Stephen Rippy released new music samples
UPDATED: You can download music samples and purchase the CD by going to the official Stephen Rippy website. – Enjoy!
Stephen Rippy has released preview tracks on his official MySpace page of both new and old music from Age of Empires. Stephen is looking for feedback so feel free to comment on his MySpace what you think!
Stephen has also updated his official website and notes that he is now part of Bonfire Studios. The official MySpace blurb from Stephen follows:
“I’ve got a new “songs” CD out today: “Somewhere Close to Near.” You can hear a couple of tracks from it here on my MySpace page.www.stephenrippy.com – it’s been completely re-designed and features information on all of my game soundtracks as well as my more pop/rock-related records.
Please also check out
Hope you like what you hear!
-Stephen”
So where are they now? Dallas Observer discusses Robot, Bonfire and Windstorm
No, thats not a picture of Ensemble Studios’ old offices. Instead it is a picture of a near by building which was demolished before the closure of Ensemble Studios as discussed in Bruce’s Blog.
You may be wondering where Robot and Bonfire are based now that they have disbanded from Ensemble. Well the Dallas Observer revealed today that Bonfire Studios has taken up the helm in Ensemble Studios old offices in Dallas. Robot Entertainment on the other hand are based in Plano.
It may be assumed that Robot have taken up offices in Plano and that these offices are the same offices that Ensemble Studios was planning to move into before its closure. One might also remember that Bruce Shelley hinted in his blog that with Microsoft shutting down the studio means that they no longer have to pay for these new offices.
With Robot moving out of the old Dallas offices and moving into Plano this may explain why its taken a little longer for them to get thier website up and running. No doubt the move involved lots of work re-creating an IT Infrastructructure for the company.
More information on this can be found here in the Dallas observer: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/040409dnmetvideogames.3b84ec9.html
New Bonfire blog: “Defending the Prophet rush as Captain Cutter”
Bonfire Studios have released another developers blog focusing on Halo Wars. This time the team discusses some ways Halo Wars players can combat the Covenant leader rush particularly when playing as Cutter and your team mate is rushing with the Prophet of Regret. Check out the new blog here:
Gamespot interviews David Rippy. Talks about Ensemble’s closure and whats happening with Bonfire!
Quick update here – Gamespot have managed to hold a Q&A session with Bonfire head and ex producer at Ensemble, David Rippy. David talks about some of the things surrounding Ensemble’s closure though he much re-iterates what Bruce Shelley has said in the past that Ensemble has lost sync with the vision of its parent (Microsoft). He goes on to talk about what it is like to start an independent studio in the economic climate and how it differs from being an independent developer from an acquired developer.
A good read here: http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6206580.html
Bonfire’s Bill Jackson talks about opening a new studio in the current economic climate
Joystiq have had a quick few words with Bill Jackson the ex Producer at Ensemble Studios who has joined the Bonfire venture. He discussed briefly the last 12 months and says that despite what has happened with Ensemble “It’s actually a great time to work on innovative game designs and think about ways to change our business models to support those games.”
The full article can be read here: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/17/weathering-the-economic-storm-start-ups-speak-out/
Bonfire Developers blog goes live
It looks like Bonfire Studios will be continuing the Ensemble tradition of having developers blogs on the studios website. You can catch the first blogs here: http://www.bonfire-studios.com/blog/ which are regarding Halo Wars controls.
Stay tuned for more blog updates! Its great to see that post-Ensemble studios are continuing to provide fans with blogs and I hope they continue.
The Dallas Observer talks to Stephen Rippy
The Dallas Observer has done an excellent article on Stephen Rippy discussing his past and how he came to work for Ensemble Studios where he wrote music for all the “Age of” and Halo Wars games. The article continues right up until present day where Stephen is currently working with Bonfire Studios lead by his brother David Rippy.
You can read the article here: http://www.dallasobserver.com/2009-02-26/music/stephen-rippy-set-s-halo-wars-high-schore/2
G4tv interviews Bruce Shelley
Available in high definition G4tv have interviewed luminous Bruce Shelley after his AIAS awards ceremony where Mr Shelley was inducted into the Hall of Fame for his services to the gaming industry.
You can find the video interview here:
http://g4tv.com/thepile/hdvideos/36850/DICE-2009-Bruce-Shelley-Interview-.html
It gives some insight on Bruce’s thoughts for his future and that of Bonfire and Robot including the difficulties they may face getting a publisher on board with new ideas in this economic climate.
Bonfire Studios are the 2nd studio to form out of Ensemble
Bonfire Studios is the second studio to form out of Ensemble Studios. This studio is headed up by David Rippy and the studio is formed soley of Ensemble staff. David Rippy had this to say:
“Ensemble had an incredible group of highly talented people and the companies coming out of it are really made up of the best of the best. Ensemble was one of the few studios with two A-teams,” said David Rippy, president and CEO of Bonfire Studios. “We are already working on an original IP that we’ll start talking about in the next few months.”
Another great studio to keep an eye on! It is exciting to hear that we will be seeing new IP from both studios all full of Ensemble people. That’s fantastic. Its great to see they are all landing on their feet.
The Bonfire Studios website is fully online at: http://www.bonfire-studios.com/index.html which I encourage everyone to check out!
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********** Question and Answers!! ****************
Ive been getting messges asking about the relationship between Robot and Bonfire and why there are two studios. Please see this rushed explanation below! I shall hope to get more info soon!
As Bruce Shelley confirmed there are two separate studios forming from Ensemble.
1. Robot Entertainment headed up by Tony Goodman the ex Ensemble founder. Robot will be supporting Halo Wars and Age whilst also making a new game. Unfortunately not all employees from ES could go to Robot as there was not enough resources available to employ them all
2. Bonfire Studios is where the remaining talent from ES has landed. They will be making a new game that’s “too hot to handle”. This studio is lead by David Rippy who was also a prominent Ensemble member.
