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'''Chris Roberts''' is the co-founder, CEO, chief creative officer of [[Cloud Imperium Games]], and the director of [[Star Citizen]] and [[Squadron 42]].<ref>{{Cite RSI|url=press|text=Star Citizen: Press Kit}}</ref>

His father was a British sociologist doing research in Guatemala<ref>[https://youtu.be/Fd8TmaZmr_Y?feature=shared Prof Bryan Roberts discusses his work with Prof David Morgan (Full interview]), ManchesterSociology, Youtube, 9 Jul 2014</ref><ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bryan-Roberts Bryan Roberts publications], Researchgate</ref> at the time when Chris Roberts was about to be born. His American mother went to stay with her parents in Palo Alto, near San Francisco. Thus he was born in nearby Redwood City on May 27 1968. When he was a couple of months old his mother took him down to Guatemala for a year until his father finished his research, then went teaching at Manchester University, which led to Chris Roberts growing up in Manchester, UK, where he met [[Martin Galway]] in high school.

He would go in on the weekends to his father's university which had a computer, he was fascinated about the presence of games on it and the possibility to animate things, which is how he got an interest in how to program, so he could figure out how to animate imagery.<ref>[https://youtu.be/dK-ggbdklaE Interview with Chris Roberts from 1996], Youtube</ref>

His father, noticing Chris Roberts budding interest in programming, signed him for an extra-curricular class at Manchester University. Around the age of 12, Chris Roberts began to learn BASIC. He was at the back of the class, ignoring the class and trying to program games instead.

The next year, the teacher of that class became the editor of The Micro User magazine. He remembered that Chris Roberts and his friend were in the back of the class trying to make games, so he called up and asked if he would like to write a 'game of the month' for the magazine.<ref name=":1">[https://web.archive.org/web/20140914215106/https://www.usgamer.net/articles/chris-roberts-star-citizen-profile The Stars His Destination: Chris Roberts from Origin to Star Citizen], 2014-13-09, archived</ref>

In the mid 1980's, when he was nineteen, his familly moved to the U.S due to his dad getting a tenured professorship position at the the University of Texas and soon after Chris Roberts took a gap year from University and went to visit his parents for the summer.<ref name=":2">[https://paullicino.tumblr.com/post/140850063441/paul-dean-as-i-understand-you-were-born-in-the The forgotten interview with Chris Roberts] by Paul Dean, March 11, 2016</ref><ref name=":1" />

Chris Roberts was working on his own on Ultra Realm, the precursor to what would become [[Times of Lore|''Times of Lore'']]. When he went to a boardgame club he saw the art of local artist Denis Loubet displayed on a wall and contacted him to make art. Denis Loubet had been working with Richard Gariott since ''Akalabeth'' in 1980 and had been hired as a fulltime artist at nearby [[Origin Systems]] just three weeks earlier<ref name=":3">[https://youtu.be/8ej6u1h7ZEg Star Citizen Chris Roberts at BAFTA LA Januari 2015], Youtube, 21 Jan 2015</ref>. Loubet showed what he was working on to Richard Garriott and Dallas Snell at Origin, who were impressed by the work-in-progress of Chris Roberts, and they invited him to Origin’s offices to ask if he’d be interested in publishing it through them. Chris Roberts had never heard of Origin Systems or the ''Ultima'' series; he’d grown up immersed in the British gaming scene, where neither had any presence whatsoever. But he liked the people at Origin, liked the atmosphere around the place and he ended up with a publishing contract at Origin Systems.<ref name=":2" /><ref>[https://youtu.be/UPObpk1HJK4 Let's Play: Wing Commander 25th Anniversary Livestream], Youtube, 27 Sept 2015</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref>[https://www.filfre.net/2017/04/from-squadron-to-wingleader/ From Squadron to Wingleader], The Digital Antiquarian, April 21, 2017</ref>

He sold his first game [[King Kong|''King Kong'']] at the age of 13<ref>[https://www.pixsoriginadventures.co.uk/king-kong-chris-roberts-first-game/ King Kong – Chris Roberts First Game?] Pix's Origin Adventures, september 29 2011</ref>, followed by ''[[Popeye]]'', and developed 3 number one hits by the age of 20: ''[[Wizadore]]'', [[Match Day|''Match Day'']] and [[Stryker's Run|''Stryker's Run'']].<ref name=":4">[https://www.spacegamejunkie.com/featured/sgj-podcast-04-chris-freaking-roberts/ SGJ Podcast #04: Chris. Freaking. Roberts]., spacegamejunkie, 03/12/2013</ref>

In 1987, Roberts got a publishing contract with Origin Systems where he made [[Times of Lore|''Times of Lore'']] and [[Bad Blood|''Bad Blood'']], as contracted outside developer with an office.<ref name=":0">[https://youtu.be/xnZOGOrDZIg Around the Verse: Episode 1.62 (2015.09.24)], Youtube</ref>

In 1990, Roberts developed [[Wing Commander I|''Wing Commander'']], which evolved into a [[Wing Commander (series)|franchise series of game titles]], all developed and produced by Chris Roberts. This made him an official Origin Employee.<ref>[https://www.filfre.net/2017/04/from-wingleader-to-wing-commander/ From Wingleader to Wing Commander], The Digital Antiquarian, April 28, 2017</ref>