Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends Designer Diary #2 - Campaign Background

After letting you take over the world in 2003's acclaimed real-time strategy game Rise of Nations, Big Huge Games and Microsoft are planning to let you try to take over a completely new world in Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends, the follow-up to GameSpot's 2003 PC Game of the Year. Rise of Legends is a fantasy-based game set in a world where magic and technology war with each other. You'll take control of one of four factions in the game, with the goal of eliminating the others through superior strategy. Rise of Legends will incorporate and improve upon many of the innovative gameplay features that made Rise of Nations a hit, such as the concepts of borders, attrition, and a wickedly fast pace. Rise of Legends isn't due out until next year, though. So in the meantime, check out the second chapter of our designer diaries, in which Big Huge Games provide details on the game's campaign.

A Legendary Campaign

Ike Ellis and Paul Stephanouk
Big Huge Games

In Brian Reynolds' first developer diary, he talked in depth about how Big Huge Games came to develop Rise of Legends, a fantasy-based real-time strategy game. He also outlined exactly what qualities make a game worthy of belonging to the Rise series. One of these crucial features is a single-player campaign with strong, strategic gameplay.

With the original Rise of Nations, we succeeded in creating an exciting, strategic level of campaign play. In its expansion, Thrones and Patriots, we were able to craft more-focused campaigns and scenarios that really allowed players to get a taste of real historical events while still allowing them to make their own important strategic choices. Players didn't just get to do what Napoleon did, but they were placed into his world and allowed to choose how to go about expanding France's empire. We knew that we needed to create a new game that drew upon the strengths of our previous efforts, while at the same time offering new experiences to players. We set off with the twin goals of creating a strong story that excited players about the Rise of Legends world and creating a compelling, open-ended campaign.

A fantastic story was a requirement for the campaigns from the start. If we were going to convince people that the world we were creating was interesting and worth exploring, we would have to draw them in with the story. Usually the terms "in-depth narrative" and "open-ended gameplay" don't go together well, but with Rise of Legends, we knew that we had to make them go hand in hand. Developing a gameworld and a narrative that plays out within it is a topic worthy of numerous articles on its own. So, this diary will just discuss how we attacked the problem of incorporating narrative into a strategic campaign where the player has free will.

The strategic campaign in Rise of Legends will be instantly familiar to anyone who played Rise of Nations. You'll see a fully 3D world with territory borders and armies standing in them. Many of the gameplay features will be familiar, too. You will use your armies to conquer territories and capitals, eventually bringing the map under your control. Your territories will bring you the resources that you need to accomplish your goals. A second glance will tell you that this time there is a lot more going on.

In Rise of Legends, your goals will usually not be to simply capture all of the territories. You might have the objective of capturing a specific resource on the map. You might need to defeat a certain enemy. Other times, you will need to uncover the secret locations of important people or things. In order to accomplish these goals, you will have to develop a nation. As you capture new territories, you will upgrade the cities within them by building districts. These cities will often be reflected in the battles that you play. You will also research and upgrade your military units on the strategic map. Some types of military units only come from certain areas on the strategic map. If you do not control those areas, you can't get access to those units. The most important new features of the campaigns, however, lie in the characters and in strategic character development.

In Rise of Legends, you will direct the actions of the nation led by the Vinci inventor Giacomo. Giacomo is a contented scholar living in a prominent city called Miana. It just so happens that his brother is that city's ruler. Giacomo's proximity to power never really matters to him, except that it gives him access to the supplies that he needs for his inventions. This perfect world is torn apart when Giacomo's brother is assassinated while investigating an incident at a nearby mine. Suddenly Giacomo must assume responsibility for his nation's welfare and must leave behind the solitary life that he cherished. The only way that Giacomo will make it through this change is to rely on Sergeant Carlini, his brother's right-hand man. The moment Giacomo takes power, Carlini is beside him to guide Giacomo through the perils of ruling a nation. Carlini is the first character from the story that will join up with Giacomo and be available for you to use during battles.

Through the course of the campaigns, you will build up an entourage of important and wildly diverse characters, like Sergeant Carlini. Giacomo will encounter these characters throughout the world, and, depending on your actions, they may or may not choose to join the entourage. Your decisions about potential entourage members cannot be made lightly. Each character has important and unique abilities that will affect your success in the campaigns. Each time that you fight a battle, you will have the opportunity to choose which entourage members join the battle. These members participate as hero units. Back on the strategic map, you have the opportunity to upgrade members of your entourage. They can gain new abilities and also recruit military units to follow them into battle. You might choose to max out Carlini's snipe ability, or maybe you'd rather boost Giacomo's squad to include a few clockwork men to help him out. At other times, during the heat of battle, critical decisions must be made regarding your entourage. Who will attack? Who will lead? Whose allegiance is most important to you? Your choices on the strategic map, as well as those on the battlefield, will have profound implications for the campaigns that you face with your heroes.

The campaigns in Rise of Legends will let you navigate an intense strategic struggle while driving forward an epic story, without feeling like the story is forcing you to do anything that you didn't choose to do. Armed with your entourage and your strategic wits, you will be well equipped to take on the challenges that await you in Big Huge Games' Rise of Legends.