Home Civilization: Beyond Earth “should have been more audacious”

Civilization: Beyond Earth “should have been more audacious”

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Civ beyond earth

I enjoyed Civilization: Beyond Earth, and playing it in recent months has shown me just how much the game has improved. However, it’s not as innovative as players had hoped – it wasn’t really a new Alpha Centuri, and was only slightly more innovative than Civilization V in space. The developers are kicking themselves for that now.

For a game about space and aliens, it’s amusing to think that Firaxis was too concerned about alienating players with Civilization: Beyond Earth. Speaking at GDC, co-lead designers Will Miller and David McDonough stated that they “should have been more audacious”.

In moving Civilization from a historical setting to a science fiction setting we had a real opportunity to do things differently. But we were too conservative.
We wanted to find a compromise between the game being like Civilization V and something entirely new. But in the end we were caught between the two poles. This left players feeling a little short-changed and flat, especially with aspects of the sci-fi that we kept close to our chest.

They cited the diplomacy system and wonders as glaring indications of this. Without historical figures or building to draw upon, they created fictional versions. However, they simply weren’t strong enough in their designs to capture the player’s imagination. These are things that the designers and developers are continuing to fix as the game evolves as a live experience. However, Miller and McDonough admitted that they should have put the game through an Open Beta to get more feedback from players before release.

Additionally, they pointed to the way that Firaxis works as a possible stumbling block for innovative game design.

The studio doesn’t grow and shrink as projects come and go. We keep a steady staff.” He explained that this way of operating offers employees security, and allows the studio to prepare art and code even when there isn’t a live project. “But this meant that the design remained gooey for a while, even while art and programming were steaming ahead. It’s a testament to their skill that they managed to pull off a terrific game despite the burden of having to change so much to accommodate the changing game design.

I have always felt so bad for developers losing their jobs at the end of a project – I never realized that the mobility and movement among a variety of studios would also improve innovation and keep things fluid for designers and developers.

I’m glad the designers can acknowledge their mistakes. I just wonder if the game will still go on for greater success after all the tinkering. Is a game’s launch value the only value it will ever have, or can players see its evolution and appreciate it in its final form?

Last Updated: March 6, 2015

22 Comments

  1. Captain JJ the damned

    March 6, 2015 at 09:32

    That Sid Meyer’s Starships is looking quite cool actually. I’m still a bit more drawn to Endless Legend at the moment, but it’s difficult to say no to any Civ game.

    Reply

    • Pariah

      March 6, 2015 at 09:45

      EL is great fun. Bought it without hesitation and I don’t regret it. 😀

      Reply

      • Brady miaau

        March 6, 2015 at 09:55

        Yes, played about 20 hours. But it is too overwhelming because I got ALL the DLC at once, did not grow into it.

        Reply

        • Pariah

          March 6, 2015 at 09:58

          Endless Legend has no DLC as yet, apart from the founder’s pack which doesn’t add too much to the game. O_o

          Reply

          • Brady miaau

            March 6, 2015 at 10:46

            Ah, but Endless Space does. Whoops

        • Captain JJ the damned

          March 6, 2015 at 10:00

          Stahp. I want it naow!

          Reply

  2. Pariah

    March 6, 2015 at 09:45

    • Admiral Chief

      March 6, 2015 at 09:56

      Wow, I see you went to the gym Tosh

      Reply

      • Pariah

        March 6, 2015 at 09:59

        I have to look good for my next E3 cosplay…

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief

          March 6, 2015 at 10:15

          Good? Or FABULOUS?

          Reply

          • Pariah

            March 6, 2015 at 10:16

            Sssssh. It’s my secret trick to lure women. Make them feel safe, then BAM SUPRYZE BUTTSE… I mean. FABULOUS.

          • Captain JJ the damned

            March 6, 2015 at 10:16

            Did someone say fabulous? ;P

          • Admiral Chief

            March 6, 2015 at 10:23

            Should have known you’d reply

          • Captain JJ the damned

            March 6, 2015 at 10:30

            😀
            Trolling myself actually

  3. Brady miaau

    March 6, 2015 at 09:55

    True. Very true.

    Why did they not, as the sadly no longer developer of Kingdoms of Amular did, and hire some true Sci-fi book writing talent to imagine for them? That was a super weak point. Stick to your strengths. Have the coders code, the teak makers make tea and so forth. It sounds like the developers imagined and that got in. nothing wrong with the, per se, either, but not only that

    Still played it a lot (90 odd hours) but………………………….

    Reply

    • Captain JJ the damned

      March 6, 2015 at 10:01

      I would have loved a new Kingdoms of Amalur. 🙁

      Reply

      • Pariah

        March 6, 2015 at 10:02

        Me too. That combat was great, dual chakrams FTW yo. I finished the game twice, which is more than I can say for a lot of games these days.

        Reply

        • Captain JJ the damned

          March 6, 2015 at 10:16

          Man, now you’re talking. Those chakrams. It didn’t have as many memorable moments like The Witcher and Skyrim (thought you can’t really compare those), but the combat system made that game so much fun.

          Reply

          • Brady miaau

            March 6, 2015 at 10:47

            Totally. chakrams made it all ok. Mage with fighter with chakrams. so much fun in combat

  4. Lardus-Resident Perve

    March 6, 2015 at 10:03

    Launch value can be the “alpha and omega” depending on how disastrous the game and the launch are initially. For example, XCom wasn’t bad at launch, but not perfect. However, not experiencing issues with it made me excited for “Enemy Within”, and now I only care about the awesome experience from the game plus expansion. Diablo 3 on the other hand – the launch AND game were such disasters at the beginning (seriously, online to play forever-alone?), I have not bothered with the game in a long time and only this week decided to order the expansion. Same for StarCraft 2 – only finished it last week and ordered the marked-down expansion this week.

    Reply

    • Lardus-Resident Perve

      March 6, 2015 at 10:06

      PS – Launch issues, day 1 patches, incomplete games…the biggest reasons I am waiting for a few months before getting any brand new games or expansions – to make sure it is actually worth it so I don’t get the bad taste like with DiaBLOWS 3

      Reply

  5. Sylvan Zarwell

    March 9, 2015 at 20:40

    Audacity? Try originality. Diplomacy sucked because it lifted the scripts straight from Civ V. The same lame dialogue was even worse coming out of the mouths of future leaders. Despite five years of complaints about diplomacy, they decided that it was okay to ship without even tweaking the language.

    Civ isn’t a wargame, naval combat is still nonexistent. Firaxis needs to remember that they make empire building games. I love Civ, but only a fool would buy anything with Sid’s name on it now.

    Reply

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