2. Who Are We? Soren Johnson Civ IV: Lead Designer/AI Programmer Civ III: Co-Designer/AI Programmer Dorian Newcomb Civ IV: Lead Animator Civ III: Animator

3. Why a Playable Prototype? Get to the fun faster Develop gameplay with low costs Can spend more time polishing! But… have to bug fix early!

4. Less is More: Small Teams Designer/programmer = faster prototyping Flat decision-making process Good communications (within earshot) Less pressure for “pretty” results 1st Year: 5 programmers, 2 artists, 1 producer

5. A History of Civilization IV New Features from Each Version:

6. Version A – September 2003  Turn-based, Tile-based  Fractalized Random Maps  Tech Tree  MP-Only!  Simultaneous Moves  Team Game  “Natural” Terrain Style  Visible Yield Symbols  Multiple Unit Selection  “Progress Bar” Concept

7. Multiplayer First?!? Easier to go from MP to SP Same with Simultaneous Moves to Turn-Based Can test features/balance without AI Early team buy-in for design

8. Prototype “Fun” Testing Weekly Play Session (Consistent day & time) Designers can never skip, ever. Extra goodies help (Papa John’s!) Try a testing “pit” But… it requires a weekly release plan

9. Version B – December 2003  Single Combat Strength (+ Modifiers)  Collateral Damage  XP and Promotions  Civics  Health  Maintenance  Improvements/Resources  Python/XML  Designed to Middle Ages  Tile-based Rivers and Hills  Dynamic Help System  First Popups (Choose a Tech)  Screens: City, Diplo

10. Civics Gone Bad Abandoned Types Welfare State Federal Reserve Legalism State Atheism Fundamentalism Bad Ideas Blind Research Blind Production Build Military with Food Interest on Treasury

11. Version C – May 2004  Religion (levels)  Great People  Multiple Leaders/Civ (and Traits)  Workers/Settlers Built from Food  Happiness and Culture Sliders  2-Move Workers  Design to Modern Age  Saturated Terrain Palette  Font Icons (for Help System)  More Popups (Production)  Very Early Advisors (Python)  Screens: Intro! MP Lobby!

12. The “Play Session” Starts small (10 – 20) during Summer ‘04 Invitation only – no public announcement Peaks at around 100-150 by release date Bi-weekly patches Community leads for sp, mp, and modding

13. Version D – August 2004  Religion (boolean)  Return of Free Palace  Impassable Terrain (Ice, Peaks)  Great People & Golden Ages  Victories  Game Speeds  Map Scripts!  World-Builder  Scenario File Format (Text)  Animated Resources  Tile-Based Land/Sea  Hammers replace Shields

14. Religion in Civilization IV but first…

15. There are few games that show any flair for simplification. 'Sid Meier’s Civilization' is one; Sid was so brutal in his simplification of history that I sometimes wince at the game's inaccuracies. Yet the result of Sid's design parsimony was one of the greatest computer games of all time. - Chris Crawford

16. Religion: Simple is Better… and Safer! v1.0: Levels (None, Low, Medium, High) v2.0: Countable (Number of Praying Hands) v3.0: Boolean (Either There or Not There) “Natural Diffusion” vs. Missionaries

17. Version E – January 2005  Limited Specialists  Wonders create Great People  Combine Happiness and Luxury Sliders  Automated Workers  Starting Eras  Multi-unit Graphics  Unit Flags  Subdued Terrain Palette  Tile-Based Coastlines  Prototype Animated Leader  First Main Interface Pass  Screens: Tech Tree

18. Whither AI? Not easy to prototype Traditional testing fails too Need hard-core fans to analyze Automated testing helps greatly And… don’t forget that fun comes first!

19. Version F – April 2005  Auto-Explore  Prototype art disappearing  Art “Final” Animated Leader (Gandhi)  Final Button Art (Units, Buildings)  Final Improvement Art  Multi-unit Graphics (4 to 5)  Civ-specific Flags  Natural Border System  Tile-Based Terrain  Improved Rivers & Coasts  Final Font  Early Civilopedia  Screens: Foreign, Religion

20. Coastline Evolution

22. Version G – June 2005  Air Units  Globe View!  Flood Plains Art  Multi-unit Graphics (5 to 3)  Improved Combat Animations  Plateau System for Hills  Subdued Terrain Textures  Goto Lines  New Interface Middleware  “Final” City Screen  Rebuilt Diplo Screen  Animated Leaders  City Billboards  Screens: Military, Civilopedia

23. No More Tiles? HillsRiversTerrain but wait…

24. Civilization is a Turn-Based Game

25. Civilization is a Tile-Based Game

26. The Return of the Tiles HillsRiversTerrain

27. Retail Version – October 2005  L-System for City Graphics  Air Unit Animations  Improved Hills and Peaks  Tree Cuts  Front-end Interface  Full Interface Conversion  Selectable Cities  Python World-Builder  Screens: Histograph, Rewards

29. When Important Changes Were Made

30. The Civ 4 Development Experience  Gameplay: First Half  Graphics: Second Half  Interface: Early and Late But… it’s never too early to work on good Interface Widgets

31. Art Prototypes Different goals from playable prototype “Functional” concept art Develop art prototypes outside production loop Avoid waiting to see if it’ll work “in-game”

33. 5 vs. 5 melee combat (Standard)

34. 1 vs. 5 melee combat (Extreme Case)

35. It takes too long to move units…

36. Do this whenever you can

37. All new art should have an “in-game” concept image.

38. The Point Iterate on fun when it’s cheap Finish game before production starts Art must reflect gameplay

39. Questions? www.designer-notes.com