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Galactic Civilizations Q&A

We talk to Brad Wardell, creator of the original Galactic Civilizations, about this upcoming 4X game.

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Stardock Corporation, the Michigan-based developer best known for its economic strategy game, The Corporate Machine, is currently working on an updated version of Galactic Civilizations--a space-empire-building game originally created in the early 1990s. Like its predecessor, the new game will feature a combination of exploration, technology research, resource management, diplomacy, and military conquest, but it will include a number of improvements as well. The game is set in the 23rd century as human civilization is expanding into the galaxy. Players will compete against up to five other computer-controlled races for control of the territory, and they will have a great deal of freedom in their actions. Part of the challenge will be determining the best use for humankind's limited resources. The game is designed to give players a number of ways to win, including via military conquest, diplomatic alliances, economic domination, technological advancement, and other methods.

In the 23rd century, humans begin colonize the rest of the galaxy.
In the 23rd century, humans begin colonize the rest of the galaxy.

Why is Stardock making a new version of a 10-year-old strategy game? How is this game different from all the other space strategy games available? To find answers to these questions and learn more about the game, GameSpot recently spoke to Brad Wardell, creator of the original Galactic Civilizations and lead designer of the modern remake of the game.

GameSpot: Hi Brad, thanks for taking the time to answer some of our questions about Galactic Civilizations. First, can you give us a brief history of the project? How did it start out, and how long has it been in development?

Brad Wardell: I originally wrote Galactic Civilizations for OS/2 back in 1993. It gained quite a following, especially considering that it was just for IBM's OS/2 operating system. It was the first PC game to make use of multithreading (multitasking within itself) and could be played at 1024x768x16.8 million colors (at a time when 320x200x16 million colors was the norm).

When our company moved to Windows, we weren't really in a position to re-create Galactic Civilizations. Modern AAA games are a lot more expensive to make today than they used to be, so we first worked on Entrepreneur and its successor The Corporate Machine while our company grew into the Windows market. Late last year, we decided the time was right to start making a new Galactic Civilizations.

Galactic Civilizations was originally written for OS/2.
Galactic Civilizations was originally written for OS/2.

Since on the surface Galactic Civilizations could be seen as just another 4X strategy game, we knew our challenge would be to create enough content and enough features to distinguish it so that it would be a lengthy development process. That time would allow us to create so much content and bring enough innovation that players and reviewers would begin to be able to see that it wasn't the basic gameplay that made Galactic Civilizations special--it was the depth, the under-the-surface details, the execution of the game universe that mattered.

GS: Have you drawn inspiration from any games in particular?

BW: Probably the biggest source of inspiration has come from the popular board game Twilight Imperium. It is a terrific board game in which players must try to take over the galaxy. While it seems like "yet another conquest game" on the surface, what made it really special was how it allowed players to find multiple ways to win the game--ways that were equally valid. At the same time, it had far more interaction between players than one might normally see. Galactic Civilizations is by no means a computerized version of Twilight Imperium, but the influence is certainly there.

GS: What will make Galactic Civilizations stand out from other space-empire-building strategy games?

BW: The short answer is depth. Many strategy games will say, "There are multiple paths to victory," but in our experience, they tend to still be overwhelmingly biased towards military conquest. In Galactic Civilizations, there really are multiple equal paths to domination, including political domination through the accumulation of influence points.

Victory conditions in this game aren't just limited to military conquest.
Victory conditions in this game aren't just limited to military conquest.

One thing I mean by depth is that the game has an unprecedented number of events that come into play and can greatly alter a specific game. A player might be playing every day for months and still run into many new events that alter the game. Similarly, the game has the United Planets, in which players can actually vote to change various game rules.

One of the more interesting innovations, though, is going to be in the metaverse. Galactic Civilizations is a single-player game in itself. But users who play on Stardock.net will be playing as part of the metaverse. Think of it as all the players who play the game combined into a single galaxy (or universe) where their victories, defeats, and campaigns are recorded. From that, we put together a map of the galaxy in which individuals or empires are mapped in real time. Additionally, players can opt to allow us to record their games in the metaverse itself. The AI can then automatically download the strategies used by the top-ranked players and incorporate it. As any game AI developer can tell you, sometimes the difference between a challenging computer player and a lame one is something simple, like what technology path they take or what order they build certain things and at what times they do so. These are things that the AI can download and thus simulate different players. We have quite a bit of experience in this sort of thing because of our Object Desktop Network (www.objectdesktop.net) code. When you combine all these things together, you can only hope to have a strategy game that truly feels organic--like you are playing a major part in an epic story that changes each time you play. And a story that interacts with the thousands of other players involved.

