A slightly less dense bulletin compared to last week, but nevertheless enough fun stuff to talk about! In this week’s bulletin, we discuss Flash Games on The Internet Archives, a deep dive in UI/UX design for Troy, Civ VI, Valhalla, Dr. Ymir, TIPCO2 and a new video on Imperator Rome!
Flash games at the Internet Archives
The end of 2020 will see the death of my childhood: Adobe will finally stop Flash. With that many games, some integral parts of many childhoods, will dissapear from the internet. There already have been some efforts to preserve the games, such as The Flashgame Archive or the Flashpoint launcher. However, these efforts do require you to download a program. But the Internet Archive is also working on this, and is archiving 1000 games on their website with the help of emulators, through which you can play without downloading any programs! Read more on Rock Paper Shotgun.
A deep dive into UX/UI design for A Total War Saga: Troy
I can be kinda finicky when it comes to UX and UI. Some games just don’t do it right. That ‘passion’ for UI also makes it interesting to see how it is developed. Luckily, Gamasutra just posted a Deep Dive into the development of the UI and UX for A Total War Saga: Troy. Lead UI/UX Game Designer of Creative Assembly Sofia shares with us how the studio approached the design of the UI/UX for the game. An interesting read for sure!
Civ VI: Babylon
The new DLC for Civilization VI was released last week, and it’s good. Aside from a new Civ (to quote Ymir: Babylooooooon), the game now also has a Heroes and Legends mode. Compare it to Great People, but then better. Heroes can be recruited for a certain amount of turns. They can be a powerful asset, but do not live forever! Read more on the new Civ and the new game mode on PCGamesN!
More things Valhalla
Some more news and items on Valhalla. Ubisoft announced that the in-game dice game Orlog will also be released as a physical game somewhere in 2021. One of Eivor’s favorite things to do when they are not raiding or sneaking around, is to throw some dice! Read more on Dicebreaker.
If you’re really into discussion about historical accuracy in the AC games (becuase why not open this can of opinions again), it might be cool to check out the Roman heritage in the game. Alexander Vandewalle (@Alex_Vandewalle) took a look at the Roman inscriptions in the game, and found that several inscriptions in the game are actually found in Britain! Accuracy woo!
Dr. Ymir!
VALUE now has another doctor on board! Yesterday, Aris ‘Ymir’ Politopoulos successfully defended his dissertation Creating Capitals. The Rationale, Construction, and Function of the Imperial Capitals of Assyria and will now be known as dr. Aris! Yesterday we celebrated this with an amazing session of Among Us on Twitch, but of course feel free to congratulate Aris some more!
TIPCO2 on Historici.nl
Even though TIPCO2 has been behind us for almost a month (!), there’s still stuff to report. Nathan Looije, Editorial Assistant at BMGN – Low Countries Historical Review (a journal by the Dutch Society of Historians KNHG) wrote a (Dutch) piece about our conference on the website historici.nl. To cite Nathan: ‘Historische videogames hebben de toekomst’ (Historical video games are the future). Read more on historici.nl. While we’re on the topic of TIPCO2, why dont you check out Leyla Johnson’s keynote about Old World? Watch below, but be warned: you want to buy the game after seeing it!
Exploring Imperator Rome: the Mystery of Delphi
TimesnewRoman made another video on Imperator Rome. This time, she looks at Deplhi, and why it is so mysterious! Check the video below.