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 first of five parts, Stephanouk introduces himself as
RoN's Producer with an interest and love of gaming that long predates his employment in the industry. On the
BHG approach to game design, he explains their layer approach highlighted by four primary tiers: art (visuals), designers (architecture), programming (code) and production (administration). He acknowledges the influences
Alpha Centauri, the
Civilization series and boardgames had on
RoN's evolution, and notes how within three weeks of signing the game's contract with publisher
Microsoft Game Studios in mid-
2000 the company had a basic but playable build of the game was in place.
Available for listening in streaming 64kbps MP3 format, Part 1 runs for 14m39s (6.7MB). Part 2 is scheduled to be published on
January 24th.
