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> The statement I was replying to goes above and beyond that to say that there are as many as the market can bear. There are a lot of these games. And the tec
by mywittyname 6y ago
> The statement I was replying to goes above and beyond that to say that there are as many as the market can bear.
There are a lot of these games. And the techniques behind designing a "good" geo-political strategy game are very well understood by now. It's also a market that is cheap to develop for, because these games don't typically rely on expensive, cutting-edge art assets.
It's reasonable to assume that the market for these games is saturated, as mature, well understood, low capital investment markets tend to be.
- smolder 6y agoI disagree with your assertion that it's well understood how to make a good geopolitical strategy game. Most of them struggle with scaling issues; they turn into micromanagement grinds once the scale of simulation gets large enough. There's a lot left to be discovered in terms of what control schemes and other features result in a fun experience. I have ideas on how to make a better 4x game but I would rather make a PoC than give them away for free. :)
- mywittyname 6y agoFair enough, but I think we can agree that the techniques behind building a geopolitical strategy game that sells well is understood. The past three Civilization games have surpassed 5 million units each. Paradox games has several games in the million+ club, and their games are insanely complicated niche games which take longer to learn than most AAA titles take to complete. On the other end of the spectrum is Off World Trading Company. That game is the essence of great strategy distilled down into little more than the fundamentals.