Everything about Bruce Shelley totally explained
Bruce Campbell Shelley is a
computer game designer who helped design
Sid Meier's Civilization and
Railroad Tycoon with
MicroProse and the
1997 hit
real-time strategy game
Age of Empires with
Ensemble Studios. He now serves in an advisor role at Ensemble and recently stepped down from the board of directors of the
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.
Biography
Bruce Shelley was born in
Michigan,
U.S. and grew up in
Baltimore. He attended
Syracuse University and the
State University of New York's College of Forestry, earning a degree in
forest biology. Shelley continued his education at the
University of Virginia. He had developed a fondness for strategy
board games in school, playing
Risk and
Stratego.
The first time he thought of making games for a living came in the
1970s, but he'd a difficult time finding a job. In
1980, he and several of his Univ. of Virginia friends formed a
role-playing game company called
Iron Crown Enterprises and acquired the license to make games based on
The Lord of the Rings. It was his first job in the games industry.
Strategy & Tactics Magazine became his first publisher in the early
1980s by printing a game he helped design that was based on the
American Civil War. He worked for Strategic Publication Inc (SPI) briefly in 1981.
Shelley then worked for
Avalon Hill designing wargames and
board games. He contributed to
1830,
Titan, and others. He later credited board game design with teaching him the value of prototyping and "designing by playing". Shelley left board games for
computer games after being impressed by
Sid Meier's Pirates!, created by local
developer MicroProse.
At MicroProse, he was Sid Meier's assistant designer for
Railroad Tycoon (
1990),
Covert Action (1990), and
Civilization (
1991). Meier taught Shelley to think about game design more scientifically, that there are fundamental ideas that can carry over from game to game, and also confirmed his beliefs in prototyping and designing by playing. Shelley left MicroProse after five years with the company and became a freelance writer, having five strategy guides published.
In February 1995, he joined an old friend named
Tony Goodman who had just started Ensemble Studios in
Dallas, Texas. As a designer, he helped create the successful
Age of Empires (1997)
real-time strategy game. He also worked on the game's
expansion packs and sequels, which went on to sell over 15 million copies by
2007. Shelley's role in Ensemble's games after the original
Age of Empires was more advisory than hands-on.
PC Gamer magazine named Shelley one of the 25 "Game Gods" in
1999 and
GameSpy called him the 8th most influential person in gaming in
2002. Between 2000 and 2006 he served on the board of directors of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.
As of 2005 he's a spokesman and part of Ensemble's management. He shares design ideas and research, but lives away from the company.
Further Information
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