Hey Walter, did Sid Meier ever consult you while developing the Civilization series? I recognized a lot of similarities between Civ and Classic Empire when I went back and played the older games in the series.
Before 1991 (the year the first Civ came out), it's nearly all flight sims, with some original IP (Pirates!, Railroad Tycoon, Covert Action, Sword of the Samurai) near the end of that run, as he began to grow away from his partner Bill Stealey's focus on flight sims into a designer in his own right.
> Meier was also a big fan of an early computer game called Empire, which combined Risk-like world domination with intricate city management. "At one point, [Meier] asked me to make a list of 10 things I would do to Empire to make it a better game," says Shelley. "That was some of his research on Civilization."
I'd always suspected that was the case. It's nice to hear an acknowledgement, and I'm happy Empire was an inspiration.
I've been told by various people that Civilization was inspired by Empire (the first computer god game as far as I know), but I'd like to ask Sid if that is true!
(There's also the older Hammurabi game, but that one has no map.)
The book "The Player of Games" by Iain M. Banks was inspired by the computer game "Sid Meier's Civilization" and it paints a picture of a profoundly dysfunctional empire which is governed by the use of an elaborate game. Mark Zuckerberg recently recommended the book, but it's highly thought of by SF fans generally.
("Civilization" was a development of "Railroad Tycoon", an earlier PC game inspired by the boardgame series 18xx designed by Francis Tresham, starting in the 70s)
Sid's a very interesting game designer, he's phenomenal at making fun games - in any genre - but his games are fundamentally simple ones. If you take Civ 2-4, or SMAC, the strategic depth largely comes from the likes of Brian Reynolds and Soren Johnson. The mechanics they've designed are more complex than what Sid does, but Sid started it with his genius intuition for what makes a game fun.
For those so inclined, CivRev, the game that was basically "civ on consoles" is an actual Sid Meier and an interesting window into how he would have continued the series (the latest Designer Notes podcast goes into some length on this). CivRev is simpler, faster paced and dispenses with most of the detail of the PC games, but can be fun, even if not deep.
I love projects like these! I don't have anything to add to what others have already said about nostalgia and simpler times, except I watched the Civilization intro and almost started a play-through. The original Civilization tile set is so pleasant to look at.
This is a severe distortion of what really happened. The co-designer of Civilization was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Shelley, who worked at Avalon Hill for six years before moving to MicroProse. The similarities were not coincidental. Civilization (the board game) was extremely successful and well-known, and is still influential on video games, being the origin of the "tech tree." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_tree
I played civilization a lot back in the day mainly because it was the only game my computer could play. I monitor was so crummy I think it had EGA graphics. because of this now I know what the gardens of Hammurabi and a lot of other of the wonders of the world just by building them and knowing a little bit about what they did for the civilization that actually built them.
factoria is another good one that's really really fun and can also be really really educational if you think about the materials and resources and how you combine them. also if you really want to go crazy with it learning some math will help you fully optimize your factory but it's some pretty complicated math, at least for me.
Civilization is originally a desktop-only game with a complex UI. Please feel free to clone my prototype, make it fully responsive, and attach a more appropriate joke in the 404 page :)
Love that! Reminds me of playing Civilization games. Sending in my catapults to smash the enemy city to pieces! I always tried to time the discovery of mathematics with transitioning my economy to a war footing!
What I find fascinating about this project is it’s longevity. It was started in 1995, a year before Civ II came out. I remember playing it in 2000. And here it is still going. Development is pretty active and there is even a 3D mode.
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