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Building an empire (Gamescom 2024) - Interview with David Martinez about Citadelum
We caught up with Abylight's Head of Marketing David Martinez during our time at Gamescom to talk about the incredible progress in the development of Citadelum, the beta reception and its imminent release at a time when strategy games and Ancient Rome are all the rage.
Audio transcription
"Look at that! So last year we took a look behind closed doors to a game that was in development that was super secret, that was called Citadelum. It didn't even have a name, I think. So it's really nice to meet you guys once again and you guys work fast and with quality from what I can see. Thank you so much for joining us David. What is the status of Citadelum? It was a secret and now it's a game that is even close to release. Yeah, actually I'm very happy to be here again because Gamereactor was one of the first media in the world who knew about Citadelum. You were right, we didn't have a name at that time. Right now the game is almost finished, we are polishing, so we are announcing here at Gamescom we have playable battles and you will be able to play them in a prologue we are releasing very soon. At the end of August everyone will be able to play this prologue with two complete captures of the game, of the campaign, and you will be able to experiment new mechanics, to do the core city building game and also to play for the first time battles. Okay before we talk battles deeper, players also got the opportunity to play the game very recently, a couple of months ago, but the game changed from what they played. So what's the sort of the feedback you got from players playing the first demo and what are those changes coming from that demo to the near final version that you guys have here? Yeah, I think it's important to highlight the difficult doing a game like Citadelum, city building or empire building as we talk about it. The thing is you have to balance everything, so you have to keep the correct amount of resources, well every management aspect in the game has to be perfectly balanced so it's fun and at the same time it is challenging. We also included improvements in graphics and of course we changed the use of some buildings. We forgot completely about the city gates, now we introduced the forum which is not only historically more accurate but allows the player to build the city whenever they want, whatever they want, so you don't have to be tied to the main via, the via apia, we called that when we were developing the game."
"And yeah, we have some other mechanics, first entertainment buildings and we are preparing defense and as I told you, battles. And I've also noticed the new build is more mature.
I remember the very first concept arts you showed us, it looked more cartoonish in both terms of how the legions look, not just the buildings, more like the characters, they look more cartoonish and mostly the gods. So you guys changed that, what is the reason behind that? They now look really serious, there's some blood to it as well, so what can you tell us about that?
Yeah, we decided we have Rome, why don't we enjoy Rome? And the only way to enjoy Rome is having the more realistic buildings and characters you can, and also the gods, we imagined the gods as Romans did, so they look like people, giant people, but people anyway. And yeah, we decided to go for a realistic approach. So what we did is we have a campaign which is based on true facts, which is following the ascent of Augustus to Emperor, and you will be able to play in different places, in Hispania, in Peninsula Italica, in Egypt, and we decided, okay, if we are gonna have battles and we are gonna have gladiators and chariot races, we're gonna need blood. So yeah, this is not a game rated for everyone, but still we think this is a true Roman city building experience. Now that you mentioned realism and the locations players will get to visit and build on, tell us a bit more on, you know, the historical timeline that you guys are basing this on, and the locations that you just mentioned. Yeah, we wanted to find something that fit a game, so we start after the death of Julius Caesar, and then you are following Augustus' life until he became emperor. We wanted to have in the game something like they have, for instance, in Band of Brothers, in which you follow a unit and you can see the evolution of the world, but as this is a game about city building, we have to find, we had to find where those settlements were founded and built. So yeah, finally what we had to do is study a lot, and after searching through history books and talking to experts, we found this history about Augustus was that was adding variety enough to the game, and also, you know, the feeling of this progression."
"And of course battles are the main course here at Gamescom, so tell us a little bit more about how you guys really do battles here, how you control your legion, how you sort of drag and drop. You have some sort of automated system for them to act, but then you can intervene, then there's gods which are more doing their own thing. Yeah, the thing is, we didn't know how to do this. We started with a classic auto battle system, thinking, okay, this strategy player, city building player, is more into building than into conquering or battling, but we decide, okay, we have this auto battle system, it works for everyone, now we are giving other players the opportunity to, as you said, change the outcome of the battle, like giving simple orders, as if it were an RTS, but much more simple. And as you told before, we also have the gods who can intervene and change how things go, so you never know how exactly your city is gonna develop. Would you say it's the perfect timing to release Citadel? It feels to me like there's gonna be a trend, new trends about this genre, about these sort of games. You guys, if I'm correct, are more inspired by Caesar, but then the demo, final demo, is releasing late August."
"The game, if I'm correct, will be released between September and October. I'm not telling the final release date yet, but yeah. September, October, and then we will get Civilization, ARA, you know, there is like a trend, people are eager to try this genre again, and all of a sudden, yesterday at the ONL, we had Peter Molyneux presenting his new god game on stage, so you guys, I think, nailed the release schedule. Well, we feel truly humbled and honored to be among those games, because you have to keep in mind that Citadel is an indie game, and ARA and Civilization, they are huge games with, you know, made by hundreds of people. We are a very small team, which is true, we have a lot of experience in this genre, but yeah, I think there are many games coming out, our catch, I think what makes our game special is, of course, the room setting, the use of, the possibility of zooming into every building, zooming out to the general map, see the territory, and then the gods. But yeah, it's a perfect moment, and we hope with the movie, some movie coming out at the end of this year. That's another thing, yes."
"Yeah, that made people get even more interested in Ancient Rome.
May the gods be with you, I'm looking forward to trying out the new demo, try out the battles late August, will be available, and then the game in September, October. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you, wishlist Citadelum by Jupiter."
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