Lionhead Studios Limited was a British video game developer founded in July 1997 by Peter Molyneux, Mark Webley, Tim Rance, Steve Jackson. The company is best known for the Fable series. Lionhead started as a breakaway from developer Bullfrog Productions, 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 briefly renamed to Redeye Studios. Black & White was followed up with the release of an expansion pack named Black & White: Creature Isle. Lionhead released Fable, from satellite developer Big Blue Box. In 2005, Lionhead released The Movies and Black & White 2. Lionhead was acquired by Microsoft Studios in April 2006 due to encountering financial difficulties. Many Lionhead developers left around this time, including co-founder Jackson and several developers who left to found Media Molecule.
Molyneux left Lionhead in early 2012 to found 22Cans. After Molyneux's departure, Microsoft had Lionhead switch to developing games as a service games; as a result, there were many changes within the studio. In March 2016, Microsoft announced that it had proposed closing Lionhead Studios and that the planned game Fable Legends would be cancelled. On 29 April 2016, Lionhead Studios closed down. A few months after Lionhead's closure, two key people, founded Two Point Studios. Peter Molyneux founded Bullfrog Productions in 1987, acquired by Electronic Arts in 1995. Around 1996, Molyneux had contemplated leaving Bullfrog, as he felt limited in his creative freedom under Electronic Arts, he along with Lionhead's eventual co-founders, Mark Webley, Tim Rance and Steve Jackson, started developing plans for a new studio. In 1997, due to a series of events and from issues arising between Molyneux and Electronic Arts, he left the company in July 1997, co-founding Lionhead shortly after that, along with Mark Webley, Tim Rance, Steve Jackson.
On his recruitment, Jackson said "It was an offer I couldn't refuse", as he wanted to get back to making games instead of writing about them. Molyneux assured him. Lionhead is the second Bullfrog break-off group, after Mucky Foot Productions. According to Glenn Corpes, Lionhead was Molyneux's "take on what Bullfrog used was"; the idea of the company was to develop quality games without growing too large. On the differences between Lionhead and Bullfrog, Molyneux said: "This time round we're a professionally run company. Gone are the days of shooting work experience people with guns", he said that Lionhead would develop only one game at a time. Early Lionhead employees included Demis Hassabis, Mark Healey, Alex Evans; the name Lionhead came from Webley's pet hamster. The hamster's death was taken as a bad sign, so other names, including Black Box, Red Rocket and Hurricane were considered but none had unanimous support; the name Red Eye was suggested, everyone liked it. However, for reasons including the name being in use by many other companies, the domains redeye.com and redeye.co.uk being taken and lionhead.co.uk had been registered by Rance, the company having Lionhead business cards, the possibility of the name Red Eye having drinking connotations, the name was reverted to Lionhead.
By the time the name was reverted, it was too late for Edge to amend their interview, so it was published with the company being referred to as Redeye Studios. In the interview, Molyneux stated that his ambition for the company was to "make it a world-renowned software development house – known in Europe and America for top-quality games". Word about Lionhead began spreading quickly. Within the first month, companies including Sega, Eidos, GTI, Lego had arranged meetings. One day, "a major Japanese console manufacturer" had come to present plans for a "next generation console", but by Lionhead's first game had been committed. By the end of July, Lionhead had signed a one-game contract with Electronic Arts; the studio was run out of Molyneux's mansion in Elstead, before relocating to the University of Surrey Research Park in 1998. According to Jackson, it was "a mere stone's throw from Bullfrog's old lily pad on the same estate". For the staff who had come from Bullfrog, it was "a little like coming home".
