Genie Engine
The Genie Engine is one of Ensemble Studios developed and in several computer games such as Age of Empires , Age of Empires II and its expansions as well as Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds used game engine .
development
The Genie Engine was developed by Ensemble Studios as the basis for the first game, Age of Empires , which bore the development name "Dawn of Man". The designers incorporated much of the game Civilization with its proven historical setting; this has been mentioned as a positive thing among reviewers. Age of Empires was designed by Bruce Shelley , Tony Goodman , Dave Pottinger, and Matt Pritchard . The game has been described as "Civilization II meets Warcraft II" and this is reflected in the game's engine design. Like Warcraft, it's real-time strategy , but unlike Warcraft and like Civilization II , it's historical and has an isometric perspective . The design team for the sequel Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings planned to complete the game within a year, using code from the original and reusing the Genie game engine. After a few months, they had found that they would not be able to complete a game of the quality they were planning at that time. Ensemble Studios informed Microsoft that it would take another year and instead created Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome, an easy-to-develop extension of Age of Empires , as a compromise that could be released around Christmas 1998. Additional programmers, artists, and designers were hired to meet next year's deadline. The original Age of Empires had been criticized for its artificial intelligence (AI). Since the original AI did not "cheat" by assigning itself additional resources or using other techniques that the human player could not master, it was easier to defeat than in many other real-time strategy games. For The Age of Kings, Ensemble Studios tried to create a more powerful AI system that wouldn't compromise on cheating. Industry veteran Mario Grimani led Ensemble Studios in creating the new system. In order to eliminate another significant point of criticism against Age of Empires , that of Pathfinding, the team has completely redesigned the game engine's movement system. The team was less successful in solving other problems. After the release of Age of Empires, programmer Matt Pritchard complained that there was still no process by which patches could be issued. Extensive cheating in Age of Empires multiplayer games resulted from multiple bugs in the game, which led Microsoft to select promising Ensemble Studios for a patch process for The Age of Kings. There were several bugs with the release that required immediate attention, but the patching process wasn't finished. The first patch was released 11 months later. Ensemble Studios developed a new terrain system for The Age of Kings with 3D presentation options that were far superior to those of Age of Empires . However, he complained about the lack of an art asset management tool while other departments were given new tools and automated procedures to help them design and test games. The Age of Kings envisaged the introduction of a trigger system for its scenario editor. The triggers allow messages to be displayed or actions to be taken based on predefined criteria or "events". The scenario editor has also been improved with the new AI system. The AI and trigger systems interacted regularly in the single-player campaigns. Numerous improvements were made in Age of Empires II: The Conquerors , but that was mostly in terms of gameplay, not engine advancement. Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds was developed by LucasArts by licensing the Genie Game Engine from Ensemble Studios. The game and the Clone Campaigns expansion pack were designed and directed by Garry M. Gaber .
credentials
The games based on the engine were usually highly rated, with Age of Empires selling over three million copies in 2000 and having an average Metacritic Score of 87%. The Age of Kings was a bigger critical hit than the first game with a Metacritic Score of 92%. Age of Empires' expansions for both games received a little less praise, but were still very well received. Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds received generally positive reviews, both from critics and fans. GameRankings gave the game a score of 77% based on 38 media. The design of the Genie Engine was copied in later games such as Empire Earth , Cossacks: European Wars , Theocracy , Tzar: The Burden of the Crown, and Rise of Nations . Most of these games were also very successful. The real-time strategy game 0 AD under development by Wildfire Games began as an Age of Empires II modification and has many similarities to Age of Empires in its current design, along with its new engine Pyrogenesis.
successor
The Genie Engine was developed by the Bang! Replaced engine used by Age of Mythology and Age of Empires III and its expansions. The most significant changes are the updated graphics engine and the inclusion of the Havok physics engine, as well as the introduction of hometowns.
Games of the Genie Engine
Web links
- Genie Engine on ModDB (English)