Civilization’s Michael Curran reveals new projects, career move
Following the reveal of Civilization: Beyond Earth at PAX East 2014 last weekend, we caught up with Civilization V audio lead and composer Michael Curran about his role on the project. He revealed that he extensively worked on the project, but left Firaxis last month to pursue an exciting new career venture.
Curran responded “I did work on Civilization: Beyond Earth as lead audio designer on that project before leaving Firaxis, and hopefully set a good direction for the overall sound of the game. I was pretty happy with the state of it when I left. I also contributed a fair amount of music along with Geoff Knorr. I’m excited to see how that turns out.” It has been confirmed that the score will be recorded in mid-June.
Asked why he left Firaxis, Curran revealed that he has joined Stardock Corporation, a long-running independent PC developer known for its work on the Elemental and Galactic Civilizations series. As audio lead at the company, Curran will oversee all aspects of music, sound, and voice production on Stardock’s upcoming titles. He will continue to compose music himself, in addition to outsourcing to external composers and sound designers.
Curran continues, “As audio lead at Stardock, my role will be somewhat similar to what I’ve been doing at Firaxis, but I’ll be taking on more projects simultaneously. I’ve been very busy assessing the many games they currently have in production, among them Galactic Civilizations III and the Star Control reboot you may have heard about. I am excited about the opportunity to build an audio department from the ground up in a studio with so much talent and such a long history of great games.”
In the past five years, Curran has engaged in an extremely successful collaboration with composer and orchestrator Geoff Knorr. Following their work on Civilization V and Civilization: Beyond Earth, Curran assures readers that their collaboration will continue on Galactic Civilizations III. Curran notes, “I’m also very excited about continuing my collaboration with Geoff Knorr and happy that we will have the opportunity to create music and sound design for more great games!”
Posted on April 18, 2014 by Chris Greening. Last modified on April 18, 2014.
About the Author
Chris Greening I've contributed to websites related to game audio since 2002. In this time, I've reviewed over a thousand albums and interviewed hundreds of musicians across the world. As the founder and webmaster of VGMO -Video Game Music Online-, I hope to create a cutting-edge, journalistic resource for all those soundtrack enthusiasts out there. In the process, I would love to further cultivate my passion for music, writing, and generally building things. Please enjoy the site and don't hesitate to say hello!
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