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Alpha Centauri Focus Firaxis Interviews

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  • Brian Reynolds: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Brian Reynolds: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Name: Brian Reynolds (Brian is in the middle of the picture to the bottom)
    Title: Designer for Alpha Centauri

    LDespot: What is it like living in the shadow of "The Great Sid Meier"?

    Brian Reynolds: It's a pretty good place to live. Sid taught me most of what I know about computer game design, and although we've moved from a master/apprentice relationship to an equal partnership it's clearly Sid's vision and genius that drives our success....
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  • Jeff Briggs: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Jeff Briggs: Focus on Firaxis: A Look Inside the Company

    Name: Jeff Briggs (Jeff is on the left in the picture to the bottom)
    Title: BMOC (Big Man on Campus)

    LDespot: What led to the decision to break off and start Firaxis?

    Jeff Briggs: Sid, Brian and I had been friends and colleagues at MicroProse for a long time and we were getting to the end of projects we had been working on. I thought that, given the dire situation MPS was in at the time, what with layoffs and consistent quarterly losses and so on, I could create an environment with a lot more freedom and independence. I had always thought about how cool it'd be to be a part of a very focused, dedicated game development group, much like MicroProse had been in the very early days. So I decided that, once Civ II was out there, I'd make the jump and see if I could get something going. As it turned out both Brian and Sid were interested in joining, so soon after I left, they followed....
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  • Questions about Firaxis' present, past and future

    Questions about Firaxis' present, past and future

    Generic Questions Addressed to Anyone Willing to Answer

    LDespot: Are there any plans to do another historical game? Some of the suggestions on the message boards are a game based on Waterloo, etc.

    Sid Meier: We really enjoyed making and playing Gettysburg! and in many ways we think it is a next step in the evolution of war games, so we would like to continue down this path. There are all sorts of possibilities with the Gettysburg! system, it can handle anything from ancients all the way to wars of the nineteenth century. Interestingly, we've had a lot of requests for a Napoleonic war. But, right now we are very focused on Alpha Centauri. We haven't made any decisions about what we will do with the Gettysburg! system. We're listening closely to feedback on what people like and do not like about Gettysburg! and what gamers would like us to do next. As soon as we get a little lull from Alpha Centauri, we'll start putting some ideas together for our next project....
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  • 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
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