Bruce Shelley

Bruce has been making games of one sort or another since 1980. Beginning with paper and board games with Iron Crown Enterprises, Simulations Publications, and Avalon Hill, he transitioned to computer games and joined Microprose in 1988. There he worked as a producer, assistant designer, and writer on a variety of computer games including the original editions of Railroad Tycoon and Civilization. 

After a brief stint as a writer of game strategy guides, he was invited in 1995 by Tony Goodman to help start a new game group, Ensemble Studios, in Dallas, Texas. Over the next 14 years he helped develop the Age of Empires series. Following the closing of Ensemble Studios in 2009, he worked freelance for several companies, including Ubisoft’s Blue Byte studio and Zynga. In 2011 he joined Zynga fulltime, working for Zynga Dallas mainly developing Castleville. He returned to freelance work in 2013 but now is semi-retired working part time for BonusXP of Allen, Texas. 

Bruce has written about game development for a variety of publications and has been a guest speaker at game development conferences around the world. He served for six years on the Board of Directors of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and received that organization’s 12^th Hall of Fame award in 2009.