GS: Have any major changes been made to the game design during its development?

BW: Many minor ones so far. One of the things we are doing that may seem a bit odd is that we're going to have an open non-NDA beta test of the game, and we're going to do it early enough so that suggestions can actually be incorporated. This is a bit riskier than it sounds since early betas are pretty rough. But we're trying to view things in terms of the long run. One other innovation we hope to bring is in the way we deliver this game. That is, we're not going to just release it, put out a patch six weeks later, and move on to the next game or the sequel. Instead, we hope to treat it like we do our other products, like WindowBlinds and DesktopX and such, where there will be a Galactic Civilizations 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc. and where user ideas are incorporated into the game.

As an indie, we know we can't compete with the marketing and distribution of the major publishers. But we can hopefully make up for that by keeping the game fresh. As a gamer, you probably know the feeling of seeing a good game not get purchased because it's no longer "new enough." We are hoping that if we keep the game always new, we can keep it fresh for players to stay interested in it. So we actually anticipate making many changes to the game over time.

You'll interact with five other races throughout your campaign.
You'll interact with five other races throughout your campaign.

To this end, we're designing it so that users themselves can expand the game in unprecedented ways. We're not talking about including some editor. We mean that you will actually be able to create technologies, improvements, events, United Planet Issues, etc. and just drop them into your Galactic Civilizations directory. We are creating a library on the Galactic Civilizations Web site (which we'll be relaunching in the third week of February with an all newdesign and database), where users can share and trade these things. Those that are approved by the admins become "canon," which means that users with those modules installed will have their scores counted in the metaverse (this is to prevent people from making things that allow them to get incredibly high scores unfairly).

This is the strategy we've had with WindowBlinds and our other software. We focus on the key parts of the program and then open it up so that the users themselves can improve and expand it. To see a successful example of this, check out http://www.wincustomize.com, which is a site we run to let people trade in skins and themes for our nongame software. As a gamer, I want to be able to continue improving the game myself without having to interact with the developer. One of my favorite games of all time is Total Annihilation, and what I wouldn't give to be able to easily update and expand the features of that without being very technical.

GS: What's been the biggest surprise during the game's development?

This game certainly isn't a one-man effort.
This game certainly isn't a one-man effort.

BW: The biggest surprise has just been the realization of how many human beings it now requires to make a modern game. With Galactic Civilizations on OS/2, I basically wrote it myself while in college. Even The Corporate Machine, which you guys gave an 8.4, was basically me, one of our graphics designers part-time, and an engine developer part-time. But making Galactic Civilizations (the new one) has been a whole new level where there are now several people intimately involved 60 hours a week on it, and that's quite a change. I'm usually a bit shy about showing what we make to neighbors because, well, you've seen The Corporate Machine--it's a good game, but not exactly impressive at first sight. Now with Galactic Civilizations it's the opposite--the cutscenes, the music, and the features are just so interesting and exciting.

GS: How far along is the game at this point? What specific parts is the team working on right now?

BW: Right now we're still in early beta. You can play the game, but it's basically a conquest game. We let some external alpha testers in on the beta to make sure that the new graphics libraries work on more versions of Windows than what we have internally. Integrated video in the game was something we hadn't done before, for instance, so we've been moving on that.

From here on out, it's just going to be a mad dash to get the major features in and the content built for it before ship date.

Look for Galactic Civilizations this fall.
Look for Galactic Civilizations this fall.

GS: And when is that?

BW: We are targeting an October 2002 release date, and so far we're on track for that. But we are fortunate in that we have the luxury of releasing when we want to, as we're not currently under any publisher's milestones and the game is funded internally.

GS: Is there anything else you'd like to add?

BW: At the end of the day, our goal for Galactic Civilizations is for it to be one of those classic PC strategy games that people point to and say, "Now that's a great game!" It may seem silly to say that, but we really believe that we're creating something special, something that really hasn't been done before, and doing it in a way that is relatively new in the PC gaming industry.

On February 11, we relaunched the new Galactic Civilizations.com (the old one is kind of ugly and primitive). Hopefully users will be able to begin to see what we see in Galactic Civilizations and what we hope to do.

GS: Thanks again, Brad.

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