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Ancient Cities - a strategy and survival city builder game

vonAchdorf

Arcane
Joined
Sep 20, 2014
Messages
13,465
With Banished, the survival trend had reached city builders, and after its success, others built upon the formula. With Ancient Cities, a new contender from a studio with the telling name "Uncasual Games", made it to Greenlight.



Starting in the Neolithic era you will have to guide your people along generations, discovering and improving technologies, managing resources and population, facing your human or natural enemies, and ultimately, building the most fantastic city of the antiquity in a fully simulated world and ecosystem.

Our vision

We love tech, strategy games, History, Archeology and cities.
Of course, we dream, as you do, with a gorgeous strategy city simulator that can let the player develop its city along the ages in a credible and immersive way.

We have chosen to start at the origin of cities, in the late Neolithic era. It was logic, and it is also highly suitable for the project; new eras introduce new gameplay and game features over what existed before. Just as real life.

We are developing our own custom render technology for this game because this allows us to render what we envision: Thousands of items in screen at the same time with nice fps, offering the player breathtaking images of their cities. Both, gameplay and detail are important to us.

We are presenting you our first game. And depending to a great extend on the budget, we intend to include late Neolithic and Bronze age in the final release.

We expect Ancient Cities to become a powerful platform for next developments, moving us more and more into the realms of History, exploring different places and ages around the world: Greece, Rome or Middle Ages...

For this to become true we need your support on this first project.

We know you will love this as much as we do.

The game will be available when its ready.

We have also a website: website.

Main features
All meaningful for gameplay!

Build your city along the ages with evolving gameplay.

Simulated years, seasons, day cicles and weather.

Simulated ecosystem where every vegetal and animal you see is growing, reproducing and dying.
Exploit and take care of it.

Natural disasters.

Build your defenses to protect your city. Ancient times were harsh!

Switchable gameplay layers like combat or natural disasters. Play your game!

Organic city layouts let you plan and make your city in a realistic way.

Wonders, including megaliths!

Very innovative technology system.

Politics, religion, social classes and family structures.

Every citizen attributes, experience and knowledge are simulated.
Each citizen has his own aspirations and decide how to live, where they work or if they come or leave the city.

Economy, resource management and production chains including clothing, tools, food, wares, etc...

Decay of building and resources. No more bread lasting for years!

Simulated world context and migrations.
Different factions use trading, fighting and influence to dominate the world.


http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=854046403
 
Last edited:
Unwanted

Janise

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Messages
727
There is a Banished copycap Forest Village. Is it any good? It looks worse than Banished, which had a weird cute/realistic style going for it...
 

Turisas

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Messages
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There is a Banished copycap Forest Village. Is it any good? It looks worse than Banished, which had a weird cute/realistic style going for it...

From what I've heard it supposedly has slightly better graphics than Banished, but otherwise it's pretty much the same deal. With the exception that there's more progression involved with various upgrades and such so you won't be essentially finished with the game after only a few days like with Banished. Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on how much you like grindy stuff like that.


This Ancient Cities looks a lot better than both of those, nice list of features and the devs also want to add in hostile wildlife and raiders among other things.
 

Space Satan

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quote-let-one-thousand-flowers-bloom-mao-zedong-116-44-35.jpg
 

Turisas

Arch Devil
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That's a retarded stretch goal, good that it will not be hit.

Except it was, campaign ended at €125,365. :takemyjewgold:

But yeah, fluid dynamics would be a better stretch goal for a porn game, not a city builder. GOG version will be nice to have though.
 
Unwanted

Janise

Unwanted
Joined
May 14, 2017
Messages
727
Tried Forrest Village. Its aesthetically uggo compared to Banished. But the deal breaker is that you cant zoom out decently. Like 5 tiny houses on screen max...
This engine looks the same... But I want at least this
anno-1404-venice-7.jpg
 

mbv123

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Lettland
Looks interesting though I'm cautious about every kickstarter project for obvious reasons, so I guess we'll just wait and see if it becomes vaporware or not
 

The Wall

Dumbfuck!
Dumbfuck Zionist Agent
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They launched additional campaign on Indiegogo for more funds to unlock stretch goals they failed to reach during Kickstarter.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ancient-cities-extended-pc#/

So far so great. They unlocked Neolithic Middle East at 25 000$ and User terrain (first step towards moddability) at 30 000$.

