The �Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile� demo introduces players to the concept of having �real people� to rule over. The demo includes approximately the first one to two hours of gameplay from the �Intro scenarios.�

Players direct independent hunter gatherers to become citizens in a fledgling society, and experience first hand how the �real people� model affects gameplay -- separating it from previous city building games. The player�s citizens will migrate up and down the social ladder, complain about or praise the player�s leadership, and do the best they can to fulfill their needs. You'll see your citizens close up: including farmers, merchants, the Pharaoh and his family, nobles, servants, and much more. The player can observe them in their daily lives and explore the rich 3d environment with a free roaming camera from a god like perspective down to walking the city streets.

Players can get the product at retail - which also includes the editor, save & load, the campaign and scenarios, two thirds of the buildings & decorations, and much of the audio and video.

Comment!

Tilted Mill just released the first patch for Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile. It is available at their site, here. It is slightly over 5 megs.

It will also be available on this site later today.


Sphinx's Latest Update Comment!
07:43 | posted by Sphinx

What has happened in prior updates
I described in prior posts my adventures in the first two scenarios of the Grand Campaign (I chose Nekhen and Bubastis). In my last update I left off just before (I believed) meeting all goals in Bubastis and moving on to my next campaign. Here's what happened since...

Preparing for the trip to Abu
The last completion goal to meet in this scenario was to have a triumphal trip into Abu, the capital of the Upper Nile. This trip required extensive resources and a certain level of prestige. I was just short of the needed prestige, and my main focus was on upping my notoriety with my people. I commenced construction of multiple statues and other projects to achieve this.

The big setback
Just after I set up all of these projects, child of Sphinx in real life demanded her lunch. After looking around for my retainers, and finding none, it became apparent that the Sphinx had to perform this very unPharoanic task! Since I believed I had my city running very smoothly, I unwisely decided to lower the play speed to minimum and leave my city to its own devices while I tended CoS (Child of Sphinx will hereafter be referred to with this acronym). About forty minutes later I checked on my city, and discovered that all of my food reserves were gone! My subjects were starving, and VERY unhappy. After some research I discovered that two consecutive years of low floods, combined with a large number of trade agreements requiring food export had stripped away all my food.

The solution
I rapidly jumped to the World Level, and placed all unnecessary trade agreements requiring food on hold. I also checked and discovered that a good flood had just occurred. I sat tight, and my food issues were more than solved that year. So much so that I was able to declare a holiday in my own honor! This repaired much of the damage to my reputation while correcting the unhappiness in my city. Suddenly, my prestige was almost enough to venture to Abu.

To Abu
The following year's flood was rich, and the resulting harvest gave me more than enough food to launch my mission. With my prestige just over the minimum needed to do so, I quickly began the mission to Abu. Later that year I arrived, and Voila! the scenario was over. I was presented with my next three options for Scenario #3. Emboldened by my great success, I chose the hardest of the next three missions, Abu (note, each scenario completion allows you to choose your next mission which vary in difficulty).

Abu's challenge
My hubris has taken me into a military campaign scenario. My homebase is Abu, in the Upper Nile, and the Nubian people farther up the Nile are threatening with a growing military force. Basically, I must build a viable city, build city guards for security, and then go on the offensive. My strategy right now is to rapidly build a farming base and a few years from now start cranking up my government workers and military extablishment. I am definitely noticing that on the hard scenario it is much more difficult to please my nobles and priests. So I have also dispatched multiple trade missions to procure goods to keep them happy.

It is here that I turned in for the evening. With my parents and sister in town, and a trip to Monterey Bay planned for CoS's birthday this weekend, I suspect my next update will not be until at least Monday.

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Sphinx's Grand Campaign Update Comment!
17:30 | posted by Sphinx

Where I left off
I finished my last game progress post as I began the second scenario in the Grand Campaign, Bubastis. I must say I really struggled with this one early on - my initial save on scenario inception was particularly handy. But I can now say that final completion of this scenario is in sight and I expect to finish tonight!

