September 2010

Win My Copy: Civilization V

September 27, 2010

While not technically “my” copy this time around, we ended up with an extra Steam code for Civ V. To celebrate the game’s release (and our review), we are going to select one lucky winner to get that extra code.

To enter, simply respond to this thread telling me why you should get this code. Get a second entry by retweeting the tweet promoting this contest. The winner will be randomly chosen on Friday, October 1st.

Contest Rules

  • Winner must reside in the United States or Canada
  • Winner must be 18 years of age or older

Civilization V

September 26, 2010

Games have long simulated certain activities or facets of human life, but the Civilization series has been the only one to successfully simulate the entirety of human existence. In the first four entries in the series, the same core ideas were refined and expanded to various degrees, but the original’s balance was painstakingly preserved. Civilization V was not so conservative with its changes, and surprisingly there’s very little that went wrong with the adjustments.

For those who haven’t played a Civilization game, it follows a path from settling your first ancient city to the modern era, with expansion, scientific advancements and military conflict. Players can win one of five ways: besides simply having the most points when time runs out, victory is claimed by eliminating the other players, by advancing culturally, by gaining majority support of the United Nations or by building a space shuttle. Getting there, though, is an epic task that takes thousands of years in-game and only slightly less time out of it.

The first major change is that everything is based on a hexagonal grid, rather than squares. This is a huge (and welcome) change from every other Civ game. The format leads to much more realistic maps and combat. Combined with the one-military-unit-per-tile rule, this makes for much more strategic, even-handed combat. 

Economics have been revamped as well. There are no more sliders for you to divide up your commerce as you see fit. Instead, science, culture and gold have been separated almost entirely. Science is now produced by citizens and learning institutions, while gold is harvested from working tiles and constructing buildings, and is used to upkeep everything in your empire from your roads to your armies. Culture has been detached entirely from your economy and is now based entirely on structures.

Diplomacy is now less about calculating how much a country likes you based on various point modifiers, and more about deciding how long it should wait before stabbing players in the back. The A.I. plays to win now, rather than just to survive. Not only that, but each ruler has his or her own victory stratagem. Napoleon will try to amass a land army. Elizabeth will build more than her share of naval vessels. It doesn’t pigeonhole them either, as they’ll adapt if their primary goals are harder to reach.

The diplomatic process gets a little more complicated, too, with the addition of city-states. City-states are small nations that don’t try to win the game. Instead, they’re there to be allies in times of war, obstructions on the path of expansion or just another foe to take down. Gaining their support is as simple as handing them some gold, though they’ll ask for other things as well. Sometimes they’ll ask for military aid against an enemy, and other times they’ll just ask you to build a Wonder. Getting their support is crucial to a diplomatic victory, as each city-state has a vote in the United Nations.

The cultural system has, inevitably, also gotten a revamp. Instead of the old system of adopting Civics, players purchase Social Policies with culture points. They can shape their societies in this way, focusing on a large empire, strong soldiers or maritime commerce. What’s more, you can mix and match the various policies somewhat and use a little of each. (If you completely purchase five of the ten trees, you can build the Utopia Project and secure victory.)

Visually, the game impresses more than it ever has. The landscapes look much more realistic and less algorithmically-generated, allowing for extra realism. Leaders are fully-animated and in their element, rather than just heads in a window, and they express emotions in a much more believable way. Detailed unit battles look nice up-close, as actual shots are fired and real hits take down foes. All of this would be painful to lower-end systems, except Firaxis has made sure that settings levels allow all players to get the most out of their hardware. 

The multiplayer system is a new one as well. Based entirely on Steam (the main reason why all players must use it to play the game at all), there has been a concerted effort to streamline the experience. It takes a few cues from the console Civilization Revolution, and the changes make things much more pleasant. There are still a few hiccups here and there, but it’s an impressive mode for a turn-based game.

Civ V is not Civ IV. It’s different, and in ways that make things much more painless. The result is a game that keeps you playing for way longer than you ever meant to.

Pros: Streamlined system, tactical battles, graphical upgrades

Cons: Multiplayer hiccups, some elements removed in streamlining effort, if you need to leave the house in the next few weeks this may not be the game for you

Staff writer Shawn Vermette contributed to this review.

Defend Your Castle

September 26, 2010

Defend Your Castle is a castle defense game from XGen Studios that started life as a Flash game in 2003 before making the jump to WiiWare in 2008. With the massive growth in the iOS market, XGen did the smart thing and built an updated version of DYC for the iPhone and iPad.

The game is quite simple: your goal is to defend your castle from hordes of invaders. You start out with a basic castle, and your only means of defense is to flick the invaders into the air and let gravity do the rest. Points are awarded for each kill and at the end of the round you can spend those points to repair your castle, upgrade your castle’s health, or purchase additional abilities. Available abilities include spellcrafting, archery, demolitions, and craftsmen to repair your castle.

