Hello my friends, and welcome to this episode of the Space Game Junkie Podcast! In this episode, Jim and I sit down with Steve Hawkins, developer of the exciting looking “5X” space strategy game, Imperia. In Imperia, you live out the life of a newly-crowned emperor with psychic powers who inherits a crumbling empire, and must do what you can to keep it going. This is the closest I’ve seen to “Crusader Kings in Space” since Star Wars: Rebellion, and it looks like it’s gonna be awesome! You can also play it for free if you go to the game’s home page. Steve is a very passionate developer, and it results in a fun discussion about the game and his philosophies behind it.
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Now Steve was specifically requested by one of our readers, I think his name is Ben? Maybe? ;) If you have someone you’d like to hear on the podcast, or would like us to discuss a specific game or topic, don’t forget you can hit us up at hail@spacegamejunkie.com. :) Thanks for listening/watching, and enjoy!
Strategy First? What’s the beef with them?
They used to be a quality publisher of respectable software and games, but now they’re just a poor publisher of shovelware.
Crusader. Kings. In. Space?! :D
Ayup. :-) And some other cool stuff too…
Definitely going to be getting into this game. The fact that he mentioned Foundation series is good enough for me as far as “street cred” goes for hard core science fiction :). I think I will be spreading the news about this game, especially on Ars Technica forums, lot of grognard/scifi gamers there who might really get into this.
Welcome to the comments BuxarooBanzai, and thanks for helping spread word about the game. :)
Hey BuxarooBanzai! Glad you like the game and my sci-fi roots. In a way, Imperia is a very, very scaled down version of Foundation about 200 years after Hari Seldon, if you want to think of it that way, but without the psychohistory issues. :-) Any way you could spread the word would be fantastic. Since this is not a commercial game, publicity is hard to come by and I truly appreciate Brian giving me and the game a worthy soapbox. (BTW, .311 just released, – you can pick it up on the forum!) Thanks again! Have fun! -Steve
Whow …. just came across this post (and the game). Will be watching this FOR SURE.
It’s funny, I’ve been slowly framing up a design concept for a 4X should I ever endeavor to make one (I have a developer buddy who might be interested) … this is actually pretty close to the concept I was throwing around.
Big picture, I was thinking about translating some of the gameplay experience from “King of Dragon Pass” into a space empire game. As a leader/emperor, you’d be establishing various empire wide budgets/initiatives that would trickle down to individual systems/worlds. It’s pretty close in theory to the ADM system in Imperia (if I’m understanding it correctly). REALLY REALLY interested to see how this game evolves.
KoDP would be awesome in a space environment!
I played around for about an hour with Imperia alpha last night. Man – it’s complicated and without much documentation and/or a tutorial, it’s pretty rough. There is a lot more information and stuff going on than I expected. I’ll need to spend a bit more time with it yet.
Hah, yeah, it’s a pickle alright, but wow does it have potential.
Hey Mezmorki – yeah, there’s some serious opportunity with documentation, but don’t give up! Remember that you can ask questions on the forum (if you have a question, others probably do to) and I’d love to help!
Also, I’ll use this space to let everyone know that .320 has just been released – this is a HUGE update with a lot of features and a lot of foundational stuff in place for true character and pop proactive behaviors! Check it out either at the forums (imperia.boards.net) or at the WordPress site that Brian has already linked to above.
-Steve
Ohhhh, can’t wait to find time to try it. ;)
Well, if you can fit it into your move, I just released .4!!! Ton of changes, check it out!
Oh, and there’s a proper wiki now that’s being worked on daily: https://imperia5x.wikidot.com/start Hopefully it will answer some questions…