Introducing 10 Questions from the Academy: A weekly feature from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences wherein significant figures in the video game industry provide their input on past trends, current events, and future challenges and goals for the entertainment software community.
Bruce Shelley is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, where he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award. He has helped design classics like Sid Meier's Civilization, Railroad Tycoon, and Age of Empires. He mostly recently waved goodbye to Ensemble Studios, where he remained a key figure until Microsoft closed the developer earlier this year.
AIAS: How do you measure success?
Bruce Shelley: Do people tell you that they liked the games you worked on and do they sell well enough that you can make a living at it? For most of the last 30 years that has been true for me.
What's your favorite part of game development?
When a game is just getting started anything is possible. The brainstorming is fun. At some point we have to become more practical and start building something that is not only fun but technically doable and commercially viable. Then the process becomes more like work. But early on we are truly thinking up ideas with little constraint and that is exciting.
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