Original Post
The Clash of Civilizations is a computer strategy game that will sketch out pretty much the whole of history in game form. From its inception, the player will guide his civilization while making decisions about every aspect of its development. You've seen that before, of course, but one of the main goals of this project is to require less micro-management from the player (it will remain optional) One benefit of this would be the 4-hr game where you'd go from antiquity to the present while making only broad decisions. These might vary from player to player, but would include your civilization's diplomatic stance, economy, culture, government, and overall military strategy. Our goal is to develop a fast, entertaining, and realistic game which also gives players the option to "drill down" into any area they choose, there to exert a fairly fine level of control. If you want to play everything at its finest level, you’d have a 400-hr game…
Further setting Clash apart from others in the genre, truly our "Holy Grail", is a sophisticated AI far superior to that available in the commercial games. We are putting a lot of thought and work into AI. You can see a snapshot of what we’re doing on things like map AI onthe web page.
Current Status:
The Team of about 10 active members, is continually making progress on both the design and coding of game models for Clash. The available coders (More Needed!) are working up a series of demos showing what we have to date. We are committed to releasing a demo at every major milestone so we can get a Reality Check on how the game is working so far. We'll make sure we keep to our promise of Reduced Micromanagement, Entertaining Gameplay, and Great AI. As of Demo 6, we have an alpha version of the tiled graphics and substantial implementation of the military and economic models. Every demo is playable, although they don't have inspiring gameplay yet ;-) Just give us a few months! The next version will feature the first implementation of the new technology model, and an in-game tutorial for all those people who won't read the manual!
Coders, Designers, Graphics, & Interface Gurus wanted:
The Clash project is still looking for people to join. Especially needed are Java programmers attracted to this type of game, since the biggest bottleneck right now is coding. People interested in all aspects of design are also needed to help refine our game models. We also need graphics people (those we had for previous demos have taken off) and gui gurus and playtesters. Ultimately the game will be released as shareware (free demo, pay for full version) and collaborators will earn returns depending on the amount of work they've put into the project (TBD). But the most important reason to join is to be part of a team that works hard and is driving to create something unique in the genre!
If you're interested in participating, or just want to see what's going on, check out the Clash Web Site. From there you can get in the detailed overview of what we're doing, and follow a link to our forum. If you're interested in joining, and are Serious about doing Real Work on a dynamic game project drop me an email.
Come Check Us Out!
Mark Everson
[edit] 6/7/2002 remove a few Really out of date things
[edited by - Mark Everson on June 7, 2002 9:33:47 PM]