With this speed and amount of time left More biomes - Europe seems reachable while it seems they'll have to keep working from their living room cause office stretch goal seems unlikely, I'd say.
Hey, if Cleve can work from his basement bunker comfy fallout vault so can they from the living room.

Oh and btw. they want to use this engine and game as platform on top of which they'll be able to later on do different time periods. Something akin to Riise of Nations or AoE with ability to go through different eras, with focus on city building and simulation.
Straight from pre-historic horse's mouth:

Our solution is to not even try to do it all at once, but to build each time-frame and location as a full expansion over one common platform, with all the content, from assets to game-play features, needed for that historical simulation.
As a whole, Ancient Cities is a long-term project.

If successful, we expect Ancient Cities to become a powerful game platform for next developments, moving us more and more into the realms of history, exploring different places and ages around the world with you: Bronze Age, Mighty Ur, Classic Greece, Egypt, Rome or Middle Ages.

Let's dream. Join us if you want ;)

We'll see. One step/time period at a time. Seems far-off until we'll be able to play their Caesar version but probably it will come sooner than Caesar V. By the time Grimoire is released we'll reach 40th century and deep space travel.
 

The Wall

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"renting a better office" is one of the most awful stretch goals i've ever seen :D
If I was part of the team and looking to pledge it would actually be quite nice. Since I'm a backer and won't get anything measurable from it then it's quite....meh.
Maybe next one after that at 75 000€ is them hiring cleaning lady or maid. In pre-historic unform, of course. For immersion and game quality reasons.

At least if they reach their office goal you can bet they will deliver on that one. :lol: Unlike certain other game cough Torment NumaNuma cough. :|

In the news: €40,672 collected and 14 days remain. Europe biomes stretch goal is almost guaranteed and I hope they have prepared some other stretch goal between that and office one if they aim to reach any other.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Having an office to work in is honestly much better for your levels of motivation than working from your living room, unless you have a home office (for which you need a sufficiently sized house).
 

The Wall

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Ancient Cities devs from their Twitter account retwitted this interview they did with this small Youtube channel:


If you can't be bothered to endure through 9+ mins of video, here's written version:
Interview with Uncasual Games
Q1). Who came up with the idea for Ancient Cities?

A). We are Ancient History passionate, and as gamers, we like strategy games and city builders.

We always wanted to make a Pc game, so when we had the opportunity, we went for it.

We also love to visit ancient and archaeological sites. When in those places we can't stop recreating in our minds how they would have looked and felt like to experience in their prime. Now we have the opportunity to create them virtually and bring them to life.


Q2). How long has Ancient Cities been in development for so far?

A). The game development process began one year ago. We have been developing game play and tech at the same time so we can get the features and performance we want for a game like this.


Q3). Have there been any particular inspirations for Ancient Cities?

A). Many games have inspired us, from city builders like Banished or Stronghold to strategy games like the Total War series. However, we are also adding original features to the mix that we expect to work well in the city builder genre.


Q4). How would you summarise what the game is to someone completely new to the game?

A). Ancient Cities is a strategy City Builder set in the Neolithic where you have to guide a European hunter-gatherer tribe to establish a settlement while they adopt new technologies like farming or animal husbandry to survive. Eventually, we want the game to become a platform for future developments where the same city will have the potential to evolve to Bronze Age and beyond.


Q5). Can you provide a quick introduction to each of your team members and their role in Ancient Cities development?

A). Juan is the artist and one of the game designers; a lifetime PC gamer too. After years working as an art director, he started in the game industry publishing two Android games with a two man company.


For Eugenio, this is his first game, but he has years of experience as a programmer and as director of development teams with related technology. He is a strategy game lover.


Xavi is the most experienced in our team with games, in fact, he started to code games in 8 bit back in the 80s. Now he is our man for everything and a great IT guy.


Luis is the sound guy and has years of experience as a musician and with FX sounds. He has collaborated in short films and games, and he is also a music and FX teacher.


7040463b406406233c628b478af1dbba_original.jpg




Q6). My understanding is this is your first gaming project, what are your areas of expertise that will help the project?

