During
ApolyCon '06 held in Timonium, Maryland this past
July,
Big Huge Games (
BHG) designer Paul Stephanouk gave a presentation to attendees on the development of the company's premiere title,
Rise of Nations, which offered a glipse into
BHG' approach to game in general. Recorded by event Chairman
Daniel "DanQ" Quick, what Stephanouk said is now being made publicly available in a series of installments.
In
the third of five parts Stephanouk addresses the frustrations of bug fixing, the (initial) abscence of governments in
RoN and
Thrones and Patriots expansion pack, and usability testing and pre-conceived notions including the importance of interfaces. After responding to an inquiry by event registrant
Jennifer "Chieftess" Gasiorowski that leads to an affirmation of the positive influence of multiplayer during development, Stephanouk recounts his first
RoN multiplayer game after its commercial release and how his age played a factor. Finally, registrant
Jonathan “Jon Miller” Miller contrasts
RoN with
Rise of Legends on speed of play.
Available for listening in streaming 64kbps MP3 format, Part 3 runs for 15m23s (7.4MB). Part 4 is scheduled to be published on
February 7th.
