Morten Blaabjerg
Settler
Hi everyone!
As you may know I was once a very active contributor to this community, some 15-20 years ago - the last 15 years not so much so. Working, buying a home, raising two kids - life is very different today than it was back then, when I was a student and had lots of time on my hands to work on my various projects, not to mention play Civilization in all it's incarnations and scenarios
Last year I quit my job - for many reasons. But I've been increasingly drawn back to games, and now, in particular, game design. I want to design board games.
Creating scenarios for Civilization II - researching, writing, working out the rules, playtesting, creating the iconography, graphics and sound effects, adjusting everything, nights after nights of making adjustments based on how the AI reacted to all the ideas - all this was very much what I consider my real education in game design. Yes, I've made games in the 1980'es as a young kid, programming my Amstrad CPC 464 and had a blast, and I've created roleplaying game scenarios and campaigns and have made board game prototypes. But what I learned the most from, and also take the greatest pride in, are the scenarios I made for Civilization II.
One of the most popular scenarios I made back then was also my first - a scenario on the history of the viking age - Hammer of the North, which was made in two versions, the first, for classic Civilization II, simply because I didn't have the Multiplayer Gold Edition, which had an events-file. I didn't know anything about events. The second (current) version was a completely revamped version for MGE (and now converted to ToT too!) wtih a new map, new graphics, sounds, tech tree and almost everything else.
The basic idea behind the scenario was first and foremost to tell the history of the viking age as a history of two cultures. One pagan, with far-reaching ships and strong warriors, but fragmented and "structually" weak at the beginning of the scenario. The other christian, and vulnerable against attacks from the seaside, but with the potential (via strong ties to the church among other things), for faster growth and more advanced tecnologies. The vikings would be left behind growth & technology-wise in the long run, but could choose either to "convert" to christianity at some point to enjoy all the benefits, after they've carved out their empire, but in the process lose their heathen advantages, including the fearsome "Hammer" unit, which was really a nuke unit, but which was also very expensive to build.
Second, I wanted to convey the history of the rise of feudalism as an effective way to organize medieval society, which emerged, among other things, as a response to the viking attacks, especially in England.
These ideas still fascinate me, and I want to create a board game based on these very ideas. Of course it will be something very different from the CivII scenario, but be built on the same premises, with some of the core ideas guiding the design process, and with the aim to convey the same theme and basically the same dynamics. I still miss a very good board game on the viking age, despite the fact that there has been made a few, and I think this can work well as the premise for the game.
Now, the scenario "Hammer of the North" for CivII was quite well received. Fellow scenario creators and active members of our community JValdezToo and Exile have praised the two versions of the scenario, respectively, and given it good reviews. And it seems to have been played quite a lot too.
I don't have the numbers anymore, but AFAIR, the scenario was downloaded quite a few times. Alone from "The Polish Civilization site" it had a double digit in thousands of downloads (can't remember how many, just that I was amazed at seeing the numbers). I estimate somewhat cautiously, and without any numbers to back that up, that the scenario, if the Polish numbers pan out, was downloaded perhaps some 50.000+ times globally, at the very least, from the various sites that hosted it. (Would be very interesting if anyone has actual numbers from back then!)
I plan to do a kickstarter for the board game at some time in the future. To do that I plan to mobilize all that I can, that I have left of my street credit, everywhere I can, including this community, if I can. My impression is that this forum is alive and well, even after all these years, and even though many probably have left to do other things. I can see from my last visit there are still some oldtimers left (which I was very pleased to see!) as well as a lot of new active users.
What I would really like to ask is this : IF you are one of those who have played this scenario back in the day or more recently (or other of my scenarios), I would be most grateful if you could spill just a few sentences in this thread on it's execution & awesomeness. In other words : what do you think of it, what works, why is it any fun? If you're so inclined, it would also be very helpful to have some words put on myself, as a member of this community, if you knew me back then and have an impression you'd like to give on my credibility & creative powers
Some of your words may go into the efforts I will launch to get the new board game project off the ground, as "quotes" on the KS page or in a video for the same effort.
