Brian Reynolds interview

[Thunderfall]

Check out this nice Brian Reynolds interview conducted by journalist Troy Goodfellow about the development of Civilization II. In the interview, Brian Reynolds interview talked about the decision to remake Civ, resistance to the idea, how making the game Windows-friendly contributed to Civ2's success, how working in England affected the game's development, the super cheap to produce Wonder movies, how the scenario feature almost got dropped, multiplayer in the Civ franchise, among other things.

http://www.civfanatics.com/interviews/CivChronicles_Brian_Reynolds.php

 

[SvenSlayer]

I agree with Mr. Reynolds about the multiplayer thing. It's cool if it's in, of course, but it doesn't really have a place in Civ. I've tried a bit of multiplayer in Civ3 PtW - alright, so it wasn't implemented as well in that expansion as it is in Civ4 - and it just didn't seem to fit.

The scenario thing was a great idea. I play the full game more often myself, but scerarios add a whole new dimension to the games.

 

[MajorGeneral2]

The funny story about scenarios in Civ 2 is that one month before we were supposed to ship my supervisor told me “Stop working on the scenario stuff, we need to just cut that feature. You don’t have any scenarios done, there isn’t enough time, and it’s not an important-enough feature for you to spend time on at this point.”

I find this story hilarious, considering that scenarios are the reason I spent so much time with CivII. The regular game is a lot of fun, but I still got more or less worn out with it after a couple months. Without the scenarios, CivII would just be another great game for me.

 

[ElephantU]

Good interview.

Wish they had made the AI more mod-able rather than spending so much time on the MP stuff.

 

[starlifter]

Civ 2 remains the single greatest "single player" strategy game of all time, which is amazing considering its plethora of "faults" and advancement of other games.

The replayability and yes, even the AI "cheating", are some keys to its success. Brian implemented a successful "rubber band" concept to "pull" and "push" civs that are "behind" and "ahead"; this has largely been de-mystified by Samson, et. al., but the concept still does work.

 

[Sub]

I'm a month or two late, but that was a great interview. I wish he was still working on the Civ series, he's what made Civ 2 and Alpha Centauri great.