The influence of Empire as one of the inspirations of the game was obvious to anyone familiar with it. If you're interested there's an excellent updated implementation of Empire on the App Store[1]. I'd love to be able to get a version of Civ 2 on mobile. It's still by far my favourite iteration of Civ. Or Pirates!
[0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ-auWfJTts
[1]https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/mother-of-all-battles/id425160...
It's even more mind-blowing when you realize that Shelley went ahead and started Ensemble Studios[1] that created the Age of Empires franchise which is still alive today[2]. And Civilization is today still under development and even more successful than ever before.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensemble_Studios
2. https://www.ageofempires.com/games/age-of-empires-iv/
Edit: Formatting and grammar
Bruce Shelley was on Soren Johnson's podcast Designer Notes (ep. 9, 2015). Sid Meier is in episodes 23—25 (2016).
It's a much more condensed experience than either of these - 40-60 minutes per playthrough depending on playstyle.
[1]: https://twitter.com/krajzeg/status/1304447134209585152
[2]: https://slipways.net
What a great game. There's a lot of mod content out there, but it all just felt off to me, so I never really explored outside of vanilla.
I hope Shining Rock's next game is along the same lines and as good, if not better!
Factorio also has a very satisfying train mini-game, with a focus on complex signaling and dynamic pathing. Thankfully, there are dials to tune down combat. I like to use the "rail world" preset, which disables enemy expansion.
https://wordery.com/sid-meiers-memoir-sid-meier-978132400587...
Bought it the other day. Still waiting for Stripe Press to not be Amazon exclusive as well.
