THE EXTINCTION OF DINOSAURS(24 January 2001, 16:21 | Dino) If you hadnt seen that coming... :) Sid Meier explained the situation on the last Dino diary on the Firaxis siteHi everyone. I know you've been waiting a while for an update on the Dinosaur game. I've spent recent months playing with some different ideas on Dinos, but a lot of my time, and just about everyone else's at Firaxis, has been devoted to assisting in the Civilization III design. Civ III is looking and playing great and we think you'll all be thrilled with the final product! Also, I've been working on a new prototype, but more on that in a minute.So what's up with Dinosaurs? Well, we've tried various approaches to gameplay: There's been a "DinoCraft" style of game (real-time). There's been a "DinoPlanet" style game (turn-based). There's been a game where you are one dino. There's been a game where you are an entire dino tribe. There's even been a much more abstract game with a heavy online component (you get the idea). We took into account your ideas, suggestions and concerns on the game. So far though, we haven't found that magic combination of ingredients that makes it really fun. And if it ain't fun, it don't get done! Then, a couple of months ago, I was inspired by a new idea on a completely different topic. I built a really fun prototype and well, what can I say - this new project took hold! So I have decided to set aside Dinos for a while to work on this new idea, as well as devoting my attention to CivIII. I know this news may disappoint some of you, but I think you'll find the new projects we're working on at Firaxis very interesting and a lot of fun! This is not a new situation for us. It took me many years and several different approaches to find a way of presenting the Civil War game the way I really wanted to, but ultimately I was very happy with the result, which became Gettysburg!. Also, the original Civilization began as a real-time game and had many stops and starts in the design process. Dinos may eventually come to fruition, but for the moment there are other cool things brewing at Firaxis and, of course, there's a game called Civ III to consider! So, this will be the last Dino Diary, at least for now. Thanks for your patience and stay tuned for more info on Civ III and other projects in development.You can comment about this on our Dinosaurs forum. I guess we are going to have one more categorization on our front page: after "current games", "games to come", "other sections" and "oldies", we must create a category titled "extinct"... - MarkG
^ Apolyton Civilization Site | Copyright © Daniel Quick ^ This is an independently owned and operated fansite. For more information, please consult our Legal Disclaimer & Privacy Policy.
