Douglas E. Smith

Douglas Edwin Smith (October 28, 1960 – c. 2014), usually credited as Doug Smith, was an American video game designer and programmer best known as the author of the 8-bit game Lode Runner (1983), considered a seminal work of the 1980s.

Smith, of Renton, Washington, wrote his most famous game while an architecture student at the University of Washington. He wrote the game on a VAX-11/780 in Fortran with some Pascal and assembly over the course of a summer, where it was played by students who provided feedback and levels. It became a "cult hit" on campus. After his nephew asked to play on the Apple II Plus he ported it over a 3-day weekend in 6502 assembly language. He borrowed money to purchase a color monitor and joystick and continued to improve the game. Around Christmas of 1982, he submitted the game to four publishers and quickly received offers. He took the deal with Broderbund and the game was published in 1983. It was one of the first games to include a level editor. While the game sold hundreds of thousands of copies in the United States, in Japan it sold millions, becoming the first Western video game to attain major success in Japan.

His credits include titles like Lemmings, Final Fantasy VII, and Secret of Mana. He contributed to the localization of Chrono Trigger and was the executive producer of Secret of Evermore.

Smith died in 2014.