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War! Age of Imperialism

	Author: Jeff Vitous Article Type: PC Game Preview Publication Date: 8/19/2003 Developer: Donohoe Digital Publisher: Eagle Games Related Categories: Turn-based, Operational

Birth of a Company

Doug Donohoe loves games. When the former Chief Architect of E-Commerce for Netscape and Vice President of Technology for Blue Martini software wished to play Eagle Games inaugural title, War! Age of Imperialism with friends scattered all over the country, creation of a internet/email based computer game was well within his technical abilities. "There are a lot of similarities to the previous work I did," comments Donohoe. "The software architectures for internationalization, internet connectivity and reusable designs are all applicable for building games."

In the winter of 2002, Donohoe approached Eagle Games with a prototype of the game. "Eagle Games had previously expressed interest in a computer version of War!" recalls Donohoe. "Given the comprehensiveness of the prototype game, I was cautiously optimistic that Eagle would want to publish it in 2003 in time for the holiday season."

Glenn Drover, President and founder of Eagle Games, was impressed by what he saw. "The game was nearly complete and looked fantastic," recalls Drover. "Signing Doug to a deal right then and there really was a no-brain decision."

Donohoe originally presented a HotSeat only prototype, which took about five months to develop. "This initial time included work on the game infrastructure and tools which will allow Donohoe Digital to produce future games as well," said Donohoe. The AI and Internet play would take another four months to complete. Considering the game will release this fall, this adds up to an impressive development window of just under a year.

Opening options screen.	Configurable AI options.

A Game is Born

Now in late-beta, War! Age of Imperialism already appears poised to represent one of the best efforts in the problematic genre of board game conversions. Few games have managed to make the leap from the tabletop to the computer screen without incident. When Avalon Hill exited the market several years ago, one reason they cited was the conundrum regarding the customer base: those most likely to buy the game are also those most likely to be disappointed by technical inadequacies such as poor AI. These same customers needed to be evangelists for the product in order to make it a success, but more often than not their disappointment was overwhelming and had the opposite effect.

The lessons of history were not lost on Doug Donohoe. "There are two games such which have their roots in strategy board games: the computer versions of Risk and Axis and Allies," states Donohoe. "These games offer variety with features such as house rules and computer players. With War! Age of Imperialism we focused on raising the bar in the following ways: we included a stronger and more competitive computer player; we enhanced internet play to allow online and email based games; and we added usability features tailored to the preferences of beginner and expert players. In addition, because the board version of War! has a loyal fan base, we chose to include some of their favorite house rules to provide the game with more variety. Finally, we expanded upon the original board game by adding the North and South America map expansion, clarifying original rules and adding new rules like the Suez Canal."

The host of added features in the computer version of War! Age of Imperialism results in a product that is far greater in scope than its table-top template. For fans of the board game, this version is still a must-have, even if ample supplies of live players are available. In addition to Internet and PBEM play, the "hot seat" mode can accommodate up to eight players, and all, some or none can be set to AI control.

Configurable game options and house rules.	Eurasia after initial setup.