E3

So, I made it out to my first E3. It wasn’t quite as loud and crazy as I expected it to be – although that may be my perspective from having a nice, cool, quiet room to give our Civ4 demos. With the biggest plasma TV screen I’ve ever seen. It must have about 70″ – I heard it cost upwards of $25K.

Giving the demos was a more fun than I expected, especially once I got my rhythm down. It actually reminds of what I learned about writing in college; writing is only difficult when you don’t actually have something interesting to write about. Demoing Civ4 was easy because there is so much to show. Even with a 30 minute demo, we were only revealing a small fraction of the game, let alone all of the stuff you can’t really demo (multi-player, mod support, micromanagement fixes, improved AI, etc).

katamari.JPG

As for the show, I’d like to say I saw something that blew me away, but I didn’t. (besides the real-life Katamari ball!!!) Graphics are starting to hit diminishing returns. Most of the first-person games look the same, and the bloom shader has definitely lost its initial, er, shine. Interesting game-play? E3 is not the best forum for that. (I loved Prince of Persia but was put off by the “hardness” of the sequel. The only thing I discovered about the newest version was that it would be “bigger and badder than ever.” Gee, thanks…)

Age of Empires III did look incredible, especially the water, which may be the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in a game. (Naturally, they have a programmer working full-time on it.) The shading and choice of color is remarkable. I actually expect the art world to take notice. The game could be fun too – impossible to tell from a quick demo, of course. The trick will be whether they’ve learned from the “more is less” problems of Age of Myth (that game would have been twice as good if all human units had been removed). Rise of Legends also looked remarkably good for a game a full year out – I assume Microsoft won’t let them release until x months after AoE3. Somehow, the graphics retained the “fun-ness” of 2D while still being 3D, which is a neat trick. Steampunk is going to be a hard sell, though.

Hello World!

So, here we go!

This is the first post of my game design blog. My name is Soren Johnson, and I am currently the Lead Designer of Civilization 4. I’d like to use this forum to publish designer notes based on the games that I have worked on.

The name “Designer Notes” comes from my nostalgia for the days when every game manual came with a hefty designer notes section in the back, in which the developers spun tales, explained decisions, and generally provided a window into the design process.

I hope to do the same here. Indeed, I’d like to get into the nitty-gritty; I might even start talking about numbers if I get carried away. Thus, a familiarity with my games will almost certainly help the reader. So, go out and buy Civ3! And Civ4 in 7 months! And if you are really hard-core, go find a copy of Knockout Kings 2000 (PSX). If the AI kicks you in the groin, you’ll experience my first contribution to the game industry!

At any rate, this site will probably lie dormant for a while – there’s not much I can talk about Civ4 publicly yet, but be sure to check back later this year.