Name: Mike Ely
Title: Technically Programmer/Designer, but in practice I do all kinds of stuff. I'm also the Firaxis Webmaster, which is a pretty fun job.

LDespot: What did you do for SMG?
Mike Ely: I did a lot of work on both of the manuals, created the tutorials, helped a little with the multimedia, and wrote the line draw routine used to draw the fences in the game (yes, I'm pretty proud of that last one).

LDespot: What are you working on for Alpha Centauri?
Mike Ely: For Alpha I'm overseeing the Secret Project movies, working on the web site (which will be cool when we get it rolled out...any ideas you have you can email to webmaster@firaxis.com) and programming the Datalinks screen (the place where you get all of the info about game stuff).

LDespot: How did you end up at Firaxis?
Mike Ely: I knew a lot of the cool folks here from the MicroProse days, so it seemed a logical place to go after I left MPS last February. (Editor's Note: "last February" = February 1997)

LDespot: Are there any suggestions you would have for someone trying to get a job in the game industry in a position similar to your own?
Mike Ely: Learn to work well in a team. Plunge in to whatever aspect of the job you're interested in...read books, play with the software and tools, etc. Keep asking yourself the most important question in game design...'is this cool?' Learn to move out of your own mind and see things as a player would.

LDespot: Is there anything else you would like to say to the gaming community (This is your chance to vent, praise, or babble to the world)?
Mike Ely: This is a very cool industry, and I'm darn happy to be working in it.

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