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Bullfrog in the Dungeon
In January of 1995, Electronic Arts bought the prestigious British games studio Bullfrog Productions for an undisclosed sum that was rumored to be in the neighborhood of $45 million. The lives of the 35 or so people who worked at Bullfrog were transformed overnight.
He and visual artist Gary Carr, the second person assigned to the team, talked the authorities at Royal Surrey County Hospital, conveniently located right next door to Bullfrog’s offices in Guildford, England, into giving them a behind-the-scenes tour. EA was extremely disappointed when Dungeon Keeper failed to ship in time for the Christmas of 1995, to supplement a Bullfrog lineup for the year that otherwise included only the under-performing Magic Carpet 2 and the thoroughly underwhelming racing game Hi-Octane — a poor early return indeed on a $45 million investment. Setting Dungeon Keeper aside as a partial exception, I’ve made no secret of the fact that the actual artifacts of Bullfrog’s games have tended to strike me less positively than their modern reputation might suggest they should, that I consider the studio to have been better at blue-sky innovation than execution on the screen.
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