had shared office space with Reiche, who became so fascinated with the project that he helped Johnson build the game's communication system. Years later, this friendship led Reiche to ask Johnson to work on Star Control II, and Johnson became one of the game's most significant contributors. Star Controls story and characters were vastly expanded from those of the first game. As Reiche and Ford worked on the first version of the game's dialog, they recognized they needed help with the writing and art and decided to enlist the help of close friends. In addition to Johnson, they recruited Otus, who contributed art, music, and text (as well as voice acting, in a later release). Through mutual friends, they acquired the talents of fantasy artist George Barr. The project eventually ran over schedule, and the budget from Accolade ran out. During the final months of development, Ford supported the team financially. Star Control II received even more acclaim than the first game, earning recognition as one of the best games of all time by numerous publications since its release.{{efn|}} It is also ranked among the best games in several specific areas, including writing, world design, character design, and music. Star Control II has also inspired the design of numerous games, including the open-ended gameplay of Fallout, the world design of Mass Effect, and the story events of Stellaris. After finishing a Star Control II port to the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (with additional voice acting and game improvements), Accolade offered Ford and Reiche the same budget to produce a third game, which they turned down to pursue other projects. As the pair had retained the rights to their characters and stories from the first two games, they licensed their content to Accolade so that the publisher could produce Star Control 3 without their involvement. Growth under Crystal Dynamics The studio pitched their next game to Sega, but their contacts at the company had already left for Crystal Dynamics, which led the studio to pursue a publishing agreement with them instead. Around this time, the studio was operating with Reiche, Ford, and Ford's brother Ken, with additional freelancers hired for key tasks. Whereas their previous games were released as a partnership under their legal names, their subsequent games began to refer to their studio as Toys for Bob. They initially wanted a name that would distinguish them from their competitors. Reiche's wife