Bullfrog Productions
Bullfrog Productions Limited was a British video game developer based in Guildford, England. Founded in 1987 by Peter Molyneux and Les Edgar, the company gained recognition in 1989 for their third release, Populous, and is also well known for titles such as Theme Park, Theme Hospital, Magic Carpet, Syndicate and Dungeon Keeper. Bullfrog's name was derived from an ornament in the offices of Edgar's and Molyneux's other enterprise, Taurus Impact Systems, Bullfrog's precursor where Molyneux and Edgar were developing business software. Bullfrog Productions was founded as a separate entity after Commodore mistook Taurus for a similarly named company.
Electronic Arts, Bullfrog's publisher, acquired the studio in January 1995. Molyneux had become an Electronic Arts vice-president and consultant in 1994, after EA purchased a significant share of Bullfrog. Molyneux's last project with Bullfrog was Dungeon Keeper, and as a result of his dissatisfaction of the corporate aspects of his position, he left the company in July 1997 to found Lionhead Studios. Others would follow him to Lionhead, and some founded their own companies, such as Mucky Foot Productions. After Molyneux's departure, Electronic Arts' control over Bullfrog caused several projects to be cancelled. Bullfrog was merged into EA UK in 2001 and ceased to exist as a separate entity. Bullfrog titles have been looked upon as a standard for comparison and have spawned numerous spiritual sequels.
History
Background, founding, and early years (1982–1989)
In 1982, entrepreneur Peter Molyneux met Les Edgar at an audio electronics shop called PJ Hi-Fi. When Molyneux left the company where he was working, Edgar suggested that they start a new one, which would later develop business software for the Commodore 64 as Taurus Impact Systems. The new company was named after Molyneux and Edgar's shared astrological sign, the Taurus. At some point, Molyneux accepted a deal to export money systems to Switzerland and baked beans to the Middle East.One day, Taurus received a call from the head of Commodore Europe, wanting to discuss the future of the Amiga and Taurus' software's suitability for the system. Molyneux was invited to Commodore Europe's headquarters, where he was offered several Amiga systems and a space at a show in Germany. When Molyneux was told that they were anticipating getting his network running on the Amiga, he realised that they had mistaken his company for one called Torus, a producer of networking systems. Molyneux wanted the Amiga systems, so he did not inform Commodore of this error. He received them and began writing a database program called Acquisition. Commodore kept asking about the database, and Molyneux gave them excuses because they were threatening to shut Taurus down. When Acquisition was finished, it was shown at the exhibition in Germany, and won product of the year. 2,000 copies were sold to a company in the United States, giving Molyneux and Edgar funds to sustain Taurus.
Another program Taurus wrote was a computer-aided design package called X-CAD. They knew the Amiga was becoming a gaming machine, and a friend of Molyneux's asked him to convert Druid II: Enlightenment from the Commodore 64 to the Amiga. According to Edgar, it was around this time Bullfrog was founded in preparation for the day when Acquisition was no longer important and they could focus on games. Bullfrog was originally a brand of Taurus; Molyneux explained that this was because they wanted to avoid confusion over business software and money-making opportunities.
The name came from an ornament of a bullfrog located in the office: when asked by Joystick why the name "Bullfrog" was chosen, Molyneux stated that they wanted "an idiotic name" without having to find one, and there happened to be a sculpture of a colourful frog on a pedestal labelled "Bull Frog by Leonardo" on the table. Afterwards, Molyneux and Edgar were running out of money, and Edgar suggested they close the company down. It was at this point when Molyneux came up with the idea of Populous. The conversion of Druid II: Enlightenment, Populous, and a shoot 'em up game called Fusion were the first games developed under the Bullfrog brand.
Early success (1989–1995)
Populous was difficult to publish at first due to a lack of recognition—the god genre was, according to Bullfrog, "misunderstood by everyone". Despite this, Electronic Arts was willing to publish the game. Molyneux did not expect it to be successful, yet in 1989, the game received 10 awards, and another 12 the following year, with sales reaching one million copies. It ultimately sold four million copies. Edgar took note of the game's success and gave developers such as Imagineer licences to create ports for platforms such as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Mega Drive, which enabled the game to gain traction in Japan.After Populous, Bullfrog moved into the Surrey Research Park in Guildford and had around 20 employees. Bullfrog was starting to gain a reputation, so people started to want to work for the company. Molyneux searched for staff himself, and employed artists and programmers. He travelled to universities, including Cambridge, where he offered computer scientists and banks the chance to come to the gaming industry.
Bullfrog's Powermonger was developed as a result of pressure from Electronic Arts for a follow-up to Populous. and was released in 1990. The game won multiple Best Strategy Game awards, including one from Computer Gaming World. The direct sequel to Populous, Populous II: Trials of the Olympian Gods, was released the following year and sold over a million copies. In late 1993, Bullfrog worked with researchers from the University of Surrey, who were nearby their offices, to study the movement and behaviour of underwater life so Bullfrog could reproduce it in the game Creation.
By the mid-1990s, Bullfrog had become well known for innovation and quality. A 1995 article in GamePro stated that "Bullfrog's work has been termed some of the most innovative by industry leaders, and it's pioneered different genres of software." The same year, Next Generation similarly asserted that "Bullfrog has earned a reputation as one of the most consistently innovative and imaginative development teams in the world." In July 1995, Edge stated that Bullfrog had "an unparalleled reputation for quality and innovation", and by that year, Bullfrog were "rightly considered one of the most innovative in the world", according to GamesTM.
