Earlier this month, I had the opportunity and pleasure to sit down with Brian Reynolds, President of Big Huge Games, to talk about his company's upcoming real-time strategy game, Rise of Nations, in his summer home situated in the beautiful 1000 Islands region of southeastern Ontario. This is the first part of the preview based on that conversation. This portion features a general overview and overall gameplay structure, influences, and finally a look at warfare including units and city capture. You'll hear all about RoN from the main man himself.
Big Huge Games (BHG) was founded in February, 2000 by Tim Train, David Inscore, Jason Coleman and Brian Reynolds. Prior to this, they had been apart of Firaxis Games – itself founded in June, 1996 – and at MicroPROSE (MPS) before that. They were driving forces behind Sid Meier’s Civilization II (MPS) and later Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri (Firaxis). With a celebrated history and impressive track record behind them, they have since built the company’s team up to 28 talented individuals who bring their own unique histories, talents and outlooks. In late February, they announced BHG’ debut title in the industry, Rise of Nations, as – to quote the press release – “a new real-time strategy (RTS) game that will combine the fast action of real-time gaming with the broad scope of turn-based strategy (TBS) games”. Adds Reynolds, BHG wants to “get into the real-time world where there is some time pressure and there is the possibility of exciting multiplayer games”. When I sat down with Brian to talk about and see the game firsthand earlier this month in his 1000 Islands region summer home in southeastern Ontario, I have no doubt that barring unforeseen circumstances fellow computer gamers around the world will too be marveling at the universe of RoN early next year.
INFLUENCES
RoN covers the entire expanse of mankind's history, through Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, Gunpowder, Industrial, Modern and finally present-day Information Ages. “Not only do we want to cover the whole history of mankind”, says Reynolds, “but also a lot of the strategic decisions, choices in different technologies”. To understand the game's make-up is to understand the background by which it came into being. I asked Brian about the influences he and his team cite that lead to the groundbreaking of Rise of Nations – beyond CivII and Alpha Centauri.
“We have been playing a lot of [real-time strategy] games in our spare time including Starcraft, Age of Empires II, Battle Realms, and the Command & Conquer series. [We] appreciate the fact that those games have hit upon a formula for success where they have resource management, have some military fighting and go at a really nice pace that appeals to a lot of players”.
OVERARCHING GOALS
With such praise for fellow developers' work in mind, it begs the question what BHG is looking to accomplish with its current project. The answer: they believe that they can do even better which is, as Reynolds coins it, the “necessary hubris for game designers to do anything”. They also feel that some items present in TBS games already on the market could fair well in an RTS environment but have not been done to date, not the least of which is national borders which Brian says he and the rest of the Alpha Centauri team felt worked out really well in a simple sense. Now, they want to adapt that success into a real-time setting amongst other elements, such as the concept of special unique resources (e.g. silver, sulfur, horses).
“[Imagine] being able to exploit some special resource that no one else had because you had explored the map and found a resource and be able to have a special power that other nations won't be able to take advantage of”, Reynolds proclaims.
In addition, the ability to found multiple cities in a RTS environment was something that the RoN team wanted to do as opposed to following the pattern of establishing a solitary base that you seek to merely evolve from small to large as a means by which to construct a war factory to attack other civilizations' bases on a map. Instead, Reynolds and his cohorts are assembling a game that makes you feel like you're building a nation of mini-cites where each serves to fulfill a different need that, in trading amongst themselves, satisfies all of a nation's requirements to thrive. However, in building that nation of mini-cities, you find yourself surrounded by those who seek to do the same in the same space.
Rise Up: Reynolds On RoN 
