Introducing Afterworld

Tim McCracken, QA Manager and scenario designer, takes us on a brief tour of his latest project. Remember the fire-breathing horseman in Omens, his last scenario in Warlords? He hopes to top it.

My favorite expansion from the Civilization series was Fantastic Worlds, from Civ 2. Jules Verne, MOO, MOM, and X-COM in one expansion; hard to imagine topping it. Our newest expansion Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword does.

The changes to the epic game could stand alone, but they are complimented by twelve exciting new scenarios. One of them, the one I'm working on, is a tip of the hat to the Gollop brothers and the original X-COM team. As a big fan of all things horror, the atmosphere and ominous theme this game accomplished were dead on. I'm focused on replicating these elements.

Our stage is in the far distant future. In an age where we've accomplished faster-than-light travel, man-made solar systems, and have isolated 'consciousness'. That last feat allows for human robots to work tirelessly, while their persona takes a vacation in a jar somewhere.

As with any story, something goes wrong. Something causes a planet full of the human robots, GoLeMs, to twist into malformed beasts. The universal government sends some scientists to observe what's going on. Yeah....they're eaten. So then the big guns (that's you) are sent in to grab the scientist's untransmitted research. It's a squad of five "Gravebringers" vs. a planet full of nightmares.

There are no leaders. No cities. No technologies. It's not the typical game of Civ. It's Afterworld.