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Brian Reynolds
Founder and Creative Director
 A
seventeen-year industry veteran, Brian Reynolds is recognized
as one of the industry's most talented and productive
game designers. Honored by PC Gamer magazine as one of
twenty-five "Game Gods," Reynolds has masterminded
the design of many of hit games, including Civilization
II®, Alpha Centauri®, and Rise of Nations®,
as well as Catan® for Xbox360 Live Arcade and others.
Highly regarded for his mastery of the art of programming,
Reynolds' dual specialty gives him the substantial advantage
of being able to bring his own visions to life - and he
has built a reputation for finely tuned gameplay.
Reynolds' game career began in 1991 when he joined Microprose
as the lead programmer for their graphic adventure series.
Early games included Rex Nebular™ (1992), Return
of the Phantom™ (1993), and Dragonsphere™
(1993). But meanwhile Reynolds' interests were now turning
towards strategy games. As the graphic adventure series
wound down, Brian began work on a prototype which eventually
became a collaboration with Sid Meier, the eponymous Sid
Meier's Colonization™ (1994). Acclaim for Colonization
led to Reynolds' first stint as lead designer: Reynolds
and Kaufman successfully sequelized Meier's Civilization
(1991) to create the multi-million-selling Civilization
II (1996).
The runaway success of Civilization II gave Reynolds the
beginnings of "name recognition" in the industry
and he became a founding partner in Firaxis Games, his
first entrepreneurial venture. At Firaxis, he contributed
to the design of Sid Meier's Gettysburg™ (1997),
and then led the design and creation of Alpha Centauri
(1998), his second million-selling game. In 2000, Brian
sold his stake in Firaxis to pursue his new dream, Big
Huge Games. Brian and his three partners built a reputation
for excellence as they created games such as Rise of Nations,
Rise of Legends, and Catan for XBLA, and grew their studio
to the 100-developer mark during its first eight years
in operation. The company began moving into the console
RPG genre with the announcement of a new game led by Ken
Rolston, and as Big Huge Games expanded to become a multi-team
company, an acquisition by THQ made it possible to pursue
several projects at once.
As Creative Director of Big Huge Games, Brian concentrates
on the creative side of the company, devoting most of
his time to hands-on development of new game rules, prototypes,
interfaces, and AI. Advising and directing the large and
extraordinarily talented Big Huge team, Brian helps guide
designers creating the next generation of strategy and
role-playing games.
In June 2006, Brian was also elected Chair of the International
Game Developers Association the non-profit professional
society dedicated to advancing the careers of game developers
worldwide, and he continues to serve the organization
in an advisory role. Brian is particularly interested
in finding ways to get developers a better deal on intellectual
property rights, credit and recognition, awards programs,
and general quality of life - leading him to focus his
volunteer work in those areas. Brian’s other volunteer
work has included judging the International Game Festival,
the Game Developers Choice Awards, and the AIAS Interactive
Awards. |
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