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Rob Zacny

Episode 373: Amplitude Studios and the Endless Series

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Three Moves Ahead 373:

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Amplitude Studios and the Endless Series
This week Rob and Fraser welcome special guest Jeff Spock, Narrative Director at Amplitude Studios. The Endless Series has garnered a large amount of praise with its impressive debut in Endless Space, the unique gameplay in Dungeons of the Endless, and the master class of 4X gaming in Endless Legend. Jeff goes over the challenges of writing for 4X and strategy games and how the universe has changed from Endless Space to Endless Legend. Endless Legend has changed quite a bit since launch and Jeff explains how the series has evolved and where it might go in Endless Space 2. This topic was chosen in a poll by our Patreon backers.

Endless Space, Dungeons of the Endless, Endless Legend, Endless Space 2


 

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On the subject of Ruse, what killed it for me is UPlay.  I'd go to play it, it would ask for my UPlay password, which I wouldn't have to hand, and then I'd go play something else instead.  It's killed the Anno series for me as well.

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I would have said that character-centric fantasy 4X games where your field armies are the focus can be dated back to the original Warlords, at the least.

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12 hours ago, hexgrid said:

On the subject of Ruse, what killed it for me is UPlay.  I'd go to play it, it would ask for my UPlay password, which I wouldn't have to hand, and then I'd go play something else instead.  It's killed the Anno series for me as well.

 

Same happened for me with Anno. Great games, and I'd probably get Anno 1404 on GoG, but next Anno games have useless online features and require you to always be online and connect and all that. Last I checked UPlay worked horribly in my country, I literally had to wait for 5 minutes to load the game (main menu, not the game itself) just because it tried to connect to UPlay servers, and that's after Steam launched UPlay client which wanted to update and show me ads before giving me the damned game. I wouldn't be suprised if UPlay games are pirated 10 times more than other games just cause people want to get rid of this UPlay crap.

 

Ahem, Endless Legend. Just as Rob, I'm having problems forgetting it's a 4X game. I probably shouldn't regard it as such and try to find optimal ways to victory. Perhaps I should play without victory conditions apart from time so that I don't feel the pressure, kinda like in paradox games. You have a very complex 4X game and you have to see a very complex narrative interconnections in the story, you have to find meaning in each turn - at least it's how it's supposed to be. In reality I just click through turns waiting for pieces to fall in place for my masterplan.

 

I like Dungeon of the Endless much more. It too has sort of narrative but it's more of RPG party of ragtags uniting for the common goal. It's a simpler story. And gameplay is not as complex as in 4X games. Plus it's finely tuned so that when you lose you know why you've lost, not in a typical 4X way of suddenly realizing you lost 20 turns ago.

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This was another great developer interview.

 

The only thing I feel like the question from the year-in-review is still unresolved. Is Endless Legend a good strategy game?

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Listening to this episode was a nice respite from the dark place my mind has been. Thank you.

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Really good episode!

One of the things I really like of Endless Space and Legends is the faction design, not just in terms of gameplay, but in presentation (specially their intro videos) and concept. Meanwhile other 4x games factions often have blurry lines and might look the same, save some minor bonus, their factions stand out unique.

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On 10/11/2016 at 5:17 PM, Roke said:

This was another great developer interview.

 

The only thing I feel like the question from the year-in-review is still unresolved. Is Endless Legend a good strategy game?

 

 

I was thinking the same thing. I suspect the answer is "no." [Which isn't to say it isn't a fun game/toy to play around with]. I think the faction design pushes the game into optimization strategies (this is how I break the game economy with this faction) which don't interact all too much on the map. So while each faction presents a different puzzle, and provides some replayability, any one faction isn't all that re-playable. I think my personal preference is for the opposite design... all factions start the same, and then diverge due to choices in tech and the influence of the map, interactions with other factions etc. 

 

Still, it's a fun game, from an interesting studio. Endless Legend was good, and a breath of fresh air into a tired genre, but I think (hope!) that the studio are capable of much more! Imagine a game that captured the character and flair or Legend, with a really solid strategy game design to last the ages. I look forward to replaying some Endless Legend myself soon!

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