Comments on: Chief game designer leaves Zynga

By: AnthonyC

AnthonyC — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:37:00 +0000

Agreed. I still play it form time to time. IMHO, Alpha centauri>Civ III>Civ II> the others.

I still have those tech advance and secret project quotes in my head.
“The substructure of the universe regresses infinitely towards smaller and smaller components. Behind atoms we find electrons, and behind electrons, quarks. Each layer unraveled reveals new secrets, but also new mysteries. Academician Prokhor Zakharov, “For I Have Tasted the Fruit”"

By: ableal

ableal — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 21:49:00 +0000

> pre-internet…

Pre-everybody-has-www.

Internet was already there for twenty years. Just unevenly distributed ;-)

By: Matthew Petty

Matthew Petty — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:47:00 +0000

I thought it was Nick Kroll

By: bfarn

bfarn — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:08:00 +0000

For some reason I’d always thought the lead designer of Sid Meier’s Civilization II was Sid Meier.

By: David Carron

David Carron — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:46:00 +0000

Now maybe he will have time to reboot Alpha Centari. Then he can save his self-respect and make a ton of money.

By: OtherMichael

OtherMichael — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:29:00 +0000

>Was Zynga different before and only became evil over time?

No.

>Or was it something else?

It was also a Mark Pincus joint. And therein lies the tale of woe.

By: OtherMichael

OtherMichael — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:27:00 +0000

Of COURSE Zynga wants others to have game designers — that way Zynga doesn’t have to pay them.

By: bobtato

bobtato — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 13:44:00 +0000

I only came here to say how amused I was by the stock photo. Now I feel super-smart for even realising it was a stock photo.

By: FoolishOwl

FoolishOwl — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 13:38:00 +0000

I’m still afraid to know what “nerve stapling” is.

By: TooGoodToCheck

TooGoodToCheck — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 13:21:00 +0000

By all accounts, Zynga East was pretty okay. And it gave him a venue to design casual/social games while that space was still pretty wild and new.

By: David

David — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:54:00 +0000

byeZynga!

By: nwmhqqty

nwmhqqty — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:47:00 +0000

Just so everyone is clear: this is not Brian Reynolds.

By: gd23

gd23 — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 09:02:00 +0000

The things I did in Alpha Centauri haunt me to this day.

By: echolocate chocolate

echolocate chocolate — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 07:07:00 +0000

Game design is a seriously precarious existence. You’re only ever as successful as your last game and, in general, you earn less than other disciplines. You’re also undervalued because everyone thinks they understand game design.

Zynga comes along and offers you a fat paycheque and a potential audience of hundreds of millions of users… I dunno, I can see it. Game designers gotta pay the rent too.

By: Joe Matise

Joe Matise — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 06:03:00 +0000

Y’all are missing a fairly big chunk of Reynolds’ career, e.g. Big Huge Games (“Rise of Nations”, “Rise of Legends”, and the Cataan X-Box Arcade game, among others).

I’d agree though on being curious why he agreed to work for them (anything beyond ‘$$$$$’?)

When he was working on Civ2, his wife took an academic position in London. He went along, and programmed most of Civ2 by himself in their apartment. He periodically mailed discs with the code to Sid Meier (in Maryland or wherever). This was of course pre-internet…

Doesn’t sound to me like someone who would want to be Chief Game Designer at Zynga. But, who knows… BHG certainly had a fun feel to it the one time I visited the studio; maybe he thought he could bring a similar atmosphere, and make a difference. (Hint: no, he couldn’t…)

By: Crashproof

Crashproof — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 04:39:00 +0000

Just… one… more… turn!

By: Dave Pease

Dave Pease — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 04:35:00 +0000

Alpha Centauri is the best of the Civ games. Zynga products all seem to be shit. Here’s hoping for a much better third (?) act for Reynolds, and for the rest of us gamers as well.

By: vonbobo

vonbobo — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 04:31:00 +0000

Its a shot of him faxing his resume.

By: jackbird

jackbird — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 04:24:00 +0000

Piles and piles of filthy lucre?

By: Andrew Singleton

Andrew Singleton — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 04:10:00 +0000

The light… it’s so pretty….

By: Andrew Singleton

Andrew Singleton — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 04:08:00 +0000

No.

By: Heartfruit

Heartfruit — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 03:52:00 +0000

With any luck this is just further evidence that Zynga is on a collision course with the Bug Zapper.

By: rocketpjs

rocketpjs — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 03:50:00 +0000

I am still of the opinion that Alpha Centauri was the best strategy game ever devised (as opposed to the expansion of same) – in fact I still have it on my computer.

What possibly process could a person go through to move from the pinnacle to Zynga? Was Zynga different before and only became evil over time? Or was it something else?

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 03:35:00 +0000

To prevent him from designing for anyone else?

By: grimc

grimc — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 03:34:00 +0000

Cover.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 03:25:00 +0000

Great. Who is going to design Intercom Page of Exemplary Service, Falo, Super Sarioh Cousins, Meat Fighter 2 and Angry Kurds for them now?

By: fuzzyfuzzyfungus

fuzzyfuzzyfungus — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 02:49:00 +0000

“Civ II was practically every waking hour of my Senior year of High School”
That may be a clue to the mystery…

By: merreborn

merreborn — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 02:42:00 +0000

It raises the question: was Frontierville any good, or in any meaningful way different from the numerous other “ville” titles?

By: Cornan

Cornan — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 02:42:00 +0000

That is what blew my mind when I found out who he was and what else he’d worked on. Civ II was practically every waking hour of my Senior year of High School and Alpha Centauri kept me from going insane once I’d graduated but couldn’t find work. The fact that the lead designer on those games ended up making Frontierville is just a huge “LOL WUT?!” moment for me.

By: Daemonworks

Daemonworks — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 02:40:00 +0000

I wonder why they even hired a game designer, given their dedication to not actually designing any games.