The 4X genre has been dominated by the Civilization series for the past few years, that is, until the advent of Humankind, which was released last August. And now another contender joins the imaginary fight, Oxide Games and their Ara: History Untold, announced at the Xbox event in June. On Thursday, the writers released the first dev diary that focused on defining what their new game is all about.
Design director Michelle Menard spoke about this in sufficient detail in an article on the official website. Ara started out as a classic 4X turn-based strategy game in the style of the aforementioned Civilization. However, the authors soon realized that their new game was something more and that it no longer fit the “boxes” of the 4X genre. So they decided to add two more to the original four Xs (Research, Expand, Use, and Exterminate).
Fifth – “Experiment”, which probably speaks for itself. The game should not have predetermined paths to victory, and each player can come to it in their own way, faced with many difficult decisions. The sixth X is “Expression”, which should reflect the player’s unique approach to the title.
So Ara was a 6X strategy for a while. This was discussed within the company, as well as with the publisher (Xbox Game Studios). But it didn’t stop there either. The game got bigger, the developers got more and more ambitious, and even the extra cross no longer reflected the shape of the project. So, the authors summarized the main facts. Ara is:
- puller
- closely related to history
- strategy, not tactical game
- big
And that’s how Oxide Games came up with the (probably) final name for this game: grand strategy. Menard adds that it’s not a perfect name either, and not everyone necessarily likes it, but it’s the closest thing to what Ara is. We should learn more about the game in a second diary, which will hopefully be out soon.
As a reminder, a beta test for players registered in the Insider Program is scheduled to take place this summer. The full version will be released on PC next year.
Source :Indian TV
