brian-reynolds
Latest
Big Huge Games lives again with original founder, mobile strategy
Big Huge Games, known for PC strategy games such as Rise of Nations and the RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, was a casualty of 38 Studios' financial troubles in 2012 and its bankruptcy in 2013. 38 Studios closed Big Huge Games in 2012 and sold off its properties for $320,000 in December 2013. Turns out, the original Big Huge Games founder, Brian Reynolds, is the one who picked up those IPs. He's been operating under the studio name SecretNewCo (which really should have been a hint to the rest of us) since 2013, and now Big Huge Games is back with its first game, a mobile, empire-building strategy title called DomiNations. It will be published by Nexon. Prior to re-launching Big Huge Games, Reynolds was Chief Designer at Zynga, and before that he co-founded Civilization studio Firaxis Games. In between, he helped found Big Huge Games the first time around. Reynolds is now CEO of the shiny, new Big Huge Games. "We're honored to continue the legacy of Big Huge Games, which we founded on the concept of making fun, beautiful and innovative gameplay experiences on mobile devices," Reynolds says in a press release. "Nexon is lending us its proven free-to-play expertise in pursuit of that goal, and we can't wait to show players what we've created together." DomiNations allows players to craft empires from the stone age to the space age, with single-player and co-op modes. It's free and due out on iOS and Android devices in 2015.
Zynga closing three games including CityVille 2
In a conference call yesterday, Zynga revealed plans to close three titles: The Friend Game, Party Place, and CityVille 2. The closure of CityVille 2 especially stands out since the game launched a few short months ago and lead designer Brian Reynolds announced he was leaving the social game giant in January.In the company's 2012 financial statement, Zynga posted a loss of $209.4 million.On a positive note, Zynga said FarmVille 2 is exceeding expectations by 100% last quarter and generating $100 million in gross bookings since launch.Zynga admitted to analysts that FarmVille 2 may have cannibalized some of CityVille 2's attention, having launched a month before CityVille's sequel. The company said that in the future it will make sure to have fewer titles in general, and leave more space between planned game launches. Zynga is also excited about upcoming mobile and "midcore" titles (defined as "hardcore" games that can be played for only a few minutes at a time), and CEO Mark Pincus says 2013 will be a "pivotal year" for Zynga, with a goal to "make it easier and better to play across mobile and social."
Brian Reynolds departs Zynga
Game designer Brian Reynolds has left Zynga. Lead designer on games such as Firaxis Games' Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and Big Huge Games' Rise of Nations, Reynolds was brought on at Zynga to be chief designer. During his three and a half years at Zynga he's credited as chief game designer on FrontierVille."Brian Reynolds has decided to move on and pursue other opportunities," an email sent to Zynga employees this afternoon reads.Reynolds joined Zynga in 2009. His departure is the latest bad milestone consisting of financial issues, games closures and executive departures at the company.Update: Zynga has released an official statement confirming the departure."Brian has a long history in the game industry and has been a great partner to the creative leaders at Zynga. I want to thank him for his leadership of the Zynga Baltimore studio in the design and development of FrontierVille, which brought many innovations to social gaming," said Zynga President of Games Steve Chiang. "We appreciate Brian's contribution and we're proud of the deep bench of creative leaders who are leading the next wave of game innovation at Zynga. We wish Brian the best in his next chapter."
Zynga: Xbox Live 'too small a demographic'
Don't worry about Farmville infiltrating your Xbox 360 (and the subsequent requests from your mom and your friends that would soon follow thereafter). According to Zynga chief game designer, Brian Reynolds, the Xbox 360 landscape is small potatoes -- Zynga's after broader audiences and the user base on one measly console is simply not big enough to warrant interest. "[Xbox Live's] too small a demographic," Reynolds told IndustryGamers. "Think about, of my friends, how many of them own an Xbox 360? Well, I'm a game developer and I even come from a triple-A space so we might even be in the double digits... Twenty or maybe even thirty percent of my friends might have an Xbox 360, but effectively 100% of them have Facebook and effectively 100% of them have a mobile phone. Of them, probably 90% have a smartphone." Reynolds would then go on to say that the mobile space is the next area Zynga expects to put its efforts into. He says it's all about the number of people who could possibly partake in the social experience -- on the Xbox 360, he estimates "the amount of social capital that there is isn't going to be very high" on the platform. The less people on a platform, the less revenue Zynga projects to make and, thus, the less likely it is the company will be on that platform. "That's why right now we're on Facebook for sure, and mobile is the obvious next place for us to go because it is an inherently social platform," Reynolds concluded.
What is Zynga doing to that sheep? Brian Reynolds on the power of innuendo
During a presentation at SXSW Interactive yesterday, Zynga chief designer Brian Reynolds shared an emergent game feature that the team discovered when making Frontierville, one designed to appeal to juvenility. The "tutorial" mission in Frontierville involves finding a lost sheep and bringing it back, he explained. Because it's a Facebook game, you get the option to post when you've done so, which shares a little blurb about your achievement and a picture of a cartoony character struggling to pull a stubborn sheep. But that's not what players' friends saw. "What is she doing to that sheep?" was a common refrain from people who saw that post, Reynolds said. "The look on the sheep's face kind of sells it." But this wasn't a problem, as it turned out. That pseudo-scandalous sheep image "has our highest post rate and our highest clickthrough rate," he explained, with many more replies to those posts creating increased visibility, and thus inadvertently promoting Frontierville. And so Zynga went forward with innuendo-laden status messages, more examples of which you can see above. At the end of the presentation, Reynolds answered a question about his reaction to Satoru Iwata's GDC keynote, during which Iwata pretty clearly denounced social and mobile games in general. "I don't understand why they'd feel threatened," he said, suggesting that social games and console games can coexist. "Maybe that person thinks a lot about console games," but not about mobile games.
