ARA: History Untold is a 4X strategy game from Oxide Games.
Oxide Games provided a behind-the-scenes look at the development of Ara: History Untold during the Xbox Developer_Direct.
Ara: History Untold is scheduled for release in fall 2024 on Windows and Steam, and will be available on day one on PC Game Pass.
They say history is written by the winners. This leaves a lot of room for untold stories. Oxide Games is inviting players to join the world of ARA with their own nations to write their own stories. During the Xbox Developer_Direct, Oxide provided players with a new look at the development process behind Ara: History Untold, focusing on the importance of player feedback and the planned fall 2024 release window.
Ara: History Untold is a 4X strategy game developed by industry veterans who have worked on games such as Civilization V. While leaning towards classic strategy gameplay, Oxide Games has expressed interest in taking the genre forward in a modern way. To take this forward, Oxide focused on creating a living, procedurally generated world with deep systems that encourage exploration. Players can see the reflections of their choices in the world around them, as well as the influences of culture in an alternative Earth.
Speaking to Wire Xbox, Oxide Games design director Michelle Menard stated that the developers sought to identify key aspects of the grand strategy genre that the team felt could be improved. “Something haunting the space of the genre is that, once you figure out how to win or how the game works, you master it. You stop playing because you’ve solved the problem; it was a binary problem because the key drivers of something like a tech tree is a static, solvable problem.” Ara: History Untold gameplay shown during the Xbox Developer_Direct. (Image credit: Oxide Games, Xbox)
To escape this enigma, Ara: History Untold players will have the freedom to build nations and write a story that is measured by prestige, as opposed to simple victory conditions. A nation can rise as a leader by focusing on art and culture or by building monuments known as Triumphs. Instead of focusing on overcoming victory conditions, players may be faced with live, unpredictable scenarios that challenge how they think about their nation. Menard also shared that Oxide Games developed a functional, complete version of the Ara: History Untold board game during its development. The development of the board game led to innovations in the digital edition of Ara, with mechanics such as crafting becoming fundamental pillars for training units and gaining popularity by creating gifts for other nations. To accommodate the direction taken by development, Oxide Games had to create an entirely new game engine and record hours and hours of music using hundreds of unusual instruments that were brought in-house. Oxide Games touts Microsoft’s support for the creative freedom behind the development of Ara: History Untold. “A lot of times in games – even if you know they’re super fun, they have huge communities – they don’t always have the most resources invested in them. Or you have the largest budget, but sometimes a very short production schedule. It’s been amazing to work with Microsoft in that aspect. ‘What do you want to do in the space of the genre, and we’ll help you achieve those things…’ whereas at other companies, we never would have had that kind of leeway or support.” Menard said.
Oxide Games has built a “living world,” with real-time impacts visible in architecture and the environment. (Image credit: Oxide Games, Xbox)
During the Developer_Direct, members of the Oxide Games team reiterated the importance of the community to the development of Ara: History Untold. The game was built with the help of players through an Insider program, and it was the feedback from these playtesting sessions that helped improve the game. In a particularly fun anecdote, a developer recounts a forum post where a player had problematic encounters with pumas in the game world, lamenting “Someone get these feline demons away from me.” Ara: History Untold will launch on Windows and Steam in fall 2024 and will be available on day one on PC Game Pass. Oxide Games said they plan to continue the Insider program for ongoing development and feedback after launch. Speaking about Game Pass and the strategy genre, Menard said, “We always wanted to expand the grand strategy market with this title to new players who would never have experienced it before, and I think that’s only really possible because it’s going to be on Game Pass.”
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