If all these tales sound a bit surreal, it's no wonder young Molyneux found a home in front of the computer screen. The computer became a sanctuary, where his wild fantasies and schemes could play out in a make-believe virtual world, void of St. Lucian peddlers and real kidnapped kangaroos. Molyneux's games at Bullfrog, the company he cofounded with Les Edgar, brought his creativity to millions of players: Populous, Syndicate, Magic Carpet, Theme Park, and Dungeon Keeper were all exceptional PC games, admired by gamers around the world.
"Peter has an instinct for psychology, which I really admire," explains Will Wright, creator of SimCity and The Sims. "Peter designs a game by starting with the emotional range and dilemmas he wants the player to face and then he backtracks and looks at themes or technologies to achieve that result, which is quite different from what other designers do." For years, Molyneux achieved that result many times over at Bullfrog. But by 1996, after selling the company to Electronic
 | 
Lionhead was named for cofounder Mark Webley's dead hamster. |
Arts, he grew weary of having to manage instead of create. Bullfrog had ballooned to a 100-person factory from a 20-person art house. The new culture didn't fit Molyneux and, before long, he decided to pull out of Bullfrog (after finishing Dungeon Keeper at his home) and start a new company: Lionhead Studios, named after the dead hamster of cofounder (and brother-in-law) Mark Webley. Lionhead was actually the second name, because the cofounders discovered that their original choice, Red Eye, was already taken.
Molyneux's goal with Lionhead was to get back to that 20-person team feel at the heyday of Bullfrog. With ideals in hand, the big question for Molyneux and the founders was simple: What are we going to do for our first game?
Previous Page
