Civilization VII is disappointing. To be clear, this doesn’t mean it’s not well-made, and I’ve enjoyed it enough, but it represents the most radical change for the series in perhaps its entire history, and as someone who has spent more than 1,000 hours in Civilization VI, not all of these changes are good. It would take far too long to…
Remaking strategy games comes across as an odd decision, because strategy games are principally defined and remembered through their mechanics, and that is something that typically improves over time. Take Civilization 2 as an example. It’s my single favourite strategy game of all time, but it would be downright strange…
Most 4X and empire-building strategy games are focused on building an empire…
Shinto is one of those things that most people who know anything…
Many years ago now (back in 2013), when DigitallyDownloaded.net was still just a startup website and really little more than a blog, I was fortunate to land an interview with the good people of Paradox Interactive. To this day I remember that interview, and a big part of the reason…
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Back in 2007, Nippon Ichi and Vanillaware collaborated on a game called GrimGrimoire. It was actually the very first game that the Vanillaware created under its current label, and it represented so much of what we have come to love about the company; its eye for incredible 2D art and…
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I’m a big fan of itch.io for the freedom and open platform that it allows for developers to be creative, experimental, and directly canvas the audience for feedback for games that are not yet ready for primetime on Steam and its ilk. In addition, itch.io allows you to be transgressive,…
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I was a little hesitant to stream Duel Princess on the DDNet YouTube channel. The developer/publisher, qureate, is known for visual novels that have enough heavy fan service to get coverage of the games demonetised on YouTube. Nonetheless, the promise of fan service and Battle Cats-like light strategy was appealing…
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