Cerny, a fan of computer programming and arcade games, started in the game industry at the young age of 17 when he joined Atari in 1982. In those earlier days of professional game development, teams were small and each member was responsible for a wider range of roles than today.
From his extensive experience on the "do's and don'ts" in the game industry he has developed the "Cerny method", a strategy for game development. His method prefers a free-form, pre-production stage that explores a game's viability prior to full development. For example, he advocates that if the first level produced does not excite customers, then the game idea should be set aside before too much effort is put into it.
The International Game Developers Association awarded Cerny with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards on March 24, 2004, calling him the "master collaborator". His success rests not only on number of games he's worked on, but also their quality and commercial success (having sold several dozen million units).
Cerny's career is decorated with blockbusters such as the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon series, and more recently with work on Ratchet and Clank and Jak and Daxter.
The "Cerny Method" emphasizes an explorative risk-taking pre-production period, based on the belief that the best ideas require a period of creative freedom free from rigidly scheduled deadlines.
Cerny also asserts that the ultimate success or failure of a game can be determined by its first playable level.
MarkCerny is a household name, at least in houses that design computer games for a living.
Today, Cerny works as a consultant and his strategy for game development, called the Cerny Method, is used by firms to shorten the time needed to work on a title.
Cerny was given the prestigious lifetime achievement award at this year’s game development conference for helping to advance the industry.
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