Zilpha Keatley Snyder

"Zilpha Keatley Snyder, a native Californian, is the renowned author of more than a dozen adventure and fantasy books for young people. In addition to the Green-Sky Trilogy, Ms. Snyder is the author of the acclaimed "Egypt Game", "The Headless Cupid", and "The Witches of Worm", which are all Newbery Honor Books from Athenaeum Publishers."

-- from the Below the Root game manual

Zilpha was first introduced to adventure games on computers by Dale Disharoon, lead programmer/designer for Below the Root. In adapting the Green-Sky triology into a computer game, Zilpha acted as co-designer to bring her world to life. The following excerpt from the game manual describes part of the process of adapting the Green-Sky trilogy in her own words:

"I began to map out the vast world of Green-Sky on an enormous sheet of graph paper spread out on my studio floor. I stretched the many grundtrees whose intricate network of branches supported the homes, shops, temples, and public buildings of the people of Green-Sky ... Next came the many inhabitants of the land; I planned the responses they might make when addressed or 'pensed'.

Dale and I worked very closely over many months on the adaptation. While I sketched and charted Green-Sky, he made it all possible by ably programming the computer. Our ideas flowed back and forth, and it felt more like play than work."