A). We have little experience in the gaming industry itself but years of expertise in many areas related to game development that comes from working for private companies and VR research labs.


Q7). You chose to go to Kickstarter to get another 100,000 Euros to help fund development; my understanding is this is to cover the cost of additional members to join your

team? Are there any other areas you intend to use the funds?

A). This funding (minus around 30% in taxes and fees) covers a few small salaries for a year. Furthermore, we will use these funds to pay company costs and taxes during the development process.


Q8). For those who don't already know can you summarise the reasoning behind not giving playable access to the game too soon?

A). We want you to get the game as intended and in its current state, the game does not represent the game play and experience that we have planned. We expect to begin releasing the game as a closed beta in early summer 2018. Of course, we will have an internal alpha with selected people who have experience with these kinds of games and good technical knowledge.


Q9). Technology and its development appear to be a key feature of the game. Is there anything you can reveal about how this is structured or how significantly this will play into impacting on a civilisation's survival?

A). You are right; technology is a key point in our game play. Any action a citizen can perform is because there is the knowledge that allows him/her to do that. We have designed a simple but original technology system. The only thing I can tell you now is that the game does not implement a tech tree; more to be revealed in the future.


Q10). Do you have plans for natural disasters? In addition to this will it be possible for the overuse of specific types of technology to result in human-made disasters?

A). Yes, indeed. The game will feature natural disasters that you can disable if you don’t like your city to be ruined by an earthquake. We are simulating the ecosystem, every plant and animal is alive, and so you should take care of them if you want to have those resources in the future.


Q11). Will certain technology not just be beneficial but also have negative drawbacks which the player needs to balance or endure/counterbalance for before moving onto better technology in the long run?

A). When possible we are trying to design the game in a way that any action has two sides, the good and the bad. We think this approach can generate some very interesting game play.


Q12). Outside of chopping down trees and harvesting rocks etc. will players be able to influence the landscape by digging it out to create human made rivers, leave marks on hillsides, etc.?

A). Not at first release, but we want to implement terrain modification game play as well as fluid dynamics. This is all dependent of getting enough funds to do it. *


*Since I reached out to Uncasual games for this interview they have reached their funding goals for basic land modification and fluid dynamics. They have further funding goals that relate to this though which would further enhance the landscape and what can be done with it.


Q13). In the Kickstarter campaign (and IndieGoGo) there were talks of DLC, some of which is stretch goals. In addition to these stretch goal DLCs, what other DLC do you have planned and will these be free or paid?

A). We are designing our game as a platform. This means that we have an ever growing and improving the game with additional content that can be purchased and added. In this way, we define the expansion as a set of new content, with cultures, biomes and new game play. This means that you can buy a new expansion and continue playing your Neolithic city in the Bronze Age for example.


Q14). To my understanding war and diplomacy is intended for the game? If this is the case, do you intend to lock this to specific technology and buildings with more options becoming available as a civilisation progresses?

A). War and diplomacy will be improved in many ways by several technologies. Discoveries like writing should improve your diplomacy capabilities as well as warfare tactics which should improve your military capabilities just as an example.


Q15). Your videos and Kickstarter/IndieGoGo mention that every citizen is simulated and will each have their own "attributes, experience and knowledge". How much of an impact will this have on that citizen being able to carry out certain tasks and what level of control can players expect when choosing who is assigned to specific jobs and how effective they are at that job?

A). Each task will have some requirements. When a citizen is searching for a task to do, their skills and equipment should match these requirements for him/her to perform such a task. There will be many other factors that will affect the decision process. In addition to this when a citizen performs a task their attributes will affect his/her performance.


Q16). If a citizen has particular knowledge/experience aimed towards a certain craft/skill will this result in better-produced/quality items or reductions in the time needed to make the item?

A). The point here is that a citizen with some special knowledge and a high level in related attributes can work faster. The quality aspect does not fit well with our resource system, so maybe you could make some bronze tools that are better than stone ones, but anyone that can make bronze tools will produce the same tool, slower or faster depending on many factors.


Q17). As a citizen develops over their lifetime will there be training methods or buildings the citizens can interact with that will help improve their ability at a certain task or are the attributes and knowledge set for each generation at birth?

A). Maybe the building that could help you to learn some knowledge would be a library, in any other case learning comes from other citizens.


