Civilization World Set to Arrive This Summer

Civilization World, the new entry in the turn-based strategy series that is being developed specifically for the Facebook social platform, will be launched at some point during this summer, with lead developer Sid Meier saying that the current alpha stage test is going well and offering the team important feedback.

Civilization World has been in testing since the early part of the year and Firaxis, the studio which Sid Meier leads, has been working on it since before developing Civilization V, the game which was launched on the PC during last fall.

Sid Meier says that the main challenge that Civilization World faced was to adapt traditional turn-based gaming mechanics to the world of Facebook.

The developer has said that having more than one player working in tandem “fundamentally changes the mechanics of the game because if you are not there at the same time as other players, there needs to be ways of leaving messages, ways of communicating. Things have to happen at a pace where everybody can be included.”

He added, “You have your own city to manage and you can do all kinds of stuff . However, the most successful players will be those that can also work together with other players.”

Civilization World will segregate the player base into 200 player big world, with players working against each other as they try to secure victory but also cooperating to overcome challenges, forming alliances and watching out for betrayal.

The victory conditions will be military, scientific, economic or cultural, just as in the normal Civilization titles.

Facebook has been attracting more and more video game developers in the last few years, promising them access to a huge player base as long as they are able to deliver an experience that uses its social features and is easy to understand and play.