Bullfrog Company – an unconventional and whimsical game company
Author: Stand-alone game Little Shrimp
When it comes to Bullfrog Company, I believe that as long as the old players who have played all the way from the 90s, they will definitely not be unfamiliar with this name. Bullfrog is a creative and whimsical company, and in those days, it released a number of games that were both unconventional and whimsy, from "Theme Hospital" to "God is Crazy" to "Dungeon Guardians", and each game of Bullfrog was so surprising that we had to admire the brains of the Bullfrog designers.
In 1984, Les Edgar and Peter Molineux co-founded Bullfrog Studios, at a time when the rapid development of semiconductor and chip technology led to the emergence of video games. After the establishment of Bullfrog, it also devoted itself to the development of video games, and in that era of video game genres, Bullfrog's works were also full of whimsy.
1. God is also crazy series.
Strictly speaking, it's a real-time strategy game. In the God Crazy series of games, players choose to take on the role of the gods in the game to assist their respective believers in settling and developing, with the goal of exterminating all of the opposing party's followers. In the game, players can call the wind and rain and do anything. This unique game idea made "God Crazy Too" quickly become popular. In today's view, this unique way of playing is also rare.
Second, the pole hero series
If "God is Crazy" is a game that plays the positive image of God, then "Extreme Hero" is a game that plays the negative image of a gangster boss. In the game, players need to control a squad of cyborgs to hunt down competitors and mutineers, while maximizing the scope of their own forces. Players can kill citizen NPCs at will in the game, and as the sphere of influence expands, players can get more money to buy and update weapons to improve the combat effectiveness of their troops.
3. Dungeon Guardian series
The mode of playing the villain boss in "Extreme Hero" gave Bullfrog a taste of sweetness, so it began to experiment with new negative gameplay. In the mid-90s, with the popularity of real-time strategy games, Bullfrog decided to make a real-time strategy game with a villainous role, and Dungeon Keepers was released in 1997. It subverts the traditional setting of the hero crusade against the demon king in the game, and the player takes on the role of the big demon king in the game, with the goal of defeating the hero and conquering the world.
In the game, players can build different houses to recruit different monsters to join the army of demon kings, and at the same time, players can increase the level of monsters by building training grounds, prison to hold prisoners, and punishment chambers to punish and recruit prisoners. Players also have to keep an eye on the mood of the monster at all times, if the mood is bad, the monster may not only leave your party, but also rebel.
Although the overall game is slightly dim, Dungeon Keepers was a huge success due to its combination of the best of many different genres.
Fourth, the theme park series.
"Theme Park" is a simulation game developed by Bullfrog, in which players need to design and operate a park, players not only need to decide the planning of the entire amusement park, but also design the details of various amusement facilities, roads, and shops in the park. The game's graphics are fresh and cute, and the gameplay is easy and comfortable, making this game a hot seller very quickly.
5. Theme hospital series.
The success of the "Theme Park" game prompted Bullfrog to try more simulation management games, so "Theme Hospital" came into being. Like Theme Park, this is a commercial simulation game where the goal is to attract as many patients as possible to your hospital and cure them for the most money.
Successfully treating patients can gain a lot of prestige and attract more patients to seek medical treatment, on the contrary, if too many patients die without good care in the hospital, the prestige and evaluation of the hospital will be greatly reduced.
The whole game is full of humor and spoofs, and the symptoms of these patients are also strange: "stealth", "macrocephaly", "macroglossia" and other strange diseases. And if you look closely, the treatment of these diseases is even more spoof. There are 12 levels in the game, and when each level reaches certain conditions, you will successfully enter the next level.
"The head of the hospital is a liar"! "Please don't die in the hallway, patient"! These funny stalks, I believe old players still remember them vividly.
Bullfrog can be called the king of creativity in the game industry, its creativity is always so unique, so alternative, it seems to be an artist in the game industry, never succumbing to the trend, nor compromising to commercialization. You never know what role you'll play in the next game, and it's either completely cold or fanatical.
Unfortunately, due to poor management, in 1995, Bullfrog was acquired by EA and became a studio owned by EA. Some commercial measures forced the bullfrog to abandon some of its ideas, and gradually led the company to mediocrity and eventually disappeared into the dust of history. Released in 1999, Dungeon Keepers 2 ultimately failed to save the bullfrog's fate, and this work became the bullfrog's swan song.
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Time flies, we are no longer young, but the pace of pursuing our dreams has never stopped. Looking back, I suddenly realized that the happiness that had passed away was our original dream and pursuit.