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The name Big Huge Games is a summation of our corporate attitude: aim for the top, but don't take yourself too seriously along the way. In our case, "aiming for the top" meant putting together a company and a game designed to go head-to-head in one of the most competitive and resource-intensive segments of the PC marketplace: real-time strategy games. To succeed, our first game needed all the fun, depth, and polish of products that enjoyed bigger budgets and more manpower due to their recognizable franchises. Since they don't give out Game Developers Choice Awards for "Best Game Made with Fewer Than 30 People," we had to find ways to work both harder and smarter if we wanted to achieve our goals.
Big Huge Games was formed in early 2000 by a core team who had worked together for close to 10 years, creating best-sellers such as COLONIZATION, CIVILIZATION II, and ALPHA CENTAURI. This history of successful strategy games allowed us to go to publishers with a convincing pitch for a next-generation RTS. Although we understood the issues involved in creating turn-based games, almost all of the areas where we failed to address risks adequately involved areas where we had minimal experience, such as multiplayer matchmaking and making linear single-player campaigns. In addition to these, we also stumbled in some areas that were unique to our situation and company culture.
What Went Right
1. Prototype method of game design. Part of the core vision for RISE OF NATIONS involved introducing gameplay innovations inspired by our experience making turn-based games into the "classic" real time strategy mix. We had 10 to 15 "wild" ideas about what might take real-time strategy in new directions, but we knew that only some, maybe only a small few, were going to work, and we didn't know which ones. It was essential that we find out as soon as possible which ideas were worth implementing, and we knew from experience that the only sure way to accomplish this is to throw the ideas into a playable prototype right from the beginning.
We got a playable solo prototype running within the first month, and a fully playable multiplayer version more than two years prior to ship. We could throw new ideas in...