E xpand: Now that you’ve found that cool stuff, you should take it for your own.Typically one sends out units to explore an obfuscated map and uncover some cool stuff along the way. E xplore: Starts out pretty straightforward here.(“It’s rated XXXX!” Cue the pearl-clutching and offended gasps.)Įach X stands for one core dynamic of gameplay: The term 4X first appeared back in the ancient year of 1993, coined by Alan Emrich, a writer, designer, and reviewer for Computer Gaming World, as basically a printed-clickbait-title-pun to describe the newly released Master of Orion. Permit a brief digression… What are they anyway? We began to realize that maybe, just maybe, those framing traditional 4Xs weren’t the best way to describe the game to our audience anymore, and could in fact alienate some people just based even on pure verbiage alone. (And to be clear, these peeps are definitely in the hardcore strategy gamer group, and have the game hours and knowledge to back it up).
As we interacted with players through early focus testing and user research, it became apparent that while some players identified with this moniker, not all did – many hadn’t even heard of it before. However, something amusing began to occur. Having worked on multiple 4X titles before, we were all familiar with the terminology and what mechanics they immediately afforded. So what at this point can we add that’s new and positive to the conversation that hasn’t already been tried to death?įirst up, we set out to make the bestest 4X turn-based historical strategy game we could make (more on that historical bit later). We’ve seen massive successes, disappointing misses, and all manner of nuance in between. For the first real foray into these diaries, I think it fitting to start only at the very beginning – why are we doing what we’re doing? Many on the leadership team have a strong pedigree of shipped strategy and simulation titles and have worked specifically in strategy games for decades in their respective careers.
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