Simon Carter

Formerly a project leader at Bullfrog Productions Ltd, Simon works with his brother Dene as Managing Director of Big Blue Box. He is also the head of the programming department, and as such directs the programming development of all the company’s projects. He is 25 years old.

Having been trapped with his brother in Gibraltar for some 4 years, Simon returned to the balmy climes of England with 9 top graded GCSE’s and an award for writing fiction. Having always had a burning ambition to be a writer, Simon studied English Literature, Psychology and Maths at A Level, all of which he passed with distinction. It was at A Level college that he met Ian, now the Box’s director of art, with whom he spent many an hour failing his supplementary studies in guitar, clumsily playing the first five bars of ‘Feelings’ ad nauseum.

Despite his literary ambitions, Simon was convinced by his brother Dene, who was by then something of a veteran in the computer games industry, that it would be easier to make vast wads of cash writing games instead. With such mystical words of wisdom guiding him, Simon put his ambitions to one side and decided instead to pursue a dream involving leprechauns, pots of gold and well-oiled women with large breasts and loose fitting bikinis. Bizarrely, these dreams led him to a University course in computer science at Brunel.

After a year of women who would make a Russian codpiece look feminine, Simon found himself with the highest grades on his course. With these qualifications and a few game demos he had written, Simon approached Bullfrog for a summer work placement, for which he was accepted. After two weeks of working with Peter Molyneux, Simon was assigned a supporting role on Magic Carpet. A few months later, Peter offered Simon the chance of working with him on Dungeon Keeper, in the role of Lead Programmer. Simon never did return to university.

During the three-year long development period of Dungeon Keeper, Simons’ brother Dene joined Bullfrog and was immediately assigned a programming role on the project. Simon and Dene worked closely together, designing, scripting and programming a very large portion of the game. They also spent a fair amount of time camping up the games’ PR. Once Keeper was finished, Simon moved on to lead a team developing an experimental R&D project, designed by Dene, codenamed OGEL. Once the project had been completed in test-bed form, and had been received by Bullfrog to much acclaim and excitement, the two brothers decided to put into practise their long term dream of starting up their own company.

Simons’ interests include reading, playing the piano, writing and cooking. He has had a deep love of computer games since the age of nine, when he was found drooling over the hot rubber keyboard of his brother’s Spectrum, trying to get Horace his skis. Like all of the Big Blue Boxer’s, Simon has been known to indulge in role playing games, although he has rather less of a passion for big wobbly swords than Ian.

Simon's musical influences include Kate Bush, The Divine Comedy, The Smiths, Tori Amos, Bach, Chopin and, somewhat incongruously, Nine Inch Nails. A passion for the films of David Lynch has given Simon a fascination for poorly working neon lighting and portable tape recorders. Having worked together for more than six years, Simon and Peter Molyneux are good friends, and Simon has fond memories of regularly thrashing Peter at Dungeon Keeper at 3 o’clock in the morning, to the sound of Peter’s hysterical, high-pitched screaming.

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