NSKN Blog Post on Progress: Evolution of Technology

Andrei Novac has posted an update blog about his Kickstarted game Progress: Evolution of Technology. The post, though, is not all about where the game is at in the production phase. Andrei writes about where the idea came for Progress which came after their many demo plays of Exodus: Proxima Centauri. After each demo he asked the players what they liked most about the game, which the most common answer was, "the tech tree." This tech tree came appearing in other games which Adnrei loves, with Civilization being one of them, so finally he had a moment of clarity in which he had this to say:

Well, I am guessing that now it’s time to state the obvious. The will to design a civilization game was fitting perfectly with the new idea of making a game which is all about the tech tree. So there it was, sitting in front of the eye of the mind, the idea we were looking for, a game about researching technologies, following the path of mankind from the ancient times to the modern days, discovering technologies and shaping the things to come.

He then goes on to show some early prototypes of the game. He also talks about the dedication it took for play testers since the prototype was so involved and the time dedication was so high. He finishes off by explaining how they came about the final product and what had to be cutout out of the game in order to make it a "light civilization" game. This is an interesting look at the journey of a board game from concept to realization. To read the full blob post go here.