artistic creation. In 1998, he founded Cascade Mountain Publishing, a publishing company focused on ebooks and interactive fiction, without success. The company closed its doors in 2000. Berlyn was also a novelist: his bibliography counts The Integrated Man (1980), crystal phoenix (1980), Blight (1981) and Eternal Enemy (1990). For some time, Berlyn was also a jazzman in the confidential group Hot Mustard, whose discography has unfortunately disappeared from online stores.