Bubastis's challenge
The initial challenge of this scenario is simply city placement. Since you begin in the Nile delta, there are multiple river channels running all through the map. It does not lend itself to the compact and fairly organized cities I normally favor. After two abysmal starts I noticed a post on Bubastis in the official CotN forums. I discovered that several others had encountered similar problems, and also had suggestions on how to solve them. I adopted some of this strategy and voila! a successful city emerged. Thank you to the folks who contributed to this post.

Since Bubastis has very few resources, just lots of floodplain for farming, my initial strategy was simply - to grow my farming community as much as possible while supporting the least amount of government workers necessary. This allowed me to set up several trade routes bringing in needed resources and luxuries. My nobles were happy, my realm was peaceful.

Papyrus and bricks
At this point I realized that completion of this scenario would require large amounts of papyrus and bricks. This resulted in a fairly extensive government labor force. I also added several scribes to oversee trade and harvests. Parts of my city grew so much that I had to add two more priests serving as healthcare workers to tend the ills of the people.

Bubonic Plague, et al
Just as I completed these hospitals, bubonic plague broke out! But it turned out to be manageable - the extra hospitals and priests handled the inflow of patients wonderfully. In fact I was able to erect a cult temple to Bast and complete many more trade routes while the plague raged. One of those uncovered the final goal for the scenario - the voyage to Abu. It requires a great deal of resources, but within two game years the Sphinx will triumphantly enter Abu and move on to the next scenario!

My next posting will not occur until at least Saturday, but please stay tuned!


Pharoah's Treasures are now Cheats! 2 Comments
09:36 | posted by Sphinx

So I went over to check out the official international site this morning, and messed about with the Pharoah's Treasures game. Lo and behold, I now have cheats for jewelers and brickmakers! I wonder what else I'll unlock!


Article in Time magazine about CotN Comment!
09:12 | posted by Sphinx

Just got word of this, Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile has an article in this week's (Nov 22nd) Time magazine! It's pretty brief, you can see it here.

Monday, November 15, 2004

Demo scheduled for Friday! Comment!
17:23 | posted by Sphinx

Just found on the official Children of the Nile website:

Tilted Mill Entertainment shall release a downloadable demo of Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile on November 19.

The demo reveals a glimpse into the life of your citizens. Take on the rewarding challenge of being Pharaoh as you lead independent people to create a society and then a civilization of your design.

The demo shall remain under 200mb to download.

We will make it available here as well once it is released.

Saturday, November 13, 2004

Sphinx's Review - A Fan's Perspective Comment!
23:26 | posted by Sphinx

Why I'm writing this article (what's a fansite doing writing a review?)

I've spent a great deal of time over the last week reading reviews of the retail release of Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile. I've spent even more time and effort playing the game itself. What struck me most is that the reviews just don't properly describe my experience with this game - the central fact which compelled me to write this article. While each review has fairly accurately described the mechanics of the game and the reviewers opinion of them, they have essentially failed to adequately describe the true evolution that Tilted Mill has begun in this game.

What 'the evolution' means

The Impressions series of city-building games (and for that matter the entire genre thus far) which Children of the Nile is being touted as a 'natural' successor to were essentially constructed around building types. Need healthcare - plunk a hospital down. Need more food - plunk some farms down. And while there were costs associated with each structure, it was simply a matter of amassing the right resources to build and maintain them. Once you put a building down, it quickly populated with the required worker. Put quite simply, Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile reverses that approach.

The evolution begins at home

Children of the Nile proceeds on the premise that people provide products and services, not buildings. So the scenario changes to this - need healthcare, educate a priest, build him a home and hospital, and as long as he has access to the goods and services that his class expects, he will serve your city's needs. Need more food - assign space for more farms and invite the hunter gatherers to populate them. But again, it is people who are serving these establishments. And those people have needs beyond the specific roles they are assigned. and Children of the Nile not only looks at the professional needs of its units, the gameplay structure takes into account household chores and social needs. The farmers wife has needs and wants, as do the farmers children. And just like in our lives, if our family is unhappy we're unhappy!

