design

Over the last decade and a half, it feels like flat, minimalist design is just sort of everywhere. A good example of this would be comparing Windows XP/Vista/7 to the more recent editions of Windows: no shading, no detail, no depth, minimal customization. 11 slightly walked this back, but it's...

As a player of multiple 4X/HGS (historical grand strategy games), I often find myself brainstorming/daydreaming about the features and/or mechanics I'd put into a game if I were in charge of developing one. I call it "Rise to Power." Some of it involves mixing and matching aspects of multiple...

It's been a while since I've rambled extensively about something Civ-related, so I thought I'd dig my teeth into one of Civ VI's meatiest designs: Era dedications. 1: Clarification I think a crucial step in reaching a consensus on improved era dedications is understanding the designers' initial...

What should the victory conditions of a new Civ game be? I think there's a good reason to ask this question first. One can consider this thread just a place for focusing conversation on the titular design tactic, but to belong to the aspirations of that perfect 4X historical game thread. We...

Hi, Civ fanatics! I'm currently writing my Master Thesis in collaboration with Paradox Interactive at Umeå University, Sweden. The aim is to improve the User Experience (UX) of strategy, 4X, and grand strategy games on consoles (PlayStation, Xbox). This survey will serve as a basis for my...

Hi everybody! I am still a CIV4 mods player, in part because I dont like some design choices on CIV6. Two of those reasons (between others) are the way eras are distributed and the selection of civlizations. So, just for fun I did my own selection of civs for CIV7. Still, I decided to put...

The tech tree lines are so illogical! http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/File:Tech_Tree_(Civ6).jpg Example offenses: Banking requires Education. Education requires Apprenticeship. So why is there another arrow from Apprenticeship to Banking? Apprenticeship to Gunpowder Economics and...