There are few people who can truly stand shoulder to shoulder with Sid Meier. Will Wright and Shigeru Miyamoto come to mind, but the list is a short one indeed. The Director of Creative Development at Firaxis is best known as the creator of the Civilization franchise and many have referred to him as the "Godfather of Computer Gaming." In 2008, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized Meier for having earned the most video game awards in the history of the industry. IndustryGamers, in its continuing "Better Know" series with industry luminaries, is proud to present you with this Sid Meier Q&A. IG talked with the 30-year games veteran about his career, his inspirations, advice for aspiring designers and more.
Turn based Strategy games have been with us since the dawn of the videogame age, with the first of the genre being published in 1978 for the Commodore PET under the rather long winded and unimaginative title “Tanktics: Computer Game of Armored Combat on the Eastern Front”. Since it’s invention nearly 30 years ago the genre has undergone any number of transformations and has since split out into a magnitude of sub-genres such as turn based tactics (TBT) and 4X strategy. Despite the constant tweaks and alterations to the formula, the genre is still as popular today as it ever has been with titles such as Sid Meier’s Civilisation and Shogun often domineering in terms of sales. With all the ups and downs the genre has experienced and through all the alterations and phases it’s passed through, it’s often hard to discover those timeless classics that made the genre great and as such, this is a list highlighting the top five of the genre that I personally think any TBS fan can’t live without.
Sid Meier believes that the games industry has changed a lot since he started out in the early Eighties, but that “now is one of the most exciting times to be a game designer”.
Oh yeah, Sid Meier, one of the great pioneers of game design! Gotta love "Pirates!", "Civilization", "F-19 Stealth Fighter", "Gunship".
If he will lend me his brain, I'd love to design a game, too. :-)
GameNTrain: This week we head back to Facebook for our installment of App Fanatic to feature Sid Meier’s Civ World.
The first Civilization game was released in 1991, and has been a successful game series ever since. Now, the world of Civ is making a splash into the world of social games with Civ World. I’ve played the game a little bit, but my fiancee has fallen in love with it entirely. So, I asked him for a little interview on some of the basic goodies of the game.
Dude does way too much for the industry. Interesting perspectives.