By John Walker on January 30th, 2013.
Brian Reynolds’ choice to join the ranks of Zynga always felt like a strange one. The Rise Of Nations developer surprised many when he joined the less-than-lovely company in 2009 (yes – it really was that long ago), but now Polygon are reporting that he’s stepped out, blinking into the sunlight, a free man.
By Alec Meer on October 8th, 2010.
There was a collective sigh of sadness from global strategy game gonks like me at the news former Firaxis and Big Huge Games big huge brain Brian Reynolds had thrown in his trad-gaming towel and joined Farmville and Mafia Wars outfit Zynga last year. Did this mean an end to playful, progressive and p-thoughtful strategy titles like Civ II and Rise of Nations?
What with Zynga being a pretty closed-doors kinda company – rarely talking to the media – there’s been very little word on exactly what lovely Brian’s been up to there. A talk at GDC Online a couple of days ago saw him make a rare re-entrance into the limelight and reveal that, even if some of us aren’t interested in the games he’s now making, he’s still putting a fair bit of thought into it.
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By Kieron Gillen on November 16th, 2007.
[Not much to say about this one, except that everyone who interviews Brian Reynolds pretty much falls love with him. He's an incredibly nice guy. Oh - embarrassing confession. Despite digging Rise of Legends, I've barely played Rise of Nations due to a really odd bug on the machine I had around the time. The game ran fine until the first blow was struck... at which point, it crashed. I suspect my PC converted to pacifism. Finally, this is a considerably expanded version from what was printed, as I had a load of transcript I've reworked in. Oh - and as the first paragraph makes clear, the interview was done circa the end of Rise of Legends.]
Sitting down with Brian Reynolds you can’t help but learn things. The cradle of Civilization? Not, as historians would argue, somewhere in Iraq but actually North Yorkshire. Well – not Civilisation, but Civilization 2 as Brian was crouched in a small rainy town in the North of England while making the venerable classic. But things change, and he’s now in a rainy, North American town at Big Huge Games putting the finishing touches to Rise of Legends. It’s the perfect time to talk about their previous triumph with Rise of Nations.
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