Apolyton Civilization Site - Focus Firaxis Interviews

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

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Published on October 22, 1998 19:04
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.
Susan Brookins: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company
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Martin Gühmann

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Published on October 22, 1998 18:55
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? ...

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

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Published on October 22, 1998 18:52
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. ...

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

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Published on October 22, 1998 18:49
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. ...

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

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Published on October 22, 1998 18:45
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). ...

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Tim Train: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company
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Published on October 22, 1998 18:30
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. ...

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

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Published on October 22, 1998 18:26
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 ...

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Mike Bazzell: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company
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Published on October 22, 1998 18:19
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? ...

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

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Published on October 22, 1998 18:01
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. ...

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Sid Meier: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company
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Published on October 21, 1998 18:13
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. ...

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