Over at Gamasutra, Philip Goetz has written an interesting (and a little infuriating) article about interface design in strategy games. After counting about 1000 clicks in a single turn of Civilization III, Goetz came to the conclusion that the UI needed a major overhaul. It took him too long to do any particular task. Trying […]
Entries Tagged as 'Design'
Calvin and Hobbes
June 2nd, 2005 · 1 Comment · Design
Your favorite cartoon brat and stuffed tiger started as two of the great thinkers of the 16th and 17th centuries. John Calvin was the great Reformer whose strong opinions on right, wrong and the inevitable led to Puritanism and Presbyterianism. Thomas Hobbes was one of the first philosophers to put forth that all men were […]
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Default Powers in Discovery
May 23rd, 2005 · 7 Comments · Design, History
It’s funny how strategy games tend to follow each other as if there are default settings for what these virtual worlds are supposed to look like. I’ve already mentioned how the trebuchet moved from an obscure medieval weapon to being something that strategy gamers expect. Age of Empires II made this siege device a household […]
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Revisionism in Game Design?
April 15th, 2005 · 1 Comment · Design, History
Wonderland has posted an interesting complaint about the upcoming Age of Empires 3 game. The native population in the game will be mostly allies of the players, and not the targets of genocide, displacement or sport hunting as was often the case in history. The writer notes: I have a quote in my head that […]
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