Designer Notes

MARCH 31, 2023

So, why should I go back to make a historical, tile-based 4X game? Civ inherited this mechanic directly from Empire, a game from the 80s which had much of the same tile-based, turn-based combat as Civ but without the scope of all human history. New borders would come from tile specialists and urban improvement.

Tile 98

Tile Point and Click AI Mechanics 98

Brand Game Development

SEPTEMBER 4, 2017

All these games together will teach you a wide variety of mechanics. Don’t study the mechanics of this game. As a game dev, you need to play games like Catan and Pandemic to understand how to make game mechanics, but you also need to play games like Codenames to understand player behavior. They’re cheap.

Dev 130

Dev Games Mechanics Concepts 130

Grid Sage Games

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

In this test recording, a robot created by the Botcube is represented with a Mutant tile, but will have their own once released. The answer is most , but there are a few exceptions, generally including things that AI-controlled bots can’t really use, or aren’t suitable for certain types of allies from an architectural standpoint.

Mechanics 52

Mechanics Build Point and Click Tile 52

Designer Notes

OCTOBER 14, 2021

Simulations can be great games, but they tend not to be a good format for turn-based games with transparent game mechanics. It worked extremely well from a mechanical perspective, which is all we needed for early MP testing before the game even had characters, families, and events. We were being so old-fashioned!

AI 40

AI Simulation Mechanics Mobile Gaming 40

Designer Notes

APRIL 1, 2023

The system is certainly more complicated than a traditional tech tree, but it helps a lot that many players are already familiar with deck-building mechanics because of their popularity. One of Civ’s most troublesome systems is the tile/citizen model, where your food, production, and commerce is determined by which tiles your citizens work.

Tile 77

Tile Build Point and Click Technology 77

Designer Notes

AUGUST 31, 2021

With that preamble done and due praise given, it is all the more remarkable that one bad game mechanic has been preserved from version to version, tweaked perhaps, adjusted at times, but still as clumsy, fiddly, and unnecessary in 2021 as it was in 1991 – the system of placing citizens on tiles.

Tile 40

Tile Terrain Game Design Game Designer 40

Radiator Blog

JUNE 30, 2022

A broughlike is a variation on a roguelike named after designer Michael Brough , who has spoken before on his design patterns like square tiles, orthogonal movement, turn parity, glitching, limited info, simple maze designs, minimal resources. For instance, Zugzwang's hanky code also gives a vital hint for predicting AI behavior.

Code 100

Code Education Educational Prototyping 100