Past Forward

Europa Universalis: Rome wasn't built in a day
5/2/2008 3:06 PM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 5

Don't miss our review of Europa Universalis: Rome here.

Since the release of Europa Universalis in 2000, Sweden's Paradox Interactive has become renowned for its deep historical simulations. Their games are usually hits both with critics and with those strategy gamers who want more from a game than a tech tree.

This year Paradox Interactive turns its attention to the classical world with Europa Universalis: Rome. Johan Andersson, Rome's producer, agreed to sit down for an interview about Rome, Paradox's legacy and his views on how to guide gamers through the past.

Crispy Gamer: What have you learned from your previous games that you carried over into Rome?

Johan Andersson: I've been making games like this for 10 years or so and there are a few things I've learned, the most important of which is to make the games easy to get into, but have enough depth to hook a player in for the long term.

Crispy Gamer: Can you give me a specific example?

Andersson: Having a large interface that obstructs the screen or having things that are not explained tends to make people feel alienated from the game immediately. You know the game we made called Victoria?

Crispy Gamer: Yes.

Andersson: It had no tutorial, the interface had loads of layers, lots of numbers, things everywhere, and there were no guidelines or help features. Yeah, it's a good game underneath the hood but it takes a lot of effort to learn how to play it.

Crispy Gamer: Especially the economic system.

Andersson: That's a perfect example. Everything about it was complex. So now we make our games easier to understand without dumbing them down. Interfaces are more streamlined and always have things that tell you what you should do. In Rome we have hints throughout the interface telling you "it would be a good idea to do this or do that."

Crispy Gamer: Rome has a lot of role-playing elements -- character traits, loyalty, etc, stuff that carried over from Crusader Kings.

Andersson: Yeah, we've taken a lot from Crusader Kings. It's like Crusader Kings without the family being so important. You have family, but it's really about the loyalty and connections. It is like a role-playing game because one thing we've learned is that people like to feel attached to what they are playing, and characters make things a lot more interesting and intriguing.

Crispy Gamer: It seems in this case, though, that a lot of the effects are really under the hood and out of the player's control. Italy, for example, has 10 governors off doing whatever they want. Is there a point where the game controls the player instead of the player controlling the game?

Andersson: No. I don't think so. They don't have that much power. The characters are just off living their lives and you don't have much control over that. You are playing the country, but you are not the puppet master.

Crispy Gamer: The ancient world is very different from the periods you've covered so far. What have you done to try to capture the feel of ancient Rome?

Andersson: A lot of little things, from the choice of colors to the music. For example, it's a very little thing, but the names of the units are different depending on what nation you play. Roman soldiers are called cohorts and archers are called cohorts sagittarium. We've also really made sure that different types of countries played differently. A republic is very different in how it works than a monarchy. A republic has elections every other year and the guy with the greatest popularity and prestige will become the leader. This may bring good things or bad things.