Consequently there is a rational need for the goods of the various craftsmen and shopkeepers across each household. Your subjects (well the educated) expect to have tombs ready for their loved ones. When you fail to provide the expected goods and services to those subjects they become unhappy - and there is likely to be a ripple effect across society.

Evolution to reality

This is where in my opinion Immortal Cities really shines. You are truly dealing with an organically growing and changing society. Unlike previous city building games, your city is not 100% predictable and a spreadsheet (beancounting to the genres devotees) will not really predict results. Deaths, illnesses and occur across the population even if your rulership is flawless. So as a ruler you cannot remain aloof, but must constantly monitor to watch for serious issues - and perhaps the biggest test is learning that there are some aspects of your city that you just have to accept. Your city has taken on a life of its own!

Observing evolution in progress

One of the biggest complaints thus far about Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile involves the unpredictable issues that crop up, especially with regard to monitoring and detecting problems. I struggled with this early on - it is the greatest learning curve in the game, and it is completely different from any city building game I've played in the past (or for that matter any game at all). There are multiple levels of feedback. You can view overarching issues at the city wide level, or go deeper to view slices across the various social levels, or view all households which have specific issues. In addition you can drill down to the household level and see exactly what is bothering that family, and how much it is bothering them. You can even see what goods they have in their house!

Solving some of these problems, however, can be work for a detective. Take this example - you notice at the macro level that your city is moderately unhappy with the worship services you have provided them. Concerned, and a bit confused since you have invested many resources into temples and shrines, you click on the macro level worship status. You discover a wide variety of professions are complaining - so it is probably not a specific god your populace cannot worship properly. Checking several of these households confirms this, so next you click on some of your temples and shrines, and discover that no one has worshipped recently, and in fact some of them aren't even open! This brings you to the household of the priest in charge of tending gods. There you discover the real problem. He has only no luxury products in his household, and you find him walking to the opposite end of the city to acquire them. Therefore he does not have time to visit your worship facilities. Now that you've identified the problem there are a number of solutions, but there truly is room for some additional feedback or reporting mechanisms which would make it much easier for the busy, struggling Pharoah.

My conclusion - Looking forward to more evolution

Tilted Mill aggressively chose to approach this genre in a novel manner, and this means that devotees of the genre must throw away a great deal of their preconceptions on how to play a city building game. For daring to attempt this at all Tilted Mill deserves a tip of the cap. What is really awesome is that their product is extremely engaging and eminently playable despite this steep learning curve (and just as steep unlearning curve for some of us). Just about all of the real flaws I've observed are addressable, and I'm sure will be in a future patch, and hopefully future add-ons.

Even more exciting is that this will probably be the first in a line of city building games focusing on different cultures.




Sega site's game has new prizes
00:06 | posted by Sphinx

For all of you folks who for some reason have not purchased yet - you can pick up some more screenshots and other little goodies at the Sega Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile site.

Go here to get directly to the Pharoah's Treasures game.

Friday, November 12, 2004

Sphinx's Grand Campaign (belated) Comment!
10:48 | posted by Sphinx

First of all, apologies to anyone who read my first blog-like entry about the tutorials. I had promised to publish my progress daily, but it's been four days! I'll try to be more timely going forward. Anyway, here's the next installment.

My foray into the Grand Campaign first scenario taught me many lessons about the city management systems and, ahem, my mortality. The goals of the scenario were to establish a certain level of prestige and upgrade at least 6 nobles to large estates. The essential strategy I adopted was to rapidly build my agricultural base (food/farmers/nobles), then concentrate on building infrastructure such as temples/hospitals/funerary type people and facilities. The extra food I acquired during the building phase would serve to fuel expeditions to the outside world. And that strategy would have been solid had I executed with a better understanding of certain social dynamics...and in fact I did complete the scenario in 18 years (and many reloads).

