Shaun McClure

Shaun McClure is a noted Video Game designer and artist – his productive years were between 1984 and 2012.
== Early Life ==
Shaun was born in Colchester, Essex, but spent the majority of his formative years in Mexborough in South Yorkshire.. He attended Mexborough Comprehensive School, now renamed as Laurel Academy
== Early Career ==
Initially working from home whilst still at school, Shaun latterly worked at Wise Owl Software, Enigma Variations, Sales CurveInteractive, Imagitec Design, Gremlin Interactive and Runecraft (company).
Shaun was Art Resource Manager at Imagitec Design (in charge of the art department) and latterly (and briefly) Gremlin Interactive after their buyout – where his role was deemed null due to their existing managerial structure - and he reverted to Lead Artist on several projects.
== Notable games from this era ==
Excalibur Sword of Kings(Alternative Software), Alien Research Centre (Zenobi Software), Gary Lineker Super Skills (Gremlin Interactive), Postman Pat 2 (Alternative Software), Kick Off (series)(Anco), Lords of Chaos (Target Games), Time Machine (Activision), Saint Dragon (STORM), Narc (video game) (OCEAN), Rod Land, Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone (STORM), Raiden (video game), Premier Manager – Club Edition (GREMLIN INTERACTIVE), Baldur's Gate (INTERPLAY), Bubsy in Fractured Furry Tales - Fractured Furry Tails, Tempest 2000 (Atari) and several other smaller projects.
== Mid-Career ==.
Shaun worked for DC Studios and several other companies as a freelance artist including The Code Monkeys between 2002 and 2006. By then he was working on mobile games and these included versions of Castlevania.
Shaun was a lecturer in Video game modelling and game design at Teesside University in 2007 for 3 semesters.
== Later Life ==
Shaun McClure has worked with the likes of Jim Burns.
Shaun emigrated to the USA for several years and then re-emerged in the UK around 2012.
He seems to have freelanced for a number of mobile phone companies before starting a career as a book author. He has written several books, mostly around retro-gaming culture, which included an autobiography about his own experiences, as well as various “Game Guides” aimed at the ZX Spectrum gaming community.
His books are notable for his multiple collaborations with celebrated illustrator Jim Burns. Shaun latterly wrote a book outside of his own experiences in conjunction with Martin Bower, a noted special effects model maker that was primarily active in the 1960s to the 1990s. Martin was a model maker on famous films such as Alien, and Flash Gordon (film)|Flash Gordon, and several famous science fiction shows from this era. This concluded with “Martin Bower’s World of Models” which was a minor best seller in 2020.
Shaun seems inactive at this point but appears in several interviews and Podcast for time to time.
== Published Interviews, Podcasts and Noted Articles ==
Over the years Shaun has taken part in a number of interviews, including with Arcade Attack, featured within 'The Story of the ZX Spectrum in Pixels by Chris Wilkins', as well as being noticeably featured on the Moby Games website and having his art shared on The Classic Adventurer – The Art of Shaun McClure by Mark J Hardisty. Furthermore, Shaun has featured in The Classic Adventurer, the digital magazine, being interviewed in The Art of Shaun McClure as well as highlighted the Sinclair ZX Spectrum: A Visual Compendium by Bitmap Books and contributed to Andy Green's Better Late Than Never. Additionally, he's featured within PressReader Retro Gamer magazine surrounding the publication of Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone and RetroRevival: Chuckie Egg 2 (Spectrum) .
A vast amount of content, as well as roles been taken by Shaun, can be found on respected websites Spectrum Computing, World of Spectrum, Arcade-History Gaming History, as well as in more detail within a podcast interview with The Retro Hour.
== External Links ==
Official Website
Shaun McClure on Linkedin
== References ==
Category:English artists
Category:Video game development
Category:People from Colchester