About the Convention
Participating Persons and Companies
Below, a brief overview of our guests at ApolyCon 06 is given.
Firaxis Games
Founded in 1996, Firaxis Games is an acknowledged leader in PC gaming with titles ranging from the Civilization series to what PC Gamer called “The Greatest Game of All Time”, Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri. Firaxis Associates include:
Sid Meier
… doesn’t really need an introduction, does he? His own name is virtually a brand.
Without a doubt the single greatest developer of PC games in the history of the medium, Sid’s career has literally “stood the test of time.” Starting in 1982, Sid’s excellence in game design is unparalleled, with classic games spanning genres from flight simulators (F-15 Strike Eagle) to economic simulations (Railroad Tycoon) to real-time strategy (Sid Meier’s Gettysburg) to historical simulations (Civilization, Alpha Centauri). Sid was the second person inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, preceded only by Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo, who, let’s be honest, didn’t have to deal with a near-infinite number of hardware permutations and settings, autoexec.bat’s, and DirectX.
Jeff Briggs
CEO and President of Firaxis, Jeff is living proof that the path to success in America can come in unexpected avenues: without research, it can safely be said that he is most surely the only person holding a Doctorate of Music Composition and Theory from the University of Illinois-Champaign/Urbana school of Music to have been named Ernst and Young's “Maryland Technology CEO of the Year (2003)” and SmartCEO’s “CEO of The Year (2004)”, a peak reached by way of software development at MicroProse. Willing to bet money on his uniqueness, as a matter of fact.
Despite his business responsibilities, Jeff is still a significant force in the creative side of software, composing, arranging, and overseeing much of the music used in almost all of Sid’s major releases, including Civilization 4, and being lead Designer on Civilization 3.
Soren Johnson
Firaxis’ most “Civilized” employee of 2003, Soren’s career at Firaxis began in 2000, after his graduate work at Stanford in adaptive algorithms and human-computer interaction. Soren has had a major impact on the development of Firaxis’ last three simulations – Civ 3, Pirates!, and Civ 4, where he was lead Designer.
Dorian Newcombe
Dorian is part of Firaxis' Creative Team and has worked at Firaxis since 2000. His most recent contributions as an artist are featured in Sid Meier's Pirates! and Civ 4.
Alex "Alexman" Mantzaris
Alex managed to turn his hobby into his work. Following a career in yacht design, Alex applied for a job at Firaxis. At Firaxis, he is one of the developers of Civ 4.
Jon "Trip" Schafer
After working as a contractor in 2005, Jon signed at Firaxis at the beginning of 2006 to work as a designer. His work can be admired in Civ 3: Conquests and in Civ 4.
Additional details on professional participants will be announced as soon as they become available.
Big Huge Games
Founded in 2000, Big Huge Games is dedicated to taking the “historical simulation” genre into new areas. Their first release, Rise of Nations, reworked the genre into a real-time setting, winning PC Gamers “RTS of the Year (2003)” award, among many others. Their next game, Rise of Legends, takes the genre out of its familiar “Western Civ” milieu and places it in a fantasy setting. BHG's associates include:
Brian Reynolds
A PC Gamer “Game God”, Brian is using the lessons learned from his lead Developer days on Civ 2 and Alpha Centauri to forge a new direction for PC games, and the Real Time genre in particular.
A 15-year industry veteran, Brian first began work at Microprose as the lead programmer for their graphical adventure games (including Rex Nebular). Recognizing a dying genre when he was in it, Brian had the good sense to start work with Sid Meier on his “Civ-lite” project, Colonization, and doing (in my opinion) a bang-up job led to his first Lead Developer position on the ground-breaking Civilization 2, Brian’s first million-selling game. Brian was a founding partner of Firaxis, leading the development of Sid Meier’s Gettysburg and Alpha Centauri, but sold his stake in 2000 to start Big Huge Games and pursue his own vision of the medium.
Tim Train
Tim is the guy with the whip and chain to make sure that everybody keeps on time and within budget. As Vice President of Operations, Tim’s major/minor combination of International Studies/Psychology from Johns Hopkins becomes handy when communicating with the guys from Pittsburgh.
Creatively-speaking, Tim was responsible for multimedia content on both Microprose and Firaxis releases, culminating in being the lead Designer and Producer on the Alpha Centauri expansion pack, Alien Crossfire.
Additional details on professional participants will be announced as soon as they become available.
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