So in they moved. Remember what I was saying earlier about us getting too big too quickly and people not knowing everyone in the office any more? Well, it happened again. Don’t get me wrong – the EA guys that moved in were great – but it was still a major culture shock. For years, we at Bullfrog had regarded ourselves as a shade on the Elite side and a cut above your average studio or even the mighty EA. Now we were supposed to be one and the same and the resentment was quite visible in places for quite some time.
On the flip side, there were more people to get involved with the extra-curricular activities. As well as the Bullfrog side, an EA Frog team joined the illustrious Research Park League and they even managed to finish 2nd one year. We also got into basketball and formed the mighty Guildford Bullfrogs (Wessex league, division 3). We had a 100% season – failing to win a single game – before deciding that maybe it wasn’t to be and we should knock it on the head.
As far as the games went, Syndicate Wars, Gene Wars and Dungeon Keeper were all released before Peter upped sticks and formed Lionhead, taking a few people with him. The loss of Peter was viewed by the rest of the world as a catastrophic event and one that Bullfrog would surely not recover from. In reality, Peter’s involvement with recent Bullfrog games other than Theme Park and Dungeon Keeper had been minimal. Still, our figurehead had gone and some people were concerned by a perceived lack of direction or design throughout the teams.
185 days ago
Nice article Alex, good memories flooding back. The Sausage Pub, Killer and others seem like an awful long time ago. The game I remember playing most was Quakeworld, just the one DM map that some of us played every spare moment, but it wasn’t as BF-wide as C&C.