Brian Reynolds (game designer)
Brian Reynolds | |
|---|---|
| Occupation(s) | CEO and Creative Director at Big Huge Games |
| Spouse | Jill Reynolds |
Brian Reynolds is a well known computer strategy game designer, formerly of MicroProse and Firaxis Games. He now runs his own game development company, Big Huge Games, and is the chairman of the International Game Developers Association.
Early life
Reynolds was a gamer in high school, and a SysOp on Randolph School's (Huntsville, Alabama) PDP-11 mainframe computer.
Reynolds briefly pursued graduate studies in Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. This influence is evident in the philosophical quotes assigned to the faction leaders in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.
Career
Brian Reynolds initiated his game career with the now defunct Microprose where he worked as lead programmer for a number of graphic adventure games, these included Rex Nebular in 1992 and Return of the Phantom and Dragonsphere in 1993. It was at Microprose where Reynolds first worked with Sid Meier and the two collaberated on a strategy title by the name of Sid Meier's Colonization which was released in 1994. Colonization was a very successful title and its success allowed Reynolds to become lead designer on his next title where he worked with Douglas Kaufman to create a sequel to Sid Meier's Civilization. Civilization 2 was released in 1996 and sold multi-million copies, this incredible success gave Reynolds much credability within the games industry and was the stepping stone to him becoming a founding partner in Firaxis Games. Reynolds' first task at Firaxis games was his contribution to Sid Meier's Gettysburg in 1997, followed by the creation and design of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri in 1998. Alpha Centauri was also a very popular game, becoming, along with Civilization 2 his second multi-million selling title. In 2000 Reynolds left Firaxis games and sold his share in the company to become CEO of Big Huge Games.
Contributions
Unknown to many, Sid Meier's Civilization II, Sid Meier's Colonization and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri were primarily his designs, not Sid Meier's. These games, however, borrow from Sid's original Civilization.
Brian Reynold's first big major break was the design of Sid Meier's Civilization II. Meier had created Civilization but had moved on to other projects. Microprose wanted to make a sequel and asked Reynolds to design it. MicroProse put Meier on retainer for consultational advice and for the use of his name. But Meier only had peripheral involvement in the sequel game. The sequel game was primarily designed by Reynolds and bore the subtitle "A Brian Reynold's Design" in the introductory graphics screen.
Reynolds latest game is Rise of Legends, a real-time strategy game, published by Microsoft. Rise of Nations was Reynolds' first game under Big Huge Games.
Personal Life
Reynolds met his wife who at the time was an elementary school teacher in Greenwich, Connecticut at a live action role playing event in Washington DC. The two were married in August 1994 and due to Colonization being released in less than a month, had only a week long honeymoon. Together they have two sons, one born in October 1995 and the other in October 1997, Reynolds' sons often play video games, including their father's latest project, they also play World of Warcraft together.
Reynolds' uncle is Charles Kibler who is a producer at BreakAway Games.
References
- http://www.bighugegames.com/team/brianreynolds.html Brian Reynolds' profile at Big Huge Games
- http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/075/075111p1.html Interview with Brian Reynolds at IGN
- http://www.gamerdad.com/detail.cfm?itemID=2410 Interview with Brian Reynolds at gamerdad.com