Brian Reynolds (game designer)
Template:Current-GCOTW Brian Reynolds is a well known computer strategy game designer, formerly of Microprose and Firaxis Games. He now runs his own game development company, Big Huge Games, and is the chairman of the International Game Developers Association.
Unknown to many, Sid Meier's Civilization II, Sid Meier's Colonization and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri were primarily his designs, not Sid Meier's. These games, however, borrow from Sid's original Civilization.
Brian Reynold's first big major break was the design of Sid Meier's Civilization II. Meier had created Civilization but had moved on to other projects. Microprose wanted to make a sequel and asked Reynolds to design it. Microprose put Meier on retainer for consultational advice and for the use of his name. But Meier only had peripheral involvement in the sequel game. The sequel game was primarily designed by Reynolds and bore the subtitle "A Brian Reynold's Design" in the introductory graphics screen.
Reynolds latest game is Rise of Legends, a real-time strategy game, published by Microsoft. Rise of Nations was Reynolds' first game under Big Huge Games.
Reynolds was a gamer in high school, and a sysop on Randolph School's (Huntsville, Alabama) PDP-11 mainframe.
Reynolds briefly pursued graduate studies in Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. This influence is evident in the philosophical quotes assigned to the faction leaders in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.