Russell Shaw | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1962 (age 60–61) United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Composer |
| Known for | Syndicate Dungeon Keeper Populous Black & White Theme Park Fable series |
Russell Shaw is a BAFTA nominated British composer and sound designer. He is known for his work in many video games, particularly those designed by Peter Molyneux.
Shaw was exposed to music at the age of 5, when he was given a guitar by his uncle. [1] He trained himself in music playing in various bands through late 1970s to early 1980s. Though he had an interest in playing music, he wanted to be a record producer. After training at SAE London in the mid 1980s, he was hired by Gerry Anderson (of Thunderbirds fame) as his recording studio manager, recording sound for various TV shows. [1] including Terrahawks, Dick Spanner and Space Precinct.
Around 1990 Shaw left Anderson and returned to music production, working for StreetSounds record label, providing releases for the London white label dance club scene. He also stated that he was "an avid gamer" at that time, owning an Atari ST, which he also used for processing and sequencing music. [1]
In 1992 he learned that Peter Molyneux's Bullfrog Productions needed a sound specialist for audio in their games, and Shaw decided to try as he was experienced in both computer technology and sound, successfully getting the job. At Bullfrog, Shaw composed soundtracks for many of their games, but most memorable and successful were for strategy games Syndicate , Theme Park, Magic Carpet and Dungeon Keeper . In 1997 Bullfrog's founder Peter Molyneux quit the company and formed Lionhead Studios, and Shaw followed him in the new venture. [2]
His first project was the soundtrack for Black & White. A fan of ambient techno, [2] Shaw composed an interactive, meditative and relaxing soundtrack in the manner of the genre. The music was positively received by sites such as IGN and GameSpot. [3] [4] Black & White was followed by 2004's Fable. Danny Elfman was brought in to compose the theme music, and Shaw was asked to do more traditional orchestral ingame score which would more fit Elfman's dark fairy-tale styled theme music. [2] Hollywood conductor Allan Wilson (who worked with Elfman on his music for 1999 film Sleepy Hollow) was brought in to conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra, and Shaw used The Pinewood Singers to further enhance the dark fantasy nature of the score. [2]
Shaw not only composed the game score, but also coded the audio tools and libraries and implemented the sound into the game himself. [5] The Fable soundtrack was successful, with IGN saying "It really couldn't have been a better score" and GameSpot calling out the audio as "quite possibly the best part of the game." After his success with Fable, Shaw went on to compose the soundtracks for Fable II, Fable III and Fable: The Journey, all using the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra.
In 2012 Shaw decided to leave Lionhead and go freelance, forming his own music production company.
In 2014/2015 Shaw composed the soundtrack for the computer game Satellite Reign, [6] which incorporated themes from the first 2 games in the Syndicate series. [7]
In the summer of 2015 Shaw composed and recorded the orchestral score for the now cancelled Lionhead game, Fable Legends, with the Philharmonia Orchestra.
In June 2016 Shaw composed the music for the Google VR title Earthshape by Bithell Games.
In October 2016 Shaw completed the orchestral score for the Sky TV movie adaptation of The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde.
In April 2019 Shaw joined Wargaming UK (rebranded as DPS Games in 2020) as Audio Director
Shaw's comment about his work in the game audio area[ citation needed ]:
"I would not want to go back to the early days of game audio design. This was a time when audio was very much the afterthought. Nowadays, I need to be in on the early conceptual stages of game design if the game is going to sound any good. The audio designer can bring as much to the early game design as anyone else can."
Lionhead Studios Limited was a British video game developer founded in July 1997 by Peter Molyneux, Mark Webley, Tim Rance, and Steve Jackson. The company is best known for the Black & White and Fable series. Lionhead started as a breakaway from developer Bullfrog Productions, which was also founded by Molyneux. Lionhead's first game was Black & White, a god game with elements of artificial life and strategy games. Black & White was published by Electronic Arts in 2001. Lionhead Studios is named after Webley's hamster, which died not long after the naming of the studio, as a result of which the studio was very briefly renamed to Redeye Studios.
Peter Douglas Molyneux is an English video game designer and programmer. He created the god games Populous, Dungeon Keeper, and Black & White, as well as Theme Park, the Fable series, Curiosity: What's Inside the Cube?, and Godus. He currently works at 22cans.
Black & White is a god video game developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows in 2001 and by Feral Interactive in 2002 for Mac OS. Black & White combines elements of artificial life and strategy. The player acts as a god whose goal is to defeat Nemesis, another god who wants to take over the world. A primary theme is the concept of good and evil, with the atmosphere being affected by the player's moral choices. The core gameplay mechanic of Black & White is the interaction between the player and an avatar creature, who carries out the player's instructions and whose personality and behaviour change in reaction to how they are treated. Multiplayer is supported over a local network or online.
Syndicate is a series of science fiction video games created by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts. There are two main titles: Syndicate (1993) and Syndicate Wars (1996), both of which are isometric real-time tactics games. An additional first-person shooter Syndicate title was released in 2012, and a spiritual successor to the series, entitled Satellite Reign, was released in 2015.
Bullfrog Productions Limited was a British video game developer based in Guildford, England. Founded in 1987 by Peter Molyneux and Les Edgar, the company gained recognition in 1989 for their third release, Populous, and is also well known for titles such as Theme Park, Magic Carpet, Syndicate and Dungeon Keeper. Bullfrog's name was derived from an ornament in the offices of Edgar's and Molyneux's other enterprise, Taurus Impact Systems, Bullfrog's precursor where Molyneux and Edgar were developing business software. Bullfrog Productions was founded as a separate entity after Commodore mistook Taurus for a similarly named company.