The game has 5 types of enemies that do varying degrees of damage to your castle: plain invaders, rammer invaders, exploding invaders, colossus invaders, and catapult invaders. The basic types of invaders can all be killed with the flick of a finger, but colossus and catapult invaders cannot be flicked into the air and require multiple hits to take them out.

In addition to killing invaders, they can also be converted to allies. This is accomplished by dropping them into the Pit of Conversion or by spraying them with the conversion spell. Once allies, they can be allocated as archers, mages, craftsmen, or demolition experts. Demolition experts are sent out on to the battle field to detonate enemies around them while the remaining unit types remain in your castle. The larger number of units allocated to each ability/class, the more arrows or the quicker your spells recharge.

As the game progresses, the enemies get faster, come in larger groups, and the rounds last longer. For a castle with all of the abilities upgraded, this doesn’t mean a whole lot because the levels are still pretty easy. For many, the game will reach a plateau and stop being fun once you’ve maxed out your castle. For others, the inclusion of achievements will keep you playing for quite some time. We’d like to see XGen update the title with some new abilities, enemies, or trophies to keep the game fresh.

I was initially attracted to Defend Your Castle because of the stick figure artwork, but the gameplay was enough to pull me away from Angry Birds for a few weeks. At 99 cents this would be a no brainer, but XGen Studios has this one priced at three bucks. Defend Your Castle is definitely one of the better games I’ve played on my iPhone.

Editor’s note: Brad Talton is an independent game designer and developer. What kind of games? Video games? Board games? Card games? Well, yes. His company, Level 99 Games, creates all kinds of geekiness. In a series of columns here at SBG, Brad shares insights into the game creation process. In this installment, he talks about building out a game from the base concept.

With the skeleton of the game built, my next step is to identify which parts of the game require fleshing out. This is a problem that can usually be attacked on several fronts. The player characters need to have all of their attacks programmed, the stories need to be written, and some of the minigames have stages that need to be programmed. These different aspects can be approached as they become relevant, or according to whim. Once the shape of the skeleton is established, the actual content insertion can be done at leisure.

All the while that this is happening, there will be new ideas that come along, and need to be accommodated or thrown out. I had originally intended to put a kind of Pong variant into the game as a two player minigame, for example, but that idea was dropped out for various reasons. On the flipside, while writing the story, I discovered that writing the characters in a sort of “fourth wall” style was very interesting, and decided to include unlockable comic mini-stories as part of the gallery mode, as rewards for some minigame achievements.

 

When developing different game modes, the big question is “what can be salvaged from the existing game modes to make new game modes.” Training mode and story mode can be derived easily from versus—just include some extra controls or an AI engine. 

The deconstruction of the game’s premise to make minigames isn’t just in terms of coding, however. One of the minigames, Corridor Runner, focuses on using your character to dodge a series of hazardous  traps and reach a target—the dodging aspect of SPCF3‘s versus mode. Another, Trick Shots, allows you to use a set of limited shots to eliminate targets that have been placed in hard to reach spots. This minigame is a deconstruction of the variety of attacks available to the different characters and how they can interact. If the minigames aren’t derived from the same premise and mechanics as the base game, they will feel out of place when bundled with the main game.

Minigames and derived modes need to not only be culled from the premise of the main game, but they need to be rewarding in their own right. Playing the story unlocks new characters, so players are motivated to play the story. There needs to be some incentive associated with the minigames as well. 

For achievement driven players, a series of medals and leaderboards are enough. Unlockable gallery content can be a big motivator for others—especially if the unlockables drive the story or characters forward more. 

By creating a wide range of achievements and unlockables—ranging from the simple to the near-impossible, it is possible to get a great deal of mileage and playability out of game modes which would otherwise be discarded quickly. Most gamers are goal-driven, and will play a game mode relentlessly to achieve their goals. The same game, equally as well-built and fun, would be forgotten by these players if it did not present some concrete goal.

 

There are a lot of reasons to include cheats and secrets in your games. Some of these are obvious—it’s nice to include fun bonuses that don’t quite fit on the options menu. It’s fun to leave in a few easter eggs for people to find. When you’re developing independently, you can and should include things just because you think they’re fun—it’s part of the charm of doing it yourself. 

However, cheat codes and secrets have other uses, too. Including cheat codes that can only be found online or via leaks will entice players to go online and talk about the game, to scour your forums, and start up dialogue about how to get a particular unlockable or cheat code. You can even sponsor community-based “treasure hunts” for your cheat codes, or save them as additional press releases and hooks to continue generating news about your game even after release. If you release a fun easter egg or cheat code in your site’s posts or newsletter every third week, you can bet your bottom dollar that subscriptions to your RSS will go up and traffic will increase. Effectively used, secret content can give your players a more enjoyable game, and boost awareness of your future projects.

In the next installment, Brad will talk about generating buzz and interest for your project before release.

Character art by Victoria Parker for Level 99 Games.

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