Bruce Shelley

{{Short description|American board and video game designer}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2023}}

File:Bruce shelley gdc 2017 cropped.jpg]]

Bruce Campbell Shelley is an American board and video game designer. He is primarily associated as the co-designer of the video games Railroad Tycoon and Civilization with Sid Meier, and later the Age of Empires series.{{Cite web |url=https://www.engadget.com/2006/10/25/shelley-on-the-history-of-civilization/ |title=Shelley on the history of Civilization |last=Rose |first=Alan |date=October 25, 2006 |website=Engadget |publisher=Aol |access-date=January 1, 2017}}

Shelley had worked with Avalon Hill to develop a number of board games for the company, including 1830: The Game of Railroads and Robber Barons, inspired by Francis Tresham's railroad-based game 1829. Around 1988, Shelley recognized that the board game market was weakening against the growing video game market, and was able to get a position at Meier's Microprose.{{Cite web |url=http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1523/the_history_of_civilization.php?print=1 |title=Features - The History of Civilization |last=Edwards |first=Benj |date=July 18, 2011 |website=Gamasutra |access-date=September 19, 2016}} Shelley soon became Meier's direct assistant to designing new video games, several of which were inspired by Shelley's past board game experience. Their first collaboration, Railroad Tycoon, was partially based on Shelley's work on 1830. Subsequently, the two worked together to create Civilization.

The person who hired Shelley left the company after one year and gradually Shelley become one of the lowest paid coworkers in MicroProse. Due to these developments, as well as a changing atmosphere at Microprose, Shelley left the company by the end of 1992 and later joined Ensemble Studios.{{Cite interview |last=Shelley |first=Bruce |interviewer=Soren Johnson |title=Designer Notes 9: Bruce Shelley |type=audio |url=https://www.idlethumbs.net/designernotes/episodes/bruce-shelley/ |access-date=August 7, 2017 |date=June 26, 2015 |language=en}} There, he brought ideas from Civilization and led the development of the early titles in the Age of Empires series, first released in 1997.{{Cite web |url=https://venturebeat.com/2016/02/25/how-bruce-shelley-brought-a-board-gamers-view-to-designing-civilization/ |title=How Bruce Shelley brought a board gamer's view into designing Civilization |last=Takahashi |first=Dean |date=February 25, 2016 |website=VentureBeat |access-date=September 19, 2016}} Through fellow designers Brian Reynolds and Dave Pottinger, Shelley has also worked for games with Zynga. He is currently working with a Texas-based company known as Bonusxp.

In 1999, Shelley was described by the PC Gamer Magazine as one of the "25 Game Gods" and Gamespy in 2002 as the eight-most influential game developer.{{Cite web |date=April 17, 2010 |title=GameSpy.com - Article: GameSpy's 30 Most Influential People in Gaming |url=http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/march02/top30/127/index3.shtm |access-date=September 22, 2022 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100417045208/http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/march02/top30/127/index3.shtm |archive-date=April 17, 2010 |url-status=dead}}

Between 2000 and 2006 he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. He was inducted into the Academy's Hall of Fame in 2009.{{Cite web |date=July 14, 2010 |title=From Board Games to Video Games; Visionary Bruce Shelley to Be Inducted Into Hall of Fame of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences |url=http://www.interactive.org/images/pdfs/Bruce_Shelley_HOF_Release.pdf |access-date=September 22, 2022 |website= |publisher=Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100714020133/http://www.interactive.org/images/pdfs/Bruce_Shelley_HOF_Release.pdf |archive-date=July 14, 2010 |url-status=dead }}