GZ Interview: Europa: Universalis II

November 12, 2001

Developer takes gamers on jaunt
through history with Strategy First’s Europa Universalis II

By Michael Lafferty


“From the medieval battles of Jeanne D’Arc
to the fantastic empires of the Incas to the flaming wars of Napoleon, Europa
Universalis II invites you to take the seat as the ruler of a superpower for 400
epic years.”

Europa Universalis was an
award-winning strategy game, from Strategy First, that took players on a
civilization-building journey through history. What sets the second installation
apart from some other games is incorporation of the colonizing might of Spain,
the feudal warlords of medieval Japan when the samurai ruled as feudal lords,
and even talking on the challenge of managing the small trading nation of Genoa.
The game starts in 1419 and ends with the fall of Napoleon.

Features of the game include:

400 years of historic gameplay

An intuitive interface

Historically based technological advances

Historical events where players can take
part and/or control elements like the War of the Roses

New units and new player nations

An increase in the diplomacy, religion and
political rules
New sounds, musical score and graphical
elements

Fredrik Malmberg, part of the EU
dev team, took time to chat a bit with GameZone about EUII.

Question: There is a bevy of
historical-based civ games, and, of late, historical economic civ games on the
market. How will Europa Universalis distinguish itself from this pack? Does it
bring anything new, technology-wise, to the gaming world?



Fredrik: “The historical facts are
all authentic and massive! For instance, we have over 700 true, historic events
and the events engine allows the player to choose between outcomes. Which in
turn leads to new event chains etc.

“We also focused a lot on an AI that never
‘cheats.’ “

Q: The game is billed as an RTS on the
Web site, but obviously it can’t be played minute-by-minute. How is the time
element handled? What about multiplayer games – is this program set up for the
standard king of the hill battle, or does it incorporate the missions and
strategies of the single-player game.


Fredrik: “You set your own time pace
and can set the game to pause at any time or any given event so players can plan
ahead. Same for multi-player games, you get a pre-selected time pause each hour
of gaming to look over your finances etc. This is really working beautifully and
has been well received by gamers who seemed to prefer turn-based games.”


Q: What presented the toughest challenge
of bringing this program to life? What provided the most satisfying
accomplishment when it was realized in the game?



Fredrik: “The toughest challenge was
to handle the sheer massiveness. We’re talking 400 years of history with true
leaders, monarchs, events, countries etc. It took years to research.


“The most satisfying aspect was when we got
the code stable enough and had six players in a multiplayer game over our own
matchmaking service, Valkyrienet. Awesome!”


Q: What aspect of this program do you
like the most?


Fredrik: “The replayability! Since
you can play any nation in the world, 200 of them, and the game spans such a
long time you can play forever.”

Q: Can you give us some background
information (as in education, gaming experience, how you got into the business,
other titles you have worked on and games you like to play)?



Fredrik: “The team is obviously very
diverse, but in general very interested in history. The Lead Programmer had
completed seven or eight games prior to EU, we had several history majors
involved in research, the management started in the board gaming business many,
many years ago… I guess you can say all of us are old gamers. We all like
board games as well as computer games – you know, Civ, Axis & Allies, that
type.”

Q: When you begin to build a game, what
is the biggest hurdle that must be overcome in order to get the project going?



Fredrik: “Financing. It always boils
down to the fact that the game must be able to sell well for the publisher. It
costs a lot of money to develop a computer game because of the amount of people
and time it takes. Somebody has to foot the bill.”


Q: Where do you see this industry being
in 5-10 years?


Fredrik: “More interactivity between
live players, new platforms, better graphics and processor power, but the core,
beneath all the fluff, will be still be a solid game.”