Michael Cranford (born June 5, 1963) is a video game designer and programmer.

Cranford left the video game industry in 1992 to pursue an academic career as an ethicist.

He left the video game industry to pursue graduate studies, and thus was not involved in the creation of 1988's The Bard's Tale III.

Almost thirty years later, however, he was approached by inXile Entertainment to assist with the development of The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep and had agreed to provide feedback and advice for the new game.

[2] He was a professor for eight years at Biola University in La Mirada, California, gaining his Master of Divinity degree from Biola and a master's degree in Social Ethics from the University of Southern California.