Peter Molyneux

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Peter Molyneux at the University of Southampton

Peter Douglas Molyneux , OBE (born May 5, 1959 in Guildford , Surrey , England ) is one of the most famous developers of computer games. He is considered the inventor of the so-called god simulations .

biography

In 1987 Molyneux and Les Edgar founded Bullfrog Productions . In 1989 her first work, Populous, was published . The innovative computer game had its origin in Hammurabi (one of the first computer games and classified as an educational game in Chris Crawford's classification system ). Populous is a very early representative of real-time strategy games or the first representative of god simulation .

Peter Molyneux was also able to celebrate great success with Bullfrog with the following games and secure a reputation as an innovative developer early on. His most famous games of that time include: a. Syndicate , Theme Park , Magic Carpet and Dungeon Keeper .

In August 1997 Molyneux left Bullfrog Productions because he felt too limited in his creativity by Electronic Arts, which Bullfrog had bought in 1995, to found the development studio Lionhead Studios in England. Their first game, Black & White , shows clear similarities with the Populous principle . Again the player slips into the role of a god who exercises direct control over the game universe inhabited by "humans". Black & White revolves around a "divine creature" who represents the avatar of the "God" embodied by the player. Lionhead was affiliated with Microsoft Game Studios in April 2006 . Peter Molyneux worked with a team on a previously unnamed game that builds on Project Dimitri , which Molyneux once referred to as Lionhead's technology flagship. In March 2008, Molyneux announced that the game would build on a tremendous discovery in the field of artificial intelligence .

In 2004 Molyneux was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame . At the beginning of 2005 he was accepted into the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to the computer and video game industry and can now bear the title of "Officer of the Order of the British Empire".

In June 2009 Molyneux announced via his Twitter account that he had been promoted to Creative Director of Microsoft Game Studios Europe . He held this position until March 2012 in addition to his work at Lionhead.

On March 7, 2012 it was announced that Molyneux had left Microsoft Game Studios and Lionhead to work at the development studio 22Cans in Guildford, which he co-founded . There he worked with some old companions such as Tim Rance, who was already involved in founding Lionhead Studios, on new "gameplay experiments". The first “social experiment” out of a total of 22 was entitled Curiosity .

Personality and demeanor

Peter Molyneux is known for making grandiose announcements about new projects at his studio, for promising special features and content and for talking euphorically about potential game content. This has earned him a lot of criticism from players and the press in the past. After the release of the game Fable , which did not live up to the high expectations, Peter Molyneux even apologized personally for not keeping promises regarding certain game elements and promised improvement.

Nevertheless, Peter Molyneux is considered to be one of the most innovative game developers, especially since he strives to present the player with tricky decisions. In Molyneux's last projects, the player's choice for good or bad is always in the foreground.

Games

Released

  • Before Bullfrog Productions
    • 1984 - The Entrepreneur (Designer / Programmer)
    • Druid 2

In development

  • Dimitri (stage of development unknown / combined with another project)
  • The Room ( prototype / technology demo)
  • Mi- / Project X (unknown title)
  • Legacy

Development stopped

  • The Indestructibles
  • BC
  • Unity
  • Dungeon Keeper 3
  • Black and White 3
  • Milo (technology demo)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,1274/
  2. ↑ Ron Dulin: Legends of Game Design: Peter Molyneux ( English ) GameSpot . 1999. Archived from the original on August 30, 2005. Retrieved February 21, 2012.
  3. ↑ Fable creator Peter Molyneux becomes creative director of Microsoft Game Studios . pcgames.de. June 4, 2009. Accessed December 1, 2011: “ Peter Molyneux (Black & White, Fable, Dungeon Keeper) is now the creative director at Microsoft Game Studios. It should have a decisive influence on the direction of the Microsoft Game Studios (MGS) in Europe. "
  4. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 22 Cans, About @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.22cans.com
  5. ↑ http://kotaku.com/5890594/peter-molyneux-is-leaving-lionhead-studios-and-microsoft-will-finish-kinect-fable%7Ctitle=Peter Molyneux is leaving Lionhead Studios and Microsoft
  6. ↑ http://kotaku.com/the-man-who-promised-too-much-1537352493
  7. ↑ Cade Onder: Peter Molyneux says Project Milo was a real game that worked on better technology. In: gamezone.com. November 26, 2016, accessed January 6, 2020 .

Web links

Commons : Peter Molyneux  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Molyneux, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Molyneux, Peter Douglas (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British game developer
DATE OF BIRTH May 5th 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Guildford , Surrey , England