Designer Notes

MARCH 31, 2023

So, why should I go back to make a historical, tile-based 4X game? Here are some screen’s from the game’s prototyping phase. 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. somewhere in the comments.

Tile 98

Tile Point and Click AI Mechanics 98

Designer Notes

AUGUST 10, 2021

The big change that always gets mentioned when going from Civ 4 to Civ 5 is one-unit-per-tile (1UPT), which is interesting as 1UPT is purely a mechanical – as opposed to thematic – change. Generally speaking, opinions were divided over (although largely in favor of) the success of one-unit-per-tile.

Tile 40

Tile Point and Click AI Mechanics 40

PreMortem.Games

DECEMBER 16, 2024

RimWorld is balanced around sitting on a single map, with everything easily accessible. Without it, rendering the 800.000 tiles that compromise the game map became problematic, so the team had to spend a week on optimizing that. Interacting with the wider world is entirely optional. Being a new engine, Godot is still rough in places.

Dev 104

Dev Development Feature Prototyping 104

PreMortem.Games

NOVEMBER 15, 2023

RimWorld is balanced around sitting on a single map, with everything easily accessible. Without it, rendering the 800.000 tiles that compromise the game map became problematic, so the team had to spend a week on optimizing that. Interacting with the wider world is entirely optional. Being a new engine, Godot is still rough in places.

Dev 118

Dev Development Feature Prototyping 118

Designer Notes

AUGUST 2, 2021

In the original version, one player discovered that the optimum strategy was to cover every fourth tile on the board with a city, a mind-numbingly boring strategy that was always the best choice. Namely, building an urban improvement and producing a specialist on any tile extend the city borders in all six directions.

Tile 52

Tile Build Mechanics Prototyping 52

Brand Game Development

NOVEMBER 20, 2017

At that point, I’m getting close to a prototype. In a game I co-designed with Matt Greenleaf, which is currently unpublished, I had come up with a mechanic that was whenever a player made a move, the game state would either go to imbalance or balance.

Mechanics 130

Mechanics Games Game Design Game Designer 130

Keith Burgun

JANUARY 4, 2023

At different parts of the bridge there were investment tiles, so on a basic level the premise was kind of, “do I move to a relatively unsafe investment tile, or do I BUMP?” You win by bumping the opponent into damage areas, dealing damage to them until their health reached zero, before they could do it to you.

Mechanics 52

Mechanics Game Design Game Designer Playtesting 52