What Gamers Want

Not to sound dumb or anything but, what is a civ game exactly?

I know that it has to do with resources, and building things (I think) But why is it defined as a civ game?

Also is there any difference between a lite civ game, and a civ game?

-Justin

Steve,

I think zaiga started a thread a while back on the subject of "holy grails" of game design.

There's no question that a playable Civ is the "holy grail" of game design, and it's no coincidence that Sands of Time is aimed at that genre. That's not to say I expect to cash in on it -- indeed, I suspect it will be tough to publish since such games have a lot of components and are thus expensive -- so much as that I wanted to try to see if I could design something that would "solve" this design challenge.

My feeling is that Sands of Time, even were it to gain widespread exposure, might not garner the appelation of "Civ lite", simply because it lacks the strong trading mechanics that are so essential to Civ. Having only 2 resource types pretty much precludes an important trade element, and while I've tried to incorporate peaceful interaction in other ways, there isn't an explicit trade mechanic like in Civ. (and, some of the "interactivity" mechanics, eg cities/markets, are potentially on the chopping block).

The rest of that BGG thread was interesting, and I also was amused by someone trying to make a "better" Chess. You can't out-chess Chess! Or maybe you can; the problem I have with Chess is that it presents a very broad decision matrix to me every turn, and it takes me a long time to consider all the permutations and ramifications of moves. A game that had as much depth but easier decision making might be interesting. But I don't have a mind for such things, so I'll leave that grail to someone else!

-Jeff