Ken Eklund

Ken Eklund is a freelance game writer and designer. His first assignment was working for Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI), on the sci-fi RPG "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Countdown to Doomsday" in 1988. He then authored episodes and encounters for many of the subsequent SSI Gold Box games, including "Death Knights of Krynn," "Dark Queen of Krynn" and "Pools of Darkness." In time, Ken wrote storylines and helped design RPGs in all these DnD worlds: Forgotten Realms, Krynn, Dark Sun, and Al-Qadim.

Working with Stormfront Studios, Ken wrote interactive mystery stories for the "Eagle Eye Mysteries" series for EA Kids, then helped develop the story and characters for "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Harbinger," an action-adventure game featuring the voices of cast members of the Star Trek TV series. Ken then worked with both Stormfront and SSI on "Pool of Radiance 2: Ruins of Myth Drannor," SSI's update to the Gold Box style game.

Ken became interested both in socially relevant gaming and in alternate reality game experiences, and in 2007 ran "World Without Oil," an alternate reality game exploring oil dependency and community resilience. He has continued by creating or co-creating "Ruby's Bequest" (2009), "Zorop" (2010), "Giskin Anomaly" (2010-12), "Ed Zed Omega" (2012) and "Future Coast" (2014) as well as several smaller-scale experiential games such as "Hiss Pop" and "Horas Perditam." As of September 2021 he lectures and consults about alternate reality games, games for good, and immersive experiences.