Where Sphinx went wrong

My first real mistake(s) occurred upon the death of my first Pharoah. I had not been contemplating my mortality despite the increasingly gloomy messages I received on each birthday. Since I was without a tomb, without a mortuary, I was also without hope of an afterlife, a shocking fate to my subjects who were very disappointed. I reloaded and prepared for death. Eventually (took a few tactical shifts) I successfully got a mortuary and a dedicated tomb built, and assigned a priest to the services. After watching them stuff my carcass into a teeny Mastaba I moved on. Lesson one learned - be prepared for death. I also took a long hard look at my city and realized that my nobles and educated elite (Scribes, priests, overseers) were really unhappy about their afterlives. No tombs for them, unhappy city. I turned my attention to mastaba-building for all and conquered this obstacle. Lesson two - everybody dies, and the upper classes expect some posthumous services or their families will be upset.

Sphinx Gains Prestige

Once I'd conquered the fear of death it was time to up my standing. Since the educated classes population is directly related to the amount of prestige my pharoah has, this is not just a scenario goal but an overall necessity for expanding a population. Building those mastabas had bought me just enough prestige to add a scribe and an overseer (I already had four priests teaching, burying, doctoring and preaching). The scribe could halt the theft of food and the overseer could mine and quarry certain extremely useful (if not necessary) resources.

First, the scribe. His addition was invaluable - my first harvest with a scribe garnered me signicantly higher taxes (food). This allowed me to get very aggressive in my diplomacy. A series of expeditions netted me luxury traders and access to some limestone resources (which I actually never used). Here the scribe again came in handy as he was able to pry more pharoanic income from those traders. Even better, several of my exploratory expeditions provided the opportunity to build monuments to my own greatness. More prestige!

That's where my overseer (and laborers) stepped in. As my bricklayers placed the bases, my labor force headed out to the nearby granite quarry. They plucked out steles, hauled them to town, and under management by the overseer erceted them. Once my newly added stonecarver got off his duff, I suddenly had some lovely monuments. In fact these quickly pushed me over the top ( I built six), and met the scenario goals for victory!

Other notes on gameplay

I learned in this scenario that priests are incredibly important. Since they educate, it is only through them that you can add elites to your ranks. Plus, elites die, and you'd better be prepared to plug a replacement in. I had an amusing moment when my third Pharoah, just 2 years into his reign at the ripe old age of 16, ate a rotten pomegranate and expired (lol). I'm not sure, but I think both the priest in charge of healthcare AND the priest in charge of the funerals had died as well while I wasn't paying attention. This essentially forced a reload, as I went back and reconfigured my priests to ensure replacements...but that earlier mastaba building phase made this a pretty simple correction.

I also learned that I should more carefully plan my resources and trading. I was lucky, since the trading I established provided the added goods to get my nobles upgrading their estates (luxury goods access I think), a scenario goal. But I'd established a limestone trade which I never used - by end of scenario I had about a hundred blocks sitting around! Just because a resource is available does not make it valuable.

Sphinx's next steps

Well, I've launched the second scenario in the Grand Campaign. It's very different from the first and I'm still in the early years. I'll continue posting my progress - but I don't think that progress will be nightly.

In addition, I will be publishing a 'fan review' of the game this weekend. I'm not sure how valuable it will be to y'all, but I haven't seen a review yet that truly described my own reactions and experience with Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile thus far.

Thanks for taking the time to read folks! Feel free to comment in the forums or with email to me!

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Gamespot reviews Immortal Cities 3 Comments
21:21 | posted by Sphinx

Gamespot just published a review of Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile. Here's an excerpt:

Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile is a promising start for developer Tilted Mill, which was founded by veterans of Impressions, the studio responsible for early city-building games like Pharaoh and Caesar. If you're a veteran of those games, the important thing to keep in mind is that Children of the Nile is a fresh start for the genre. The developers took the opportunity to build a new game from the ground up, rather than recycle previous gameplay conventions and mechanics. The result is a game that has a lot of personality and some interesting city-building gameplay, but is weighed down by a few problems not found in some of the previous games of this type.

For more, simply click here!

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Worth Playing Reviews Immortal Cities 1 Comments
08:29 | posted by Sphinx

Worth Playing has published a review of Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile. Here's a snippet of what they had to say:

In the final analysis, Twisted Mill games has come up with a City Building Sim that follows in the rich traditions of its predecessors, adds new depth and complexity, a superior graphical presentation, and a more realistic AI model. I�m not the biggest fan in the world of Building Sims, but there's no question about it, pick it up!

