Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Inside Firaxis

Collapse

Alpha Centauri Focus Firaxis Interviews

  •  
  • Page of 2
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Previous 1 2 template Next

  • Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company: What is this anyway?

    Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company: What is this anyway?

    Brought to you by The 14th Brigade and Beyond Alpha Centauri

    What is this anyway?

    "Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company" is an inside look, via interviews, at the company that brought the world a little closer to the Civil War through Sid Meier's Gettysburg! and is now taking us to the stars through their latest work, Sid Meier's Alpha Canturi. SMAC, which is the subject of this web site, is a turn based game similar to Civilization and will be released by Firaxis sometime in 1998. These interviews, done in February and March of 1998, were meant to give you a closer look at the minds that make up Firaxis.


    Questions about Firaxis' present, past and future

    To the Interviews...

    Company Founders

    Jeff Briggs, BMOC (Big Man on Campus)
    Brian Reynolds, Designer for Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
    Sid Meier, Designer for Sid Meier's Gettysburg!


    Artists and Animators

    Jerome Atherholt, Artist/Animator
    Mike Bazzell, Artist/Animator
    Greg Foertsch, Artist/Animator


    Programmers and Designers

    Tim Train, Producer/Designer
    Mike Ely, Programmer/Designer (kinda)


    People that don't fit into the above categories

    David Evans, Sound Stud
    Lindsay Riehl, Marketing
    Susan Brookins, Master of the Miscellaneous


    Thanks...

    Thanks to all the employees of Firaxis that took time from their busy schedules to answer the questions. Special thanks go to Lindsay Reihl at Firaxis for helping to set this whole thing up and acting as a middleman (middlewoman, whatever). Thanks go to Susan Brookins for listening to me whine. Thanks also go to Mike Ely for being the super cool guy that he is. And of course thanks to the Gamestats Family for supporting this web site.

    ...
    Go to post

  • Susan Brookins: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Susan Brookins: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Name: Susan Brookins
    Title: Master of Miscellaneous

    LDespot: What did you do for SMG?

    Susan Brookins: Kept coffee, soda and snacks in good supply and planned the "shipping" party. LDespot: What are you working on for Alpha Centauri?...
    Go to post

  • Lindsay Riehl: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Lindsay Riehl: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Name: Lindsay Riehl
    Title: Marketing

    LDespot: What did you do for SMG?

    Lindsay Riehl: I worked with Origin's marketing and public relations department to get the word out on how cool Gettysburg! is....
    Go to post

  • David Evans: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    David Evans: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Name: David Evans
    Title: Mr. Sound Guy

    LDespot: What did you do for SMG?

    David Evans: Sound fx, sound driver programming, recording, and anything else related to sound....
    Go to post

  • Mike Ely: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Mike Ely: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Name: Mike Ely
    Title: Technically Programmer/Designer, but in practice I do all kinds of stuff. I'm also the Firaxis Webmaster, which is a pretty fun job.

    LDespot: What did you do for SMG?

    Mike Ely: I did a lot of work on both of the manuals, created the tutorials, helped a little with the multimedia, and wrote the line draw routine used to draw the fences in the game (yes, I'm pretty proud of that last one)....
    Go to post

  • Tim Train: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Tim Train: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Name: Tim Train
    Title: Producer/Designer

    LDespot: What did you do for SMG?

    Tim Train: My main contribution was writing, editing, shooting, and producing the multimedia footage in the game. This was a lot of fun, and involved combing through hundreds of hours of archival footage, as well as a trip to 1997's Gettysburg re-enactment for a little filming. I also assisted with the marketing\PR effort on the product, and worked on many miscellaneous development support tasks, such as manual writing, playbalance, and tutorials....
    Go to post

  • Greg Foertsch: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Greg Foertsch: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Name: Greg Foertsch
    Title: Artist/Animator

    LDespot: What did you do for SMG?

    Greg Foertsch: Game art such as trees, houses, rivers, roads; opening screens; Battle of Honor screens; Hall of Valor...
    Go to post

  • Mike Bazzell: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Mike Bazzell: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Name: Mike Bazzell
    Title: Artist/Animator

    LDespot: What did you do for SMG?

    Mike Bazzell: Screamed Loudly. LDespot: What are you working on for Alpha Centauri?...
    Go to post

  • Jerome Atherholt: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Jerome Atherholt: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Name: Jerome Atherholt
    Title: Artist/Animator

    LDespot: What did you do for SMG?

    Jerome Atherholt: Generals' portraits (both sides), Options Screen, Side selection screen (not the paintings in the frame which are the work of Don Troiani) "F10" map of Gettysburg, Scenario Briefing screens, Union and Confederate Desktop artwork. Also lent my voice for some of the Generals in the scenario briefing....
    Go to post

  • Sid Meier: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Sid Meier: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Name: Sid Meier (Sid is on the right in the picture to the bottom)
    Title: Designer for Sid Meier's Gettysburg!

