I also think that a lot of our mechanics go back to the older 4x games and try to expand on them rather than rewriting the book on 4x games. I think those design cues will give players a familiar feel when playing the game. James: I think Lord of Rigel definitely has design elements and a feel of older 4x games. SS: What do you think will appeal to old time fans of the genre while playing Lord of Rigel? Interface wise Endless Space and Endless Legend have been an inspiration in displaying data without feeling like a spreadsheet. Total War and Sword of the Stars have particularly influenced how we’ve approached tactical combat for spaceships.
#Lord of rigel steam series
James: Some of the other game series that have inspired Lord of Rigel are Sword of the Stars, Civilization, and Total War. SS: Aside from MOO what other games do you think have helped inspire you to make Lord of Rigel, or what other games have had an impact on your design choices? Overwhelm a core planet and you have a higher chance of unlocking technologies and morale bonuses for occupation. We’ve enhanced this system by having bonuses tied to how well you performed in combat. Its system was simple enough to show the combat, but not bog down the game in having players engage in two battles to take a single planet. Instead we wanted players to work on a higher level and felt that that this still allowed players to design the ships they wanted to use in combat.įinally, the ground combat system is something else that we have kept in a similar vein to Master of Orion 2. We felt that the leader of an empire wouldn’t spend time worrying about what box or space each piece of equipment would occupy. There are some modern 4x games that are going towards the placing of individual pieces of ships rather than simply picking equipment and features.
We have continued that design with Lord of Rigel. It really helped me imagine what my colonies looked like and tied me to their success or failure. In particular, one of the things that I loved about Master of Orion 2 when I was a kid was the colony view. All three systems we felt provide the best design and provided us a base to work from.
James: Three systems in Lord of Rigel that are influenced by the Master of Orion series and in particular Master of Orion 2 are the colony management, ship designer and ground combat systems. SS: You mentioned the game is heavily inspired from MOO and there seems to be many mechanics that are heavily based off of it, which mechanics remain close to that series? all are vehicles to immerse players in a politically complex universe that represents the player with challenges as an upstart race that just acquired faster than light travel. The other elements such as grand menaces, a strong espionage system, real time ship combat, and etc. We have focused heavily on having lore based on elder races, galactic politics, and allowing for a variety of victory conditions. Our main goal with Lord of Rigel is to transport players into a universe with lore and gameplay that make players feel like they are a part of that universe. Even with the games that have come out since then or ones on the horizon, we still see Lord of Rigel as taking a unique direction compared to what else is out there. Just after coming up with a name for this game, we looked at each other and said “We should do this.” That was in the spring of 2014. After a few hours of intense conversation, a basic framework for a game began to emerge. At that time, we were just two gamers talking about the good, the bad, and the ugly of 4x games and what features worked and didn’t and what things we would do if we actually made a game. James Rorabaugh: Lord of Rigel started as a conversation between me and the co-founder of Rhombus Studios. SS: Why have you decided to develop Lord of Rigel and what are you hoping to bring to fans of the genre? James Rorabaugh, one of the lead designers and co-founder of Rhombus Studios, was kind enough to answer our questions. We decided to reach out to the developers at Rhombus to answer some of our questions to get a better understanding of what their game will feature. You can read our SIV article for the game to get a quick overview. Recently, Iceberg Interactive has announced they have partnered with Rhombus Studios to help bring Lord of Rigel a turn-based with real-time tactical combat 4X space strategy game to the 4X community.
0 kommentar(er)
