Brian Reynolds

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Reynolds at E3 2003

Brian Reynolds (* 1967) is an American computer game developer . He has been a leader in the development of successful game titles such as Civilization II , Rise of Nations , Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and Frontierville . During his career, Reynolds worked for the developers Zynga , Big Huge Games , Firaxis Games and Microprose . He was also chairman of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and a board member of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences .

Early years

Reynolds first published game was titled Quest 1 and became the cover story of SoftSide magazine in August 1981 . Reynolds, who remained a passionate gamer through high school, became a sysop for the mainframe PDP-11 at Randolph School 's in Huntsville, Alabama . After graduating from the University of the South in 1990 , Reynolds briefly studied philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley . This study later significantly influenced parts of his work on Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri .

Career

Reynolds began his development career at MicroProse , where he worked as lead programmer on a number of graphic adventures including Rex Nebular (1992), Return of the Phantom and Dragonsphere (both 1993). With Microprose founder Sid Meier he finally worked on several of its titles. After working as a designer on Sid Meier's Colonization (1994), Reynolds was named lead developer for the successor to Sid Meier's Civilization . Meier had created Civilization , but was working on other projects at the time. However, since MicroProse wanted to produce a sequel, Reynolds was asked to work with Douglas Kaufman to do the design. Meier himself was only marginally involved and, despite the use of his name on the game packaging, only took on an advisory role. The intro screen of the game was therefore also subtitled "A Brian Reynolds Design". Civilization 2 was released in 1996 and has been a huge hit with sales of several million copies.

When Meier left Microprose in the same year, Reynolds followed him and became a co-founder of Meier's new development studio Firaxis Games . Reynolds' first work for Firaxis was his involvement in the strategy game Sid Meier's Gettysburg (1997), followed by his work as lead designer for Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (1998). Also Alpha Centauri proved successful and Reynolds was the second million-seller.

In 2000, Reynolds left Firaxis Games, sold his shares and became CEO of Big Huge Games, a development studio he co-founded . His first game for Big Huge Games was the strategy game Rise of Nations (2003), followed by Rise of Legends (2006), a real-time strategy game in a steampunk scenario, published by Microsoft . Together with the German game author Klaus Teuber , Reynolds also developed a computer game version of the board game The Settlers of Catan (2007) for the online sales platform Xbox Live Arcade . In 2004 he became a member of the supervisory board of the International Game Developers Association , and in 2006 chairman.

On June 30, 2009, the US game developer Zynga announced that Brian Reynolds had left Big Huge Games to lead the development of the new development team Zynga East, where he took over the role of chief game designer. Among other things, he led the development work on FrontierVille for the social network Facebook . In this role he was also elected as a board member of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences . Reynolds left Zynga in February 2013.

In the same month Reynolds announced the creation of a new development studio. The company named SecretNewCo received capital in July 2013, among other things through an investment by the Japanese game manufacturer Nexon , which in return secured a minority share in the company and the publishing rights to the first game under development. In October 2014, the company changed its name to Big Huge Games. Reynolds had secured the corresponding naming rights in the auction of the various trademark rights of 38 studios. First game was the mobile Free2Play - strategy game Dominations , a game similar to Clash of Clans or Rise of Nations , with the publication in 2015 for Apple iOS and Android announced.

Private life

In August 1994, just before Colonization was published , Reynolds married his partner Jill, an elementary school teacher. The couple have two sons, Robert and Caleb. Reynolds is the nephew of game developer Charles Kibler of BreakAway Games .

Ludography

Awards

In 2009, the US online game magazine IGN listed Reynolds at number 33 among the most important game authors of all time. In the same year, PC Gamer magazine also counted him among the 49 most important developers.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/94781/IGDA_Elects_New_Board_Members_and_Officers.php
  2. ↑ http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/the-international-game-developers-association-elects-new-board-members-and-officers
  3. ↑ Legendary Game Designer Brian Reynolds Joins Zynga as Chief Designer (press release)
  4. ↑ http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115642-Zyngas-Chief-Designer-Joins-Academy-of-Interactive-Arts-and-Sciences-Board
  5. ↑ Zynga's Chief Game Designer Brian Reynolds Resigns
  6. ^ Former chief game designer Brian Reynolds: On Zynga, games, and the future
  7. ↑ Zynga's Former Chief Game Designer Takes Strategic Investment From Nexon For SecretNewCo
  8. ↑ Brian Reynolds revives Big Huge Games and unveils first mobile strategy title: DomiNations
  9. ↑ Top 100 Game Creators of All Time ( Memento of the original from March 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / games.ign.com
  10. ↑ 49 Greatest Developers, PC Gamer , April 2009.
personal data
SURNAME Reynolds, Brian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American computer game designer
DATE OF BIRTH 1967