In 1994, three games were in development: Creation, Theme Park, and Magic Carpet. Bullfrog focused on implementing multiplayer in all three games; Molyneux believed that multiplayer was more important than the compact disc format. Theme Park and Magic Carpet were released that year, the latter being the best-selling CD game that Christmas and winning Game of the Year awards in the United Kingdom and Germany. Theme Park proved popular in Japan and was a best-seller in Europe. During the development of Theme Park, artist Gary Carr left Bullfrog following a disagreement with Molyneux on the game: Molyneux wanted gaily coloured graphics that would appeal to the Japanese market, but Carr disapproved, believing it would not work. Carr joined The Bitmap Brothers, returning to Bullfrog in 1995 to work on Dungeon Keeper, although he ended up working as the lead artist on Theme Hospital instead.
In November 1994, Bullfrog began development for Dungeon Keeper. By then, the company had been approached many times to develop games around film licences. McDonald's approached Bullfrog at some point for a joint game venture. By mid-1995, Bullfrog was focused on artificial intelligence and had a dedicated AI team working at its offices. Two AI techniques, Personality Mapping and Skeletal Mapping, were developed.
Acquisition by Electronic Arts and Molyneux's departure (1995–1998)
According to Edgar, Bullfrog began merger talks with Electronic Arts in 1993. To get the best deal, he believed Bullfrog should also talk with other companies such as Sony and Virgin. He explained that Electronic Arts was the obvious choice as Bullfrog already had a positive relationship with them. According to Molyneux, Bullfrog received numerous offers expressing interest in purchasing the company. The offers were not taken seriously until major companies, such as Electronic Arts and Philips, made contact; it was then thought that the acquisition by one of these companies would be inevitable. Bullfrog was bought by Electronic Arts in early January 1995. The rumored price of the acquisition was $44 million. By this time, the studio's staff count had risen from 35 to 60 and the acquisition allowed it to grow to 150 people within months. Molyneux became a vice-president of Electronic Arts and head of their European branch. Edgar became the vice-president of the European branch and Bullfrog's chairman. He described Bullfrog becoming part of a multinational company as "a very big change" and worked for Electronic Arts to assist with the transition. Although Molyneux had said that Bullfrog's products would not suffer as a result of Electronic Arts' purchase, the number of games in development meant that there was less time to refine them, affecting their quality.After the release of Magic Carpet in 1994, seven games were in development: Magic Carpet 2, Theme Hospital, The Indestructibles, Syndicate Wars, Gene Wars, Creation, and Dungeon Keeper. After Electronic Arts' purchase, Molyneux was told to release a game, namely Magic Carpet 2 or Dungeon Keeper, within six weeks. Neither was near completion, so to appease Electronic Arts, Hi-Octane was created. It had a rushed development and no name by July 1995. Molyneux explained that Bullfrog's games were normally original, and they were not concerned about them being copied, but the project was "a little derivative", which was why it was kept secret—even Edgar was not informed of the project at first. Around this time, Bullfrog had a reputation for having largely ignored 16-bit game consoles, and Syndicate Wars was the company's first title originally developed for a console—the PlayStation.
As Molyneux had been made vice-president of Electronic Arts, his corporate role and responsibility increased considerably and he began making frequent trips to San Francisco. Over time, he grew increasingly frustrated with the position and wished to return to game development. In July 1996, Molyneux decided to resign from Bullfrog to focus on game design, rather than become a mere employee. In response, Electronic Arts banned him from its offices, forcing him to move development of Dungeon Keeper to his house. Molyneux speculated that this was because Electronic Arts feared that he would take people with him. He decided to leave as soon as Dungeon Keeper was finished and commented: "My last day will be the day that this game goes into final test. I'm very, very, very sad, but also very relieved." He also said that Electronic Arts had been "unbelievably patient" and thanked vice-president Mark Lewis for campaigning for Dungeon Keepers completion. Molyneux's planned departure was his motivation to make Dungeon Keeper good. He believed that he would enjoy being an executive but said that it was "an utter nightmare". Shortly after his departure, Molyneux said he still had feelings for Bullfrog and wished them success. Despite his dissatisfaction with the corporate aspects of being vice-president, Molyneux said that he had learned "an enormous amount". In 2017, he revealed that his resignation was the consequence of his, and technical director Tim Rance's, drunkenness. He said he would take his resignation email back if he could.
Around this time, as Electronic Arts increased control over Bullfrog. Mark Healey stated that the company "felt more like a chicken factory" after Electronic Arts' takeover and compared it to being assimilated by the Borg. Glenn Corpes stated that he was not surprised at Molyneux's departure. Another employee believed that working for Bullfrog had become "a job" and that the company had lost its innovation. In 2008, Electronic Arts' president John Riccitiello corroborated these sentiments by admitting that their "dictatorial managerial approach" had suppressed Bullfrog's creativity. Sean Cooper said that if he could travel back in time, he would probably force Molyneux to refrain from selling Bullfrog to Electronic Arts. He described the period of resignations following Molyneux's departure as "such a horrible time". Molyneux believed that Electronic Arts had good intentions for Bullfrog, saying that "they just wanted to make it nicer" and putting the company's effects on Bullfrog down to "love abuse".
When Dungeon Keeper was nearing its completion in 1997, Molyneux, Rance, and Mark Webley founded a new company, Lionhead Studios, that July. By the time the studio's first game, Black & White, was released, Bullfrog employees such as Healey, Andy Bass, Russell Shaw, James Leach, Paul McLaughlin, and Jonty Barnes had joined Lionhead. Healey stated that, because of his dissatisfaction at Bullfrog, he was happy to follow Molyneux and became Lionhead's first artist. Also in 1997, Mike Diskett, Finn McGechie, and Guy Simmons left to found Mucky Foot Productions, with Carr joining them the following year.
Other notable people at Bullfrog around the mid-1990s include Simon Carter, Richard Reed, Mike Man, Alan Wright, and Eoin Rogan.