Bruce Campbell Shelley is an American board and video game designer. He is primarily associated as the co-designer of the video games '' Railroad Tycoon'' and ''

Civilization A civilization (also spelled civilisation in British English) is any complex society characterized by the development of state (polity), the state, social stratification, urban area, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyon ...

'' with

Sid Meier Sidney K. Meier ( ; born February 24, 1954) is an American businessman and computer programmer. A programmer, designer, and producer of many strategy video games and simulation video games, including the ''Civilization'' series, Meier co-found ...

, and later the ''

Age of Empires ''Age of Empires'' is a series of historical real-time strategy video games, originally developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios. The first title in the series, ''Age of Empires'', focused on events in Europe, Afri ...

'' series. Shelley had worked with

Avalon Hill Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the compan ...

to develop a number of board games for the company, including '' 1830: The Game of Railroads and Robber Barons'', inspired by Francis Tresham's railroad-based game ''

1829 Events January–March * January 19 – August Klingemann's adaptation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's '' Faust'' premieres in Braunschweig. * February 27 – Battle of Tarqui: Troops of Gran Colombia and Peru battle to a draw. * Marc ...

''. Around 1988, Shelley recognized that the board game market was weakening against the growing video game market, and was able to get a position at Meier's

Microprose MicroProse is an American video game publisher and video game developer, developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the ''Civilization (series), Civilizat ...

. Shelley soon became Meier's direct assistant to designing new video games, several of which were inspired by Shelley's past board game experience. Their first collaboration, ''Railroad Tycoon'', was partially based on Shelley's work on ''1830''. Subsequently, the two worked together to create ''Civilization''. The person who hired Shelley left the company after one year and gradually Shelley become one of the lowest paid coworkers in MicroProse. Due to these developments, as well as a changing atmosphere at Microprose, Shelley left the company by the end of 1992 and later joined

Ensemble Studios Ensemble Studios was an American video game developer. It was founded by Tony Goodman in 1994 and incorporated the following year. It borrowed the name of Ensemble Corporation, a consulting firm founded by Goodman in 1990. It was acquired by ...

. There, he brought ideas from ''Civilization'' and led the development of the early titles in the ''

'' series, first released in 1997. Through fellow designers Brian Reynolds and

Dave Pottinger Dave Pottinger is a video game programmer and designer. He formerly worked at Ensemble Studios, where he worked on game engines and AI. He now heads BonusXP, an independent video game studio which has produced two mobile games, and has an Real-time ...

, Shelley has also worked for games with

Zynga Zynga Inc. () is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher known for its social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile an ...

. He is currently working with a Texas-based company known as Bonusxp. In 1999, Shelley was described by the PC Gamer Magazine as one of the "25 Game Gods" and Gamespy, in 2002 as the eight-most influential game developer. Between 2000 and 2006, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the

Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain Summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentation ...

. He was inducted into the Academy's Hall of Fame in 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shelley, Bruce Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame inductees American board game designers Ensemble Studios people Living people MicroProse people American video game artists Year of birth missing (living people)