Q18). Will it be possible for man and animal to cooperate and work together?

A). Domestic animals will be included in the game. Initially animals like cattle but maybe we can tame some animals which could be used in some tasks or as companions.

And lastly, their Indiegogo campaign for additional funds has gathered €47,793, Europe biomes stretch goal is 2 000 € away, 1003 backers pledged so far and they have around 10 days more to get additional 20 000€ so that they'll be making this game from the warm and comfy inside of their new office which is next stretch goal at 70 000€.
 
Joined
May 8, 2018
Messages
3,535
Three weeks ago.

Cumulative development update

Hi, dear backers!

As you know we are not active on KS with development updates so let us start apologizing for that to all the people who feels that KS should be the way to keep you informed and in touch with the project.

5932b56d82667bed72feb6f8a7f02a45_original.jpg


As explained before the main reason for this is that we tried to focus all social traffic and public updates in one place to optimise social management. At this point we have not a PR dedicated guy, so every bit of time we use to manage social networks is time that could have been dedicated to develop the game. Its not too much time, fair, but it is time at the end of the week.

We choose twitter for that because is a massive social network, extremely clean and simple to use, that lets new people reach the project every day. But it also allows people to check updates even if they don't have a twitter account, only by following the twitter link, which is present all over the place in KS, Indiegogo and the game's website.
So, if you are in KS, you are just 1 click away from updates. We would honestly want to understand why this is a so big problem for some of you.

Detailed updates and game discussions with backers are what the forum is for and we really encourage you to check it and participate there. Otherwise we should handle the same discussions and explain the same things in many different places. We really don't want to split the community, at least no the core community who wants to comment and participate in development.

We are aware that some people here prefer to get updates via KS and they are in his right to do so. Yet we will continue to have twitter as the main source of public updates and the forum as the main source of detailed updates we will try to post here cumulative updates from now on from time to time.

6758e640b7e96cb2513127f3f8e6a770_original.jpg


So here we go:

As promised after Indiegogo campaign we opened paypal support to continue the funding as many people asked us for this and Two more goals were reached:"Animal companions" and "Better diseases simulation".
We felt short of the next goal that would allow us to hire a new full time programmer though.

We have added a backers management section to the game's website. To gain access you can log in -top right corner- with your forum user and password. From this place backers can check and upgrade their current pledge and also change the name they want to appear in the website. When the time comes this will be a place also to get the game key. Keep in mind that using this will not be mandatory, just an option and game keys will be also provided vía email.

Development continues every day. We have refactored big chunks of code many times, as expected in any big development process. Much work has been dedicated to core optimisations, and IA but also new graphic features have been added.

- TAA is now the main anti-aliasing solution, which helps a lot reducing foliage and shadow shimmering. It also helps to optimise and improve many other effects.

-We added SSR reflections to give water a more authentic look. It greatly contribute to enhance the game:

c8fde7ec182f9e0310a2149580267a5b_original.jpg

3c586d95bfff2dc6c528f06b5c2b7afb_original.jpg

b6b235841430a7a6164a996d74711de6_original.jpg


-AI core and path finding has been reworked, again, to be faster and more reliable, as it was eating a good bunch of CPU in path finding complicated maps

-We also have reworked the terrain mesh and terrain LOD management. The new one uses much less GPU memory and it is faster to draw.

-The engine profiler has also been improved. This is an important tool we use to track which parts of the game are eating too much resources, so we know exactly what is causing problems when the game start to run slow.

-The interface layout system, previously built almost as a technical concept was a big elephant in the house when nesting complex interfaces. It has been reworked from the ground and already working nicely and fast.

-Instancing system has been improved and its now much faster and eats less memory.

-The animation system has also been reworked from the ground, as it was producing weird skinning deformations when mixing complex animations and it was also slow with more than 500 people on screen. The new system can handle thousands of people with mixed and desynchronized animations: We are now in the process of reworking all animations and character instances to handle the new system.

66a6e9c41054d680f1fd5d5eda794cd8_original.jpg


Optimisations do not end here of course, and work is expected to be needed in the future as we continue adding features and content to the game.

-An in game system for reporting bugs and crashes has been also implemented.
This will be extremely useful once the beta starts.

