About Sid Meier
Sidney K. Meier (born 1954 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American programmer and designer of some of the most commercially and critically successful computer strategy games of all time. Meier has won several accolades for both his contributions to the computer games industry and for the titles that have gained huge commercial successes. Sid Meier is a Director of Creative Development of computer game developer Firaxis Games, which he co-founded with Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds in 1996.
Career
Sid Meier founded MicroProse together with Bill Stealey in 1982. At MicroProse, Meier developed the game series for which he is most widely recognized, Civilization, although he was not the game designer of any of the Civilization games except the first installment. Meier eventually left MicroProse and in 1996 founded Firaxis Games along with veteran designer and gaming executive Jeff Briggs. Today Firaxis makes strategy games, many of which are follow-ups to classic Meier titles, such as Civilization IV and Pirates!.
In 1999, Meier became the second person to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame. The first to receive that honor was Shigeru Miyamoto from Nintendo.
Meier is not always the main designer on titles that carry his name. For instance, Brian Reynolds has been credited as the primary designer behind Civilization 2, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, and Sid Meier's Colonization, while Jeff Briggs designed Civilization III and Soren Johnson led Sid Meier's Civilization IV. Currently Meier's role appears to be that of a creative director, simultaneously contributing to multiple projects.
Meier worked with a team on a dinosaur themed game starting early 2000, but announced in an online development diary on January 24, 2001 that the game had been shelved. Despite trying various approaches, including turn-based and real-time gameplay, he said he found no way to make the concept fun enough. In August 2005, Meier said "We've been nonstop busy making other games over the past several years, so the dinosaur game remains on the shelf. However, I do love the idea of a dinosaur game and would like to revisit it when I have some time."
Watch the great keynote speech Sid Meier gave at the Game Developers Conference in 2010, where he discusses the psychology of game design 
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Firaxis Games, home of Sid Meier, has a nice section where Sid Meier answers questions from fans - check it out here.
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