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Civ V Lead Designer Launches Kickstarter
Jon Shafer, formerly the lead designer of Firaxis’ Civilization V, has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a different kind of empire-building game. Instead of bringing mankind to enlightenment through benevolent rule, At the Gates asks players to grow their barbarian horde and sack Rome itself.
Aside from the premise, two things set At the Gates apart from 4X games like Civilization and Total War as we know them. First, the map changes with the seasons and as vital resources are picked clean, forcing you to manage military campaigns in response to the weather and migrate your settlements across the land in search of fresh lands to exploit. Second, your challenges evolve along with your empire as the game progresses and you are forced to confront the decadent but still massively powerful Roman factions.
Supply chains are another unusual design in At the Gates. Not only do you need to farm the food and provisions that your armies and settlements need, you need to get them to your men in the field. Building supply depots in smart spots and defending yours while severing the enemy’s is crucial, as is planning military campaigns along the change of seasons (and thus the agricultural output of your empire). The map doesn’t change the same way every year or even every month, though, and even the best-laid plans can be derailed when a strategically critical river doesn’t freeze over to allow passage in time.
Shafer hopes that these elements are the key to creating a game that avoids the common problem of “snowballing until victory” that 4X titles often suffer from, as well as an experience unlike the typical flow of an empire-builder. If that pitch sounds good to you, head over to the Kickstarter page and speed Shafer and his two part-time employees at Conifer Games along their way toward their modest $40,000 goal.
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