Gamereactor sat down with Civilization V lead designer Jon Shafer to talk about what it takes to appeal to an more casual audience, the state of PC gaming and more.
"Civilization Revolution reached a more casual audience, is that an audience you are aiming for with Civilization V?
We definitely want to pull some of them in. The game is not going to appeal to all of them, some of them won't have an interest in it. But we do think that's a good group of people that we should bring in.
With Civ 5 one of our goals was to keep the same amount of depth, same amount of complexity as Civ 4, but then focus on the interface and the advisers making it easier to learn, easier to play. We know that there is a lot of people who are either not that interested in Civ or have tried to play Civ but just couldn't get into it because of how difficult the learning curve is at the start..."
Civilization V continues to be one of the most popular grand-strategy games you can play on Steam, for about three years.
Love strategy but your processor and graphics card doesn't love you? The best strategy games for low-end PCs have you covered.
Philip Boyes:
When I was a kid, I played a lot of Civilization 2. I played a lot of strategy games in general, but having a deep love of both history and sci-fi, the epic sweep of Civ 2 from prehistory to the stars held a particular appeal. I loved taking my little people from their huts and ziggurats to the world of science and advanced space-flight.