Social game devs rail against divisiveness, armchair designers, and s*** crayons
As a response to frequent use of social games as punching bags by the rest of the industry, a group of Facebook, mobile, and otherwise social game-identified creators took part in a series of short "rants" during GDC. During this event, a social game was happening in real time: coins were handed out, and attendees were encouraged to collect coins from each other, with the person who was able to get the most invited up for a mini-rant. The winner's rant turned out to be about the positive mental and developmental effects of games. Longtime game designer and Loot Drop founder Brenda Brathwaite opened with an impassioned refutation of the division of social gamers from other gamers. People told her she was "ruining games" back when she was working on Wizardry, for making an RPG that could be played alone, implying that this attitude was as harmful as the dismissal of social games now. "We stood together," she said, when games like Mortal Kombat came under attack from government and other groups, and when "hot coffee" came to be known not as a "steaming hot beverage but a steaming pile of shit". She urged that game fans stand together now "because we love games." A transcript of Brathwaite's rant has since been posted on her blog.
Drop7 dev Area/Code becomes 'Zynga New York'
New York City-based developer Area/Code Inc. is the newest part of Zynga's growing family. The studio will henceforth be known as "Zynga New York." Zynga chief game designer Brian Reynolds announced as much on his Twitter account, welcoming the new studio into the fold: "Introducing Zynga New York! Welcome to the family Area/Code!" A piece on Area/Code's website celebrates the acquisition, also confirming that Frank Lantz will stay on as creative director and Demetri Detsaridis as general manager -- co-founder Kevin Slavin seems to be out of the picture, with a comment stating he "remains nearby but focused on other new ventures." A statement from Zynga on its website echoes Area/Code's excitement."We recognize great talent, and Area/Code shares our passion for building lasting games that bring family and friends together for fun," it reads. Allow us to ask the first logical question, if you will -- when will Drop7 appear on Facebook?!
Brian Reynolds answers 10 Questions from the Academy
And now, 10 Questions from the Academy: A weekly feature from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences wherein significant figures in the video game industry provide their input on past trends, current events, and future challenges and goals for the entertainment software community. Brian Reynolds is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and will speak at the D.I.C.E. Summit in 2010. After working with Sid Meier at both MicroProse and Firaxis, Reynolds went on to create Big Huge Games, where he served as CEO until the sale of the company to 38 Studios earlier this year. He now heads up the newly established social gaming team at Zynga East in Baltimore. AIAS: What's your favorite part of game development? Brian Reynolds: The last 25% of the project, when you're polishing and tuning the thing to make it perfect for release. Of course it's never actually "perfect," but the game starts to feel like a real game rather than a prototype – all the parts start working well together and you finally realize "hey now we have something I want to play!" What game are you most jealous of? Half Life 2 – totally wish I had meaningful skills for making games like that. It's got such an amazing combination of good writing, good technology, good level design, and just overall great craftsmanship.
Big Huge Games boss Brian Reynolds leaves, joins Zynga East
When 38 Studios CEO Brett Close told Joystiq that his company's acquisition of Big Huge Games from THQ was due in no small part to the "incredible veteran talent" at the developer – even singling out Oblivion and Morrowind designer Ken Rolston – we had assumed that he was also referring to the studio's CEO and Creative Director, Brian Reynolds. Yeah, you see where we're going with this ...Social gaming developer Zynga (think: Mafia Wars) announced today that it has hired Reynolds to fill the newly created position of "chief designer" (a reaction to social gaming competitor Playdom's appointment of legendary game designer Steve Meretzky to the position of VP of game design last year?). Reynolds will "head up operations at Zynga East" in Baltimore, and "production efforts will be focused on creating new social network games ... with a strategic emphasis."When asked for comment on Reynolds' departure, Close told Joystiq, "38 Studios highly values the vision and contributions of BHG founder Brian Reynolds to the portfolio of BHG products and the video game industry in general. We wish him great success in his new endeavor." But with Reynolds out, who's left to run things at BHG (they've still got titles in development after all)? Close said, "With regards to his position at BHG/38S, we are still evaluating roles and responsibilities between the two studios; the other founders and top talent at BHG are stepping up in the meantime."Chief amongst those "stepping up" would be co-founder Tim Train, President and Chief Operations Officer of Big Huge Games, as well as the studio's General Manager. Train told us, "Having worked with Brian for seventeen years, I'm very excited to see what fresh ideas he'll bring to the social gaming space. I'm also happy to have a new studio in the Baltimore area that can attract new talent and investment to the region. We wish Zynga East the best!"So: is Maryland joining Massachusetts as a mecca for East Coast game development? With just 12 to 15 employees at Zynga East, we're not quite ready to say that, but consider our curiosity officially piqued.