-We added a more accurate -previous one was completely random- astronomical system so we have now proper constellations in the sky and also moon -with phases-, sun and planets movements. Here, the mighty Orion rising above the horizon:

2bcfa1f245e00aba7a89611a033c758e_original.jpg


- A simple yet effective procedural cloud system has been recently added to the game, capable of evolving clouds and different coverage ranges:

89ea08b6c46fa11c7422291b3a218553_original.jpg

826252dbb769c4a5218e6ef81ae63d0e_original.jpg


These are the main big things we have worked on but not the only ones.
There is still much work ahead and we are already a bit off of planned scheduled. But we think is better to do it as right as we can and reach a bit late than reach with a rushed product.

Let us post here some more screenshots, but remember that if you want to see more we encourage again to click here and if you have vip forum access, take a look at the game's forum.

ee60c201be08c4ee2beeb49ce1773807_original.jpg

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e937dfd37e462c37e3a6a0de0316a2c6_original.jpg

Again, thanks a lot for your support and patience.

Best!
Uncasual Games

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/uncasualgames/ancient-cities/posts/2061827
 

Tiospo

Learned
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Aug 1, 2018
Messages
129
It looks like my type of game. Nice to see more city builders, for a while there it wasn't much else than SimCity and Tropico.
 

praetor

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Vhoorl
this looks pretty sexy, but i one stretch goal is pretty funny: at 150k they'd hire another senior programmer, when the previous goal was 125k. are they saying the programmer they intend to hire will cost overall 25k jewros for the whole project? for that money, they're either hiring a shitty "senior", or they live in some dumpster or something
 
Joined
May 8, 2018
Messages
3,535
Adventures in the Stone Age: an interview with Ancient Cities devs

Uncasual Games talk about Ancient Cities, their ambitious upcoming city-builder.

ancient.jpg


Ancient Cities is a sandbox city-builder set in the Late Stone Age, where you will be able to grow a small settlement into a thriving city; developing technology to survive tough environmental challenges and managing the complex social hierarchy. The game caught the eye of gamers in Summer 2017 through Steam Greenlight, where it reached 2nd in the rankings not long before the Greenlight system ended. Since then, it has tempted historical gaming fans with promises of a unique game engine with dynamic weather and plant and animal life cycles. Hyper-realistic city management means citizens will not exist as mindless drones but independent individuals, participating in a rich, multi-faceted life incorporating religion, social class and family life as well as work and warfare. However, this freedom also means they may even choose to leave your city if they don’t like your ruling style.

Over the last year, Juan, Eugenio, Xavi and Lluis (aka Spanish studio Uncasual Games) have raised over €100,000 on Kickstarter and Indiegogo to develop Ancient Cities. Their chosen time period of the Neolithic will allow players to explore a relatively neglected period for this type of game, but the devs have big plans to expand to other eras if all goes well. We got in touch to ask them some questions about how they were approaching the mechanical and interpretative challenges of recreating this little-known but fascinating period of history.

TIGW: Briefly introduce your game to our readers.

Ancient Cities is a platform to build a series of sandbox tribe management/city-builders themed on ancient cultures, with the particularity that, when possible, the city can evolve along different ages. The game will mix production and social management with a spice of strategy, and will put the player in the role of the city government, so it’s not a grand strategy game, not a God simulator. The first release, the one we are working on, will cover the Neolithic in Europe, and Megalithism.

Ancient-Cities-2.png


TIGW: When people hear ‘Stone Age’ they might think of cavemen hunting mammoths with pointed sticks, but the Neolithic period saw dramatic technological change. How important is that technology in the gameplay of Ancient Cities?

The Stone Age is a very, very long period in human history compared with recent ones. When the Neolithic revolution reached Europe, megafauna had become extinct long ago, but some of them will be present in the second planned expansion: “Ice Age”.

Technology is an important aspect in Ancient Cities. The Neolithic is a time where key new knowledge was spreading and changing people’s lives, moreso than any other time in human history. It’s not even comparable to the changes we are experimenting with today with new technologies. Technology in the Neolithic is not about quantity, but about quality and its consequences.

To learn how to farm properly means that you can settle down, and that changes everything. Land ownership and resource accumulation start to acquire meaning. Populations start to grow and social differences start to appear. It’s one of the most interesting and meaningful shifts in our history and is not visited as often as deserved.

