Making History Team Announces Making History: The Great War

[son_of_montfort]

http://making-history.com/blog/post/443877

"Making History: The Great War" in development - due later this year!

We are happy to announce that we are in development on the next title in the Making History series. "The Great War" will focus on the events leading up to and through World War I and it's aftermath. One of the major additions to the game will be the need to develop a strategy for governing your conquests. The colony and puppet system will be expanded, and governing policies added. People don't like to be subjugated, and you will have to strike the right balance between the carrot and the stick to keep everyone in line. We'll also be bringing you all the cool military technology of the day such as Artillery (the Paris Gun, Trench Mortars), Warplanes (Fokker Triplane, Sopwith Camel), Submarines, Poison Gas and Chemicals, and more. World War I is a great period for Making History - diplomacy was fluid and mostly non-ideological, fighting varied across the fronts from static trench warfare in France to wide open maneuvering in the Arabian desert, and several key nations were available to the highest bidder. The game will ship with a fully functional editor and LAN and web based mutliplayer. More to come as we progress and as always we appreciate your input and continued support!

[Jarhead0331]

This is big news. I'd like to see them get more publicity and support.

[Nefaro]

Yay!  It's not WW2!  ;D

MH2 has been improved quite a bit after some of the latest updates.  Hopefully The Great War won't be starting from zero again.

[tgb]

This is big news. I'd like to see them get more publicity and support.

I'd like to see them produce something that plays more like a fun game and less like a classroom learning tool.

[Jarhead0331]

This is big news. I'd like to see them get more publicity and support.

I'd like to see them produce something that plays more like a fun game and less like a classroom learning tool.

Have you really given the games a chance?  I find them to be a lot of fun and do not get a "class room" feel from them at all...not any more than Hearts of Iron, anyway.

[Martok]

Cool.  I'll be keeping an eye on this one. 

[tgb]

This is big news. I'd like to see them get more publicity and support.

I'd like to see them produce something that plays more like a fun game and less like a classroom learning tool.

Have you really given the games a chance?  I find them to be a lot of fun and do not get a "class room" feel from them at all...not any more than Hearts of Iron, anyway.

I played the first one a lot.  In fact, I was in the beta.  I found it dry and not particularly interesting.  I looked at the demo for the second, but that's as far as I got.

[Gusington]

Did not play the first games at all but I will definitely be buying this one sight unseen. I actually like the description of it being like a classroom tool and I also like the "events leading up to" WWI...not enough games include that time period.

[ArizonaTank]

Great idea, but hope they significantly rework the mechanics to fit the period. 

[eyebiter]

.

[steve58]

Good news, looking forward to it...

[MuzzyDev]

Thanks, guys!  So far it's been a blast developing this game.  WWI it a very cool time period, and while perhaps not well suited to a tactical wargame because of the static trench warfare, it is perfect for a grand strategy game, where you'll be having to develop new tech to get an offensive edge before you run out of cash.  This will be much less of a sandbox game compared to our last games.  We want players to get the feeling that there is a lot of stuff going on around them in the world and what they do will affect that.  Plus, while WWII was pretty clearly settled into good guys/bad guys, Axis and Allies, WWI was not like that at all.  People changed sides, manipulated allies, had to deal with internal revolutions, all kinds of cool stuff.  And WWI combat lends itself well to grand strategy.  Getting the right troops and materiel to the right locations to prevent breakthroughs early on, getting artillery in place to bombard adjacent regions, destroying rail to slow movements, WWI is perfect for that style of gameplay.

I would say right now the game is in better shape than MHII was when we released it.  In fact, as we've developed TGW, we've back-ported what we could into MHII.  This last update, for example, is using the new map we created for TGW! 

We also plan on doing early access on Steam and pre-release beta at other locations, so we can get it in front of as many eyes as possible and get feedback before official release.

Chris--

[son_of_montfort]

Chris,

I noticed that the original announcement was around 2 years ago next month. Any word on the upcoming early access release dates or a projection of what quarter the final release can be expected?

I have always wanted to find a way to use this game in the classroom. Eventually, my "grand strategy" is to create an upper-level history methodology course that focuses on history in gaming, and use the Muzzy Lane games as one of our semester's examples.

[bbmike]

I noticed that the original announcement was around 2 years ago next month.

Yeah, that's what I thought too. I was a bit confused by the 'announcement' that this was in development. I was hoping this was a month away release date along with the announcement of Making History: The Civil War.  8)

[MuzzyDev]

We started developing the game two years ago.  It's taken a while because, unlike earlier times, we are developing a lot of games now!  So our MH team was obviously smaller than when we were just working on one game.  Plus, we really iterated a lot on design before settling on the direction we wanted.  Something that worked for the period and combined the best elements of previous games.  So far, it's looking pretty good!

We will be doing Steam early access, and a pre-order beta.  I'm sure I'll be letting folks here know when it happens!

Chris--