Tuesday Screenshot – Making History: The Great War
Back to Muzzy Lane’s Making History: The Great War; read the developer interview here.
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07/8/14
Tag: WWI
06/3/14
Tuesday Screenshot – Making History: The Great War
Revisiting Muzzy Lane’s excellent WWI game, which we had previously covered here.
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Rebellion Against
Another sprawling empire
A long time ago…
04/4/14
Developer Interview with Muzzy Lane Software
Craig Handler has a chat with the Muzzy Lane crew about their upcoming release in the Making History series, The Great War.
We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Chris Parsons, the Product Manager at Muzzy Lane Software, to talk about their upcoming grand strategy game, Making History: The Great War. As Muzzy Lane’s first departure from the battlefields of the Second Word War, this new title in the Making History series spans from 1910 through 1922, and will focus on the horrific trench warfare of World War I. Making History: The Great War promises to permit players to experiment with revolutionary new armaments, technologies and strategies in an effort to rewrite history by leading one of the great powers during one of the most turbulent and pivotal times in modern world history.
With Making History: The Great War, Muzzy Lane hopes to appeal to serious historians and hardcore gamers, alike, by combining historical authenticity with a design system geared towards fostering education through strategic gaming.
GH: Thanks for agreeing to sit down with us to talk about Making History: The Great War. As you can see from our forums, there is a lot of excitement in the air over this upcoming early access release. Our readers, who consist of old fans of the Making History series, as well as new comers, are interested in learning about Muzzy Lane, the Making History series and importantly, Making History: The Great War.
Muzzy Lane games seem to be more focused toward education and the classroom, rather than the traditional commercial gaming market. What are the backgrounds of the individuals behind Muzzy Lane and is there professional experience as educators, teachers, professors, etc.? If so, does any of this professional experience focus on either of the World Wars?
ML: At its core, Muzzy Lane is a technology company that focuses on game-based learning. In addition to education, we also make games for business training and for healthcare, and of course, for strategy gamers! Our underlying technology allows us to customize the learning for specific subjects and curriculums, and share the actions taken in the game with everyone involved. This same engine drives our Making History games as well. The founders include educators and engineers, and from the start we’ve always worked with subject matter experts. For example, we worked closely with economic historian Niall Ferguson on Making History II, and the name of that game: “The War of the World” is taken from his book of the same name.
04/1/14
Tuesday Screenshot: Making History – The Great War
Muzzy Lane Software is expanding their Making History series. The Great War covers, well, THE GREAT WAR.
<hint>And if you want to know more about the game, maybe you’ll swing back by over the weekend! </hint>
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09/2/13
Sid Meier’s Ace Patrol
Developer: Firaxis
Publisher: 2K Games
Author: Boggit
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Sid Meier’s Ace Patrol is a game about aerial combat on the Western Front during the First World War. As my prayers so far for a re-release of an updated, and revamped version of Achtung Spitfire, Over the Reich, and Flight Commander 2 have so far gone unanswered, I picked this one up as it seemed somewhat reminiscent of them.
The Interface is intuitive and easy to learn. The game also features a “Baron-o-pedia” for extra information.
For a game about the First World War, it is a surprisingly very “PC” game for the PC. You can’t die, and you can’t kill your opponents. Following the suspension of historical accuracy is that half your pilots are women, you can play the US in 1916, and you don’t seem to have any limits on ammunition. Your opponent pilots seem to acquire combat victories at a surprising rate, even after you shoot them down several times, so that by the late war they often have more kills than your own aces – weird! That’s about the worst of it. It’s definitely NOT a “Grognard game”, but in my opinion it’s fun, and light relief – a good “Beer and Pretzels” game. As to gaming challenge, it offers five levels of difficulty from “Rookie” to “Legend”, which gives victory point multipliers for successful missions.
The game map is clear and informative. Note the different manoeuvre options, cloud, and “Archie” cover (red hexsides). The front line is clearly evident, and can determine the fate of shot down aircrew.