Alan Emrich

Alan Emrich (October 1, 1959 – January 7, 2025) was an American writer and designer of board games and video games. He contributed to the design of Master of Orion and Master of Orion 3, wrote strategy guides for video games, and acknowledged as the originator of the term 4X to describe the genre of strategic turn-based games associated with games like Master of Orion. Before the rise of video games, Emrich wrote about and designed board games and organized conventions about them. He ran a small game publishing company called Victory Point Games (until he sold the company to a new owner) and lectured in game design and project management. In 2001, Emrich received the Blomgren/Hamilton Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement from ConsimWorld.com.