WHY MAKE THIS GAME?

I love the idea of civilisations spreading across space, exploring new worlds, coming across strange civilisations, so I’ve been a fan of sci-fi and space games for a long time. One game’s trailer felt very mysterious and I was sucked in. It released, and I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t quite what I was looking for as it lacked many of the things that draw me to sci-fi.

SCALE

Space strategy games are usually presented quite squished in scale, with ships the size of planets. It’s understandable why a game is made this way, but it loses the amazing visual impact of space and its scale. The size of moons next to planets, and the sheer number of stars in a galaxy.

MYSTERY

This one really bugs me. If we bump into a ship of another civilisation, why do we suddenly know its borders, the location of its colonies, homeworld, their tech level, and even their cultural personality? I want to earn this information and to still not be sure it is completely correct.

Another area that reduces mystery is the genre typically using equal starts that put the player up against a fixed number of AI in a pretty predictable race. I don’t want to know quite what I’m up against, and when I’m going to meet them. The lack of information builds immersion for me, and also allows the player to make fair mistakes because of it.

ABSTRACTION

Strategy games understandably tend to abstract heavily, but what if they don’t have to? Why does a civilisation follow the player’s every command without issue? Why are civilisations so united? This just skips over something the player often needs - a bit more challenge.

The economic abstraction also bothers me, generally global production rather than local, no freighting goods, no real potential for meaningful trade. Perhaps games tend to avoid this because it’s demanding, or because they’re just not interested in it, but I wanted it anyway, to help make systems feel like, and for colonies to feel more meaningful.

Games also tend to feature a lot of rules, like a board-game. It’s generally not fluid and requires the player to understand gamey mechanics, rather than using their knowledge of how things work in the real world. What if it all just worked a little more like the real world?

INTERNAL STRUGGLES

Most strategy games avoid these, and when they don’t, they usually just generate a bunch of rebels. Crusader Kings is probably the best at doing so, allowing the player to create something great, but always at risk. I don’t think internal issues always need to risk civil wars, but the player basically has no push-back in most games.

Space strategy games also tend to skip one or more centuries ahead and unfortunately skip all the interesting transitions humanity is either going through, or is likely to in the near future. Declining demographics, unaffordable housing, rogue states, environmental issues, political division, unsustainable government services, the rise of AI and automation, and the potential for ridiculous longevity which isn’t even being seriously talking about. These are all great issues to deal with in a civilisation management game. And so we shall in this one!