    LDespot: I know a book inspired you to create SMG, but what caused you to start work on it when you did?

    Sid Meier: We were looking for a cool new game to introduce with our new company. We tossed around a few ideas, played with a few game designs but kept coming back to this idea to do a Civil War game. Since we’ve always been interested in the Civil War it was natural, but also, we had gotten numerous requests to do one over the years. We had tried different approaches to the topic, but never found one that kept our interest for very long. Last year, the technology was finally available to present the battlefield as I had envisioned it and it just seemed like the thing to do....
    Go to post
Previous 1 2 template Next
There are no articles in this category.
Mark This Channel Read
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Please log in to your account to view your subscribed posts.

Article Tags

Collapse

Latest Articles

Collapse
  • Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company: What is this anyway?
    by Martin Gühmann
    Brought to you by The 14th Brigade and Beyond Alpha Centauri

    What is this anyway?

    "Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company" is an inside look, via interviews, at the company that brought the world a little closer to the Civil War through Sid Meier's Gettysburg! and is now taking us to the stars through their latest work, Sid Meier's Alpha Canturi. SMAC, which is the subject of this web site, is a turn based game similar to Civilization and will be released by Firaxis sometime in 1998. These interviews, done in February and March of 1998, were meant to give you a closer look at the minds that make up Firaxis.


    Questions about Firaxis' present, past and future

    To the Interviews...

    Company Founders

    Jeff Briggs, BMOC (Big Man on Campus)
    Brian Reynolds, Designer for Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
    Sid Meier, Designer for Sid Meier's Gettysburg!


    Artists and Animators

    Jerome Atherholt, Artist/Animator
    Mike Bazzell, Artist/Animator
    Greg Foertsch, Artist/Animator


    Programmers and Designers

    Tim Train, Producer/Designer
    Mike Ely, Programmer/Designer (kinda)


    People that don't fit into the above categories

    David Evans, Sound Stud
    Lindsay Riehl, Marketing
    Susan Brookins, Master of the Miscellaneous


    Thanks...

    Thanks to all the employees of Firaxis that took time from their busy schedules to answer the questions. Special thanks go to Lindsay Reihl at Firaxis for helping to set this whole thing up and acting as a middleman (middlewoman, whatever). Thanks go to Susan Brookins for listening to me whine. Thanks also go to Mike Ely for being the super cool guy that he is. And of course thanks to the Gamestats Family for supporting this web site.

    ...
    October 22, 2011, 19:04
  • Susan Brookins: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company
    by Martin Gühmann
    Name: Susan Brookins
    Title: Master of Miscellaneous

    LDespot: What did you do for SMG?

    Susan Brookins: Kept coffee, soda and snacks in good supply and planned the "shipping" party. LDespot: What are you working on for Alpha Centauri?...
    October 22, 2011, 18:55
  • Lindsay Riehl: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company
    by Martin Gühmann
    Name: Lindsay Riehl
    Title: Marketing

    LDespot: What did you do for SMG?

    Lindsay Riehl: I worked with Origin's marketing and public relations department to get the word out on how cool Gettysburg! is....
    October 22, 2011, 18:52
  • David Evans: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company
    by Martin Gühmann
    Name: David Evans
    Title: Mr. Sound Guy

    LDespot: What did you do for SMG?

    David Evans: Sound fx, sound driver programming, recording, and anything else related to sound....
    October 22, 2011, 18:49
  • Mike Ely: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company
    by Martin Gühmann
    Name: Mike Ely
    Title: Technically Programmer/Designer, but in practice I do all kinds of stuff. I'm also the Firaxis Webmaster, which is a pretty fun job.

    LDespot: What did you do for SMG?

    Mike Ely: I did a lot of work on both of the manuals, created the tutorials, helped a little with the multimedia, and wrote the line draw routine used to draw the fences in the game (yes, I'm pretty proud of that last one)....
    October 22, 2011, 18:45
  • Tim Train: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company
    by Martin Gühmann
    Name: Tim Train
    Title: Producer/Designer

    LDespot: What did you do for SMG?

    Tim Train: My main contribution was writing, editing, shooting, and producing the multimedia footage in the game. This was a lot of fun, and involved combing through hundreds of hours of archival footage, as well as a trip to 1997's Gettysburg re-enactment for a little filming. I also assisted with the marketing\PR effort on the product, and worked on many miscellaneous development support tasks, such as manual writing, playbalance, and tutorials....
    October 22, 2011, 18:30
View All
Working...
X