Interesting anecdote here - the developer is "Twisted Mill"! Freudian slip? Anyway, go here for the full article.


Create your own pictorials Comment!
09:49 | posted by Sphinx

Over at the Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile official site, they have set up a function called User Sets. This enables fans to essentially create a captioned slideshow of their gameplay experiences. Go check it out - and add your own stories!


IGN reviews Immortal Cities
08:03 | posted by Sphinx

IGN just posted their review of Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile. Here's an excerpt:

The core idea of the family was a great move forward in this genre, especially for a game like this that deals with ancient Egypt and smaller communities unlike those found in games like SimCity.

For the entire article, just click here.

Tuesday, November 9, 2004

Tech for Tut Sweepstakes Comment!
08:37 | posted by Sphinx

There's a new sweepstakes up over at the Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile site. Prizes are a Sony Vaio notebook, a Leica digital camera, and an iPod. Sorry all international fans, it is limited to United States residents.


Beta photos from the official site Comment!
20:42 | posted by Sphinx

The Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile team has promoted a bunch of snapshots taken during the beta. I found them pretty awesome, go take a look.


A new look at ancient tombs
11:34 | posted by Sphinx

This is an interesting article in USA Today about mapping of Egyptian sites. Some very interesting stuff about placement of tombs!


Check out the Beta screenshots Comment!
07:55 | posted by Sphinx

Tilted Mill has published a large number of Beta screenshots. They're great - go check them out!

Monday, November 8, 2004

Sphinx's Immortal Cities Experience 1 Comment!
09:02 | posted by Sphinx

I launched Immortal Cities early last week, and following my usual modus operandi, dove right in. Whoops! Let's just say I do not advise this method, I was quite rapidly confused and frustrated. I chose to wait for the weekend, when I could devote more time and attention.

So Saturday morning I fired Children of the Nile up again. Since I had recently checked into the official CotN forums, I followed the advice given there and (contrary to my normal play-style) launched the tutorials.

Sphinx's Tutorial Fun
Overall, I found the tutorials great. There are three tutorials, the first essentially dealing with farming and shopkeeping, the second with government workers and facilities, and the third with military structure, training and monumental building. Each mixes in a decent dose of diplomacy and trade. Running them was especially helpful - in fact necessary - in gaining a basic understanding of the complex interdependencies which exist in this game. I had two lightbulb moments.

The first of those was recognizing that, at least initially, aesthetics have to take a back seat to resource availability/proximity. If your linen maker (a common household item) cannot get to flax easily, there will be little or no linen available for the populace. Eventually everyone gets cranky - and wastes considerable time hunting for the missing item! As this applies to ten different types of commodities, placement of shops close to resources and all population centers is critical.

The second moment occurred when I observed the society evolve. Farmers aspire to be shopkeepers and craftsmen, shopkeepers and craftsmen send their kids to school where they learn to be scribes, priests, overseers and military commanders. These educated social elite can retire to become nobles (although nobles can promote from anywhere really). My initial lesson was not to assign too many middle class housing right away - farmers desert their farms for these desirable jobs. But the real lesson was recognition of the extremely vibrant social structure and evolution which occurs in this game.

Unfortunately my time was extremely limited this weekend due to a sick daughter and working wife. All I completed were the three tutorials and a couple abortive attempts at the grand campaign.

Sphinx's sojourn into the Grand Campaign
This morning I launched the grand campaign again, with the intention of slowly and methodically working my way through. My aborted attempts yesterday were caused by insufficient attention to early city design and placement. It appears to me that the early years may be the most difficult and I am determined to put together a really solid beginning.

I will be posting an update at the end of every day detailing my progress.


Locusts for dinner? Comment!
17:34 | posted by Sphinx

I can't help but post this since there is a tenuous connection to ancient Egypt. Turns out that our ancient Egyptian friends invented the pickled locust as a meal. And according to this article they are an excellent source for a balanced diet!

I haven't seen any locusts in my gameplay as yet, but who knows what will crop up in a later campaign?