Thank you very much in advance!
As you may know I was once a very active contributor to this community, some 15-20 years ago - the last 15 years not so much so. Working, buying a home, raising two kids - life is very different today than it was back then, when I was a student and had lots of time on my hands to work on my various projects, not to mention play Civilization in all it's incarnations and scenarios
Last year I quit my job - for many reasons. But I've been increasingly drawn back to games, and now, in particular, game design. I want to design board games.
Creating scenarios for Civilization II - researching, writing, working out the rules, playtesting, creating the iconography, graphics and sound effects, adjusting everything, nights after nights of making adjustments based on how the AI reacted to all the ideas - all this was very much what I consider my real education in game design. Yes, I've made games in the 1980'es as a young kid, programming my Amstrad CPC 464 and had a blast, and I've created roleplaying game scenarios and campaigns and have made board game prototypes. But what I learned the most from, and also take the greatest pride in, are the scenarios I made for Civilization II.
One of the most popular scenarios I made back then was also my first - a scenario on the history of the viking age - Hammer of the North, which was made in two versions, the first, for classic Civilization II, simply because I didn't have the Multiplayer Gold Edition, which had an events-file. I didn't know anything about events. The second (current) version was a completely revamped version for MGE (and now converted to ToT too!) wtih a new map, new graphics, sounds, tech tree and almost everything else.
The basic idea behind the scenario was first and foremost to tell the history of the viking age as a history of two cultures. One pagan, with far-reaching ships and strong warriors, but fragmented and "structually" weak at the beginning of the scenario. The other christian, and vulnerable against attacks from the seaside, but with the potential (via strong ties to the church among other things), for faster growth and more advanced tecnologies. The vikings would be left behind growth & technology-wise in the long run, but could choose either to "convert" to christianity at some point to enjoy all the benefits, after they've carved out their empire, but in the process lose their heathen advantages, including the fearsome "Hammer" unit, which was really a nuke unit, but which was also very expensive to build.
Second, I wanted to convey the history of the rise of feudalism as an effective way to organize medieval society, which emerged, among other things, as a response to the viking attacks, especially in England.
These ideas still fascinate me, and I want to create a board game based on these very ideas. Of course it will be something very different from the CivII scenario, but be built on the same premises, with some of the core ideas guiding the design process, and with the aim to convey the same theme and basically the same dynamics. I still miss a very good board game on the viking age, despite the fact that there has been made a few, and I think this can work well as the premise for the game.
Now, the scenario "Hammer of the North" for CivII was quite well received. Fellow scenario creators and active members of our community JValdezToo and Exile have praised the two versions of the scenario, respectively, and given it good reviews. And it seems to have been played quite a lot too.
I don't have the numbers anymore, but AFAIR, the scenario was downloaded quite a few times. Alone from "The Polish Civilization site" it had a double digit in thousands of downloads (can't remember how many, just that I was amazed at seeing the numbers). I estimate somewhat cautiously, and without any numbers to back that up, that the scenario, if the Polish numbers pan out, was downloaded perhaps some 50.000+ times globally, at the very least, from the various sites that hosted it. (Would be very interesting if anyone has actual numbers from back then!)
I plan to do a kickstarter for the board game at some time in the future. To do that I plan to mobilize all that I can, that I have left of my street credit, everywhere I can, including this community, if I can. My impression is that this forum is alive and well, even after all these years, and even though many probably have left to do other things. I can see from my last visit there are still some oldtimers left (which I was very pleased to see!) as well as a lot of new active users.
What I would really like to ask is this : IF you are one of those who have played this scenario back in the day or more recently (or other of my scenarios), I would be most grateful if you could spill just a few sentences in this thread on it's execution & awesomeness. In other words : what do you think of it, what works, why is it any fun? If you're so inclined, it would also be very helpful to have some words put on myself, as a member of this community, if you knew me back then and have an impression you'd like to give on my credibility & creative powers
Some of your words may go into the efforts I will launch to get the new board game project off the ground, as "quotes" on the KS page or in a video for the same effort.
Thank you very much in advance!
