Pacing in 4X strategy games is crucial. So I decided to look at GalCiv II, GalCiv III and the GalCiv IV alpha to take a look at how fast things move along. Turn GalCiv II (Twilight of the Arnor) GalCiv III (Retribution) GalCiv IV [Alpha] 1 · Researched New Propulsion Techniques [7 turns] · Planet Project: Innovation Complex [16 weeks] · Music: Haunting · Startport: Rush bought Colony ship with monthly p...
The Galactic Civilizations games are known for their ship design features. But ship design occurs before the ship is made. What about after? Galactic Civilizations IV will be introducing a new feature for upcoming Beta version (this Winter) called “The Vault”. The Vault is a set of special items the player either produces or, more commonly scavenges across the galaxy. Destroying the monster ships, pirates, enemy fleets, etc. will result in scavenging thing...
In the previous entry, we discussed whether we needed a battle viewer. That’s because combat in GalCiv IV works somewhat differently than previous entries. Specifically: Combat on the map can involve multiple (ranged) tiles which complicates things a bit.Combat can take multiple turns which complicates thingsAfter getting a lot of helpful feedback we think we’ve come up with a way to have our cake and eat it too: AAR (After Action Reports). Whenever combat takes place,...
For many years, I have put the Galactic Civilizations games through their paces to see how well a given game does at feeling like a story. I do this to help nitpick things we need to change. With the beta for GalCiv IV just around the corner, I thought I’d see how well the game stacks up so far. I also will be inserting comments that normally we would have at internal meetings, but for you aspiring game developers I wanted to show some of the feedback the team gets fro...
Starting with Galactic Civilizations II, we allowed players to go and watch their ships fight it out in battle in a separate battle viewer screen. But, what if we could show the battle on the main screen? That is, what if we could just zoom in on a fleet and rather than it being the leader ship with a number by it, it actually changed to show the entire fleet? So if you wanted to watch a fleet fight it out, you would just watch it right on the map. Thoughts? ___________________...
The process of getting a new player into your game and making that process an enjoyable experience can be the difference between success and failure for your game. If you make a game for a publisher, you can assume there will be a milestone that involves the onboarding. Let’s take a look at how GalCiv IV does it and what has changed since GalCiv III. Title Screen We went through many iterations for the title screen. How many buttons should there be? Which buttons sh...
“This is just GalCiv II but with better graphics,” was a comment some GalCiv fans made when GalCiv III was first released. That was no more true than saying Civilization V was just Civilization IV with better graphics, but we understood where they were coming from. There weren’t a lot of big bullet item changes from the previous version. That was because most of our time and budget was spent building a brand new space 4X game engine. As good as GalCiv II was, it was bu...
Somewhere around here I have the original image of the Yor from 1992. They don’t resemble the modern Yor very much. When I wrote the Yor origin story back in 1987 (when I was in high school) the Yor followed the common trope of AI servants who rose up against their masters. Their masters, in this case, were a race of beings known as the Iconians (who are also in the game). The Yor of 1995Yor of 2021As time has gone by, I’ve thought about making the Yor be less Cy...
One of the challenges we have in setting up maps is the question of how quickly should players be meeting other civilizations in the game? How quickly should things show up? How much should the game direct you? I decided to take a hard look at GalCiv II and GalCiv III to see how different those first 20 turns worked out. GalCiv II: First 20 turnsTurn 1: No on-screen direction but the UI is pretty clean and My ship is already selected to move.Selected ship has an automate butto...
For this entry, we are going to give you a tour of Galactic Civilizations IV as it exists, in alpha state, in June 2021. We’re very excited. There’s a lot in here but so very much more to do. Note: I’m playing at 5K so I’m smushing my screenshots down so that they’re not quite so huge. Choosing a Civilization For the Alpha, you can only play as the humans. This is because we intend to make the civilizations much more distinct than t...
During the development of a game, many ideas will look good on paper only to be found to not work out in practice. Normally, these ideas get killed off before implementation and even fewer ever get seen by the public. In the case of Galactic Civilizations IV, because we’re going out in ALPHA, you will get to see some ideas fully implemented that we have already decided didn’t work out. Today’s example for discussion: The Ideology compass. Here’s how it wor...
After working in the shadows for so long it is great to finally be able to announce a game and hear that you are as excited as we are for Galactic Civilizations IV. We have an amazingly talented team here and I wanted to introduce them as you may be chatting with as we go through early access and release. == DESIGN & PRODUCTION == Brad Wardell - Creative Director There is no Galactic Civilizations without Brad. He is the Creative Director for the game, which means he ...
Galactic Civilizations is a 4X space strategy game set in the future right after humans have launched their first colony ship into space. The popular franchise is well known for combining good AI, free-form ship movement, and a ship designer. The current edition, Galactic Civilizations III, was released in 2015 to much praise from both gamers and reviewers with particular emphasis on its high replay value, extensive technology tree and clever computer opponents. Now, 6 years later, S...
With the benefit of hindsight… Every 4X game I’ve played struggles with the late game. This is because they tend to become a micromanagement slog where the outcome of the game was known long before. So how do you address this? Well, the wrong way to do it is with AI governors or other such “help” from the AI. GalCiv IV flips the concept of governors on its head. In previous GalCiv games, you had to manage every single planet you colonized. ...
So how do you make your galactic civilization feel like it’s a living, breathing thing? Put (simulated) living, breathing things in it: characters. We have moved everything that makes sense from being an abstract number to being a character. Population? Instead of it being 3.2 billion, it's just 3 characters. Every character has stats and background. Every character has a set of skills with numerical values to them. They also have a backstory and can be interacted wit...