Six companies were competing for a space, Lionhead won due to Molyneux and Bullfrog's reputation. Lionhead had intended to make their first public appearance at the E3 trade show in May 1997; this was cancelled at the last minute because there was not yet any deal with Electronic Arts, there was the possibility of not being able to discuss Lionhead. The debut was made in September at the European Computer Trade Show instead. According to Jackson, "Everyone" was interested in Lionhead: journalists from many major European magazines turned up at Lionhead's suite. By August 1998, a
Harbanse Singh Doman known as Herb Doman, was a Canadian forester, forestry industrialist, the Chairman of Doman Industries. From shipping, Doman progressed to sawmilling when his customers wanted more wood than his suppliers could provide. "I built the company up for my father, for his family and for the family name," Doman says of his father. The senior Doman, had worked in the industry, logging the big timber of the Cowichan Valley and at one point leased a mill to cut timber for the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1953, Herb along with his younger brothers, Ted Doman and Gordon Doman, founded Doman Lumber Company, 1955 incorporated as Doman's Lumber & Transport Ltd.. Doman's first mill was Nanoose Forest Products. In 1980 Doman Industries formed Western Forest Products as a joint venture with two other BC forest companies. In the 1990s there were severe financial problems. In 2004 Western Forest Products acquired the assets of Doman Industries; when Doman purchased timber tenures and sawmills from Pacific Forest Products in 1997, he over-extended himself.
Twice in the past he rode market cycles and he trusted that markets would pick up as they had before, boosting revenues to cover the debt incurred by the purchase. But in 1998, the Japanese market, which he was counting on, crashed in the Asian meltdown. Herb had two brothers and Gordon Doman, a sister, Mahinder. Herb had four children with wife Harjinder "Helen" Kaur Doman -- daughters Darcia, Sherry and son, Jaspaul; the youngest, Rick Doman is now the CEO of EACOM Timber Ltd.. Rick works and lives in Montreal QC, the headquarters of EACOM since its acquisition of the forest division of Domtar in 2010. Rick ran Doman Industries until its acquisition in 2004, he was handling the company's international sales in 2001 when he was asked to take over as chief executive from his father who had suffered a severe stroke. Nephew, Amar Doman runs one of B. C.'s largest private companies, Futura Corporation, as well as CanWel, one of Canada's largest building materials companies. In 1996, former B. C. Premier, Bill Bennett was convicted under B.
C. securities laws of insider trading involving the sale of shares in Doman Industries, two years after he stepped down as premier. This was known as the Doman Scandal. A British Columbia Securities Commission panel imposed trading sanctions against Herb and ordered him along with brothers Bill and Russell Bennett, to pay the commission $1 million to cover the costs of an insider trading case that spanned 11 years. In 2008, Herb's will was contested by Deborah Lynn Peri, who claimed to be the daughter of Herb and Helen Doman. DNA tests was that of his wife, Helen. Peri's claim was thus denied by the courts. Doman is known for his loyalty to his friends and his family. For example, despite being advised to move the company's head office to Vancouver, Doman stayed in Duncan, building a three-storey office building—turning it into the economic hub of the Cowichan Valley. "Everybody said you couldn't have a head office in Duncan but of course I had to prove differently. We built here. People get here."—Herb Doman "My father's contribution to coastal British Columbia, Vancouver Island, was that he created over four thousand jobs for people and their families, built the business from scratch from the age of twelve."—Rick Doman "By and large, I always had a good relationship with Herb Doman.
He was an excellent lumberman, the most efficient producer on the coast. I considered Herb a friend of mine, I am sorry to hear of his passing."—Jack Munro, former President of the International Woodworkers of America, the most powerful of the B. C.'s resource unions "Kind of an icon in the forest industry that either doesn't exist or is rare in B. C. now, where it is a family business. We've seen such a shift in the forest industry to large corporations, large companies, many of them owned outside B. C." --Carole James, former Leader of the Opposition in British Columbia, former leader of the British Columbia New Democratic Party "This is the passing of a key figure in the history and building of the forest industry on the Coast. Few people have accomplished and contributed the way Herb Doman has in his lifetime."—Reynold Hert, president and CEO of Western Forest Products Inc
Izunuma and Uchinuma are a pair of interconnected freshwater lakes in the alluvial plain of the Hasama River, a tributary of the Kitakami River in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. In 1967 the birdlife and habitat of the lakes were designated a Natural Monument. In 1985 an area of 559 hectares was designated a Ramsar Site. In 1996 the sound of the Izunuma-Uchinuma greater white-fronted goose was selected as one of the 100 Soundscapes of Japan by the Ministry of the Environment. Ramsar Sites in Japan 100 Soundscapes of Japan List of Special Places of Scenic Beauty, Special Historic Sites and Special Natural Monuments Izunuma-Uchinuma