I was once offered a Lead Programmer position for Civilization IV by Firaxis...
Years ago I turned down the Lead Programmer role on Civilization IV at Firaxis — one of the few decisions I still second-guess. Now my colleague Markus, who doesn't code, just built a full Civ clone in under a week using our AI game creation system.
Many years ago, I was offered a Lead Programmer position for Civilization IV by Firaxis.
Previously I had worked as a Lead 3D Programmer at Westwood Studios, which had just been closed down by EA. Civilization is my all time favorite game, so I really wanted to take the position, but I was still hurting from EA's decision to close down Westwood.
Ultimately, I declined the offer. They countered and offered me even more money, so I know they really wanted to have me. This is one of the only decisions in my life I am still second guessing. But deep down, I had decided that I want to go on my own, start my own business, so mentally I was not ready to commit to another 2-3 years to work for someone else.
I became a startup entrepreneur, started a mobile game studio in China, and I haven't really looked back. I've done well, and I still enjoy the journey, so no regrets! But it's fun to think that my career could have also been very different!
The reason I'm thinking of Civ today is that my colleague Markus Kiukkonen just launched "Idle Civ", a fully AI-generated version of the original Civilization. He doesn't code, but he was able to create a fully fledged Civilization clone in less than a week! What once took years and a whole team of people to make, can now been made in a few days by one person. This makes me so excited!
To think that 20 years after declining the offer to lead the Civ 4 development, I'm running a company that has built an AI game creation system that can automatically create the code I would have spent years writing back in the day. Mindblowing!
Play Idle Civ: https://lnkd.in/dJeFVAta | 12 comments on LinkedIn