TIGW: To what extent can you develop a unique culture for your tribal society? For example, can you choose to have a matriarchal tribe rather than a patriarchal one, or choose from different types of tribal government?

We want some culture definitions to be specified from the start, while others can be pushed or influenced by the player, always with consequences. If your population is matriarchal, changing that will not be as easy as pressing the patriarchal button. External influences will be important too, sometimes to the point that the players just have to work with what they have. We want to embrace change in the game.

ancient2.jpg


TIGW: You have said the game is set in ‘Atlantic Europe’ which presumably means at least Spain and France. Will there be any scope for maritime trade and warfare, e.g. with the British Isles?

Britain is one of the main exponents of Megalithism so it will definitely be included. Keep in mind that the first release will include a generic Atlantic and the strategic map will not exactly reveal where the player is located, as we want the player to have the related information those ancient people had. For them, Britain was only a land beyond a big river or something like that, there is no evidence of proper maps.

TIGW: The Neolithic period presents a lot of mysteries. How do you approach religion and culture in this game, when our understanding of even basic things about Prehistory like stone circles is so imperfect?

When no information is available, and this happens a lot for this age, we try to find related explanations in similar cultures that are known in the past or even the present, and build from there. Of course, Neolithic cultures were unique in a lot of senses, and that means we will have to speculate a lot. The idea is to make something plausible that also transmits what it is known and depicts something that could have been.

TIGW: Do you think players are put off when they see a time period they aren’t familiar with? Could Ancient Cities be useful as an educational resource?

When we decided to start in the Neolithic, we first thought of the Middle East where the Neolithic started. But we were a bit afraid of just that and decided to start in Europe, because menhirs, dolmens, cairns and henges were more familiar to people and were more clear wonders. But we have found that non-familiar environments work like fresh air, and bring players that are interested in trying new things.

Ancient-Cities-1.png


TIGW: What is the Spanish indie developer scene like? Do you meet many developers from other studios?

We were not in the gaming industry until now, so what we know about the state of it in Spain is not too much, to be honest. There are a few indie studios working in the country and side offices of some major ones. Some nice games have been developed in Spain, but since we started to work on AC we have been only working, so we have not had time to go to game events or meet other studios yet.

TIGW: Finally, what has been your best high point and your worst low point so far in the development of Ancient Cities?

So many of each one of them! [The highest points were] the moment when the game’s votes exploded in the last days of Greenlight, because that was the moment when we realized we have something that could work very well, and the final Kickstarter days when, after a year of work, reaching the funding goal meant for us that the game’s development could continue.

Low moments are always tied to development itself, as we are working on something complex and many things we are working on are new for us, so more than once we have had to rework entire features… This is an iterative process where we learn something new every day.

Creative license has to be balanced in historical games especially in the face of demands from the ever-present history buffs. And yet, when it comes to a period such as the Neolithic, creative license isn’t a distraction from historical accuracy but actually an advantage. There is such a shortage of detailed resources that the kinds of things you need to know to make a game – from how people dressed to what their buildings looked like, how they lived from day to day and the nature of their beliefs and culture – are up for speculation. Video games are therefore the perfect format to explore this uncertainty in an entertaining and accessible way.

Many games can be considered valuable contributions to the wider world; masterclasses in storytelling, studies in technical excellence, or just general artistic masterpieces, but we should have respect for developers like Uncasual games who choose to expand the cultural relevance of video games beyond entertainment into the realm of social science. While even historical reconstruction has the potential to mislead and get things wrong when it’s passed through the filter of the primary purpose – making an enjoyable game – it’s always worth shining the spotlight on teams who aren’t afraid to tread new ground and create something from which we might just learn a thing or two.

The release of Ancient Cities was scheduled for the end of 2018, but drawing on feedback from backers the studio have made some changes to their plans for the game, and this may push the release back a little. There will be no playable alpha or open beta (except for game backers) and the team hope that this means they can release a ‘polished’ game when it is eventually ready. Until then, if like us you’re very excited about this unique game, you can follow its progress on the Ancient Cities Twitter account.

https://www.indiegamewebsite.com/2018/08/19/ancient-cities-interview-uncasual-games/
 

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