James Hannigan is a British composer with credits in the Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, Command and Conquer, Dead Space, Warhammer, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, RuneScape, Evil Genius, EA Sports and Theme Park video game series, among others. Hannigan's other music credits include scores for Audible's adaptations of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, the Audie Award winning Alien dramas (2016–2019), Unseen Academicals and BBC Radio 4's adaptations of Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens and Neverwhere. His music is heard in numerous television shows, such as the BBC's Top Gear, Amazon's The Grand Tour, Netflix's 100 Humans,Floor Is Lava,Primeval, Disney's The World According to Jeff Goldblum and BBC America's Primeval.
Dungeon Keeper is a strategy video game developed by Bullfrog Productions and released by Electronic Arts in June 1997 for MS-DOS and Windows 95. In Dungeon Keeper, the player builds and manages a dungeon, protecting it from invading 'hero' characters intent on stealing accumulated treasures, killing monsters and ultimately the player's demise. The ultimate goal is to conquer the world by destroying the heroic forces and rival dungeon keepers in each realm. A character known as the Avatar appears as the final hero. Dungeon Keeper uses Creative Technology's SoundFont technology to enhance its atmosphere. Multiplayer with up to four players is supported using a modem, or over a local network.
Fable is an action role-playing video game, the first in the Fable series. It was developed for the Xbox, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS X platforms by Big Blue Box Studios, a satellite developer of Lionhead Studios, and was published by Microsoft Studios. The game shipped for the Xbox in September 2004. An extended version of the game, Fable: The Lost Chapters, was released for the Xbox and Windows in September 2005. A port of the game for Mac OS X, created by Robosoft Technologies and published by Feral Interactive, was released in March 2008 after a delay of more than two years due to licensing issues.
Mark Healey is a British video game developer from Ipswich, Suffolk. Healey started his career making games for the Commodore 64 home computer – his first published game was KGB Super Spy for Codemasters, which led to developing the educational Fun School series of games for Europress Software. Healey joined Bullfrog Productions to work with Peter Molyneux on titles such as Magic Carpet and Dungeon Keeper. When Molyneux left Bullfrog to form Lionhead Studios, Healey joined him, and worked as a senior artist on Black & White and Fable. Whilst still at Lionhead, he developed Rag Doll Kung Fu independently in his spare time, which was the first third party game to be distributed over Steam - Valve's online distribution system. He is a co-founder of Media Molecule and creative director of LittleBigPlanet and LittleBigPlanet 2. In April 2023, Healey announced he would be leaving Media Molecule.
The Halo Original Soundtrack is a soundtrack for the video game Halo: Combat Evolved. Composed and produced by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori for Bungie, the soundtrack was released on June 11, 2002. Most of the music from Halo: Combat Evolved is present on the CD, although some songs have been remixed by O'Donnell in medley form for "more enjoyable" listening. The first piece O'Donnell wrote, known as "Halo", became the basis for Halo's "signature sound" which has been heard in the other games of the main trilogy.
Inon Zur is an Israeli-American composer. Originally writing for movies and television, he later moved into composing for video games. He has been described as being "internationally recognized as one of the A-list orchestral composers in the video games industry". Zur has composed the music to over 50 video games, 15 television shows, and 10 films, as well as film trailers. He has been nominated for numerous awards, and has won three—a Telly Award in 1997 for Best Score on Power Rangers: Turbo, a Game Audio Network Guild award in 2004 for Best Original Instrumental track for Men of Valor, and a Hollywood Music in Media Award in 2009 for Best Original Song – Video Game for Dragon Age: Origins.
Jack Wall is an American video game music composer. He has worked on video game music for over 20 games including the Myst franchise, Splinter Cell, Jade Empire, Mass Effect, and Call of Duty. Wall earned a degree in civil engineering from Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and, after a brief stint working in civil engineering, transitioned into music production. He worked with musicians such as John Cale, David Byrne, and Patti Smith, and, after performing increasingly complex production and sound engineering tasks, moved into music composition in 1995.
Fable is a series of action role-playing video games for Xbox, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Xbox 360 and Xbox One platforms. The series was developed by Lionhead Studios until the studio was closed in 2016, and is published by Xbox Game Studios.
Fable is a series of action role-playing video games developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Microsoft Studios for Xbox, Xbox 360, Windows, and Mac OS X platforms. The music of the Fable series is the soundtrack to all three games.
Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron is the film score for the Marvel Studios film, Avengers: Age of Ultron by Brian Tyler and Danny Elfman. Hollywood Records released the album digitally on April 28, 2015, and in physical formats on May 19, 2015.
Creation was a cancelled real-time strategy video game developed by Bullfrog Productions as a spin-off of their Syndicate series of real-time tactics games. Set on an alien water world, a player-controlled submarine is tasked with looking after marine life and defending it from the Syndicate, who run planet Earth.
Gary Carr is an English video game developer. His career began at Palace Software, where he worked on titles such as Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior and Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax. In 1989, he joined Bullfrog Productions and worked as lead artist on Powermonger and Populous II. He also worked on Theme Park, but, after a disagreement with Peter Molyneux, he left the company to work for The Bitmap Brothers, where he worked on The Chaos Engine 2. He returned to Bullfrog in 1995 hoping to work on Dungeon Keeper, but worked on Theme Hospital instead. He left Bullfrog again in 1998 to join Mucky Foot Productions.
Mark Webley is a British video game developer, known for working with developers such as Peter Molyneux and Gary Carr for Bullfrog Productions and later Lionhead Studios on projects including Theme Hospital and Black & White. In 2012, he took over as head of Lionhead after Molyneux left, and in 2016, he founded a studio called Two Point Studios with Carr, which has signed a publishing deal with Sega.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
