Interview - Andrew Frederiksen: Lead Producer at Firaxis - Civilization 7
Andrew Frederiksen is the lead producer at Firaxis, working on the impending release of Civilization 7. During his visit to Australia for PAX, I was lucky enough to be able to sit down and pick his brain about the upcoming title and how it has grown and improved since the last release.
Matt Hewson: Hey Andrew, it is so good to be able to chat, I have been a fan of the franchise forever. Let’s jump straight into it. How daunting is it to announce, create and release a new entry in one of the most prestigious and well-regarded franchises in gaming history? Is it exciting? Terrifying? Everything in between?
Andrew Frederiksen: It’s exciting. Obviously, the teams have been working really hard for a long time and to finally be able to announce it and share things and talk about the details has been a stress relief, exciting, and evenadding more stress as we worry if players don’t like it. So far it has been incredible and I have to give credit to 2K and our marketing partners for everything. They have allowed us to be a little more reactive to the community to make sure they understand exactly what’s in here. The community has also been awesome in response.
Matt: This is the first time that Civ has had a day-and-date release on consoles. How did this affect the design and development and did it create unexpected issues or surprises?
Andrew: It definitely affected development but I don’t know that I would say in unexpected ways. Luckily we have a lot of really smart people on the team and there has been a huge amount of planning in advance. So when that decision was made it wasn’t made lightly. Civ, through history, has been PC first and that’s where the majority of our fans play so we want to ensure we carry that torch forward. So I wouldn’t say the launch on consoles has affected the design in making the systems different or anything like that. Obviously, we had to look at things like UI and Interface, along with the hardware and technology and these are things the team took on and I believe the team has done a really good job.
Matt: So the Controller was up to the job? After all, Civ has always heavily relied on a mouse for ideal control so I can’t imagine that is an easy thing to sort out.
Andrew: It wasn’t easy, but luckily we had Civ 6 out there on console already so we could learn a lot there from things, how people liked it, what they were used to, what could be improved. So for anyone who played Civ 6 on console, there is going to be a lot of stuff that feels familiar and there are going to be some additions and new features. One of my favourite additions is a new way to get to the subsystems which is very clear and simple and controller friendly.
Matt: How much work has gone into bringing new players into the fold, Civ is after all traditionally daunting for new players.
Andrew: We made a very conscious decision to not make the tutorial a separate thing. If you have the tutorial on, you are learning while you are playing, but you are playing a real game. It’s not a “less-than” experience because it is a tutorial, it’s just part of playing the actual game. Personally, I believe, as does the team, that this is the best way to learn a complicated game like this. We put a lot of extra resources and team members into our tutorialisation so I think this is a really good time to jump into Civ. It’s still Civ, so it’s still a complicated game but with the console and tutorial it is easier to jump into than ever before. We know that our core audience is incredibly important so it still has to be Civ so there is no way we can do a “less-than” civ game, it is just more approachable for more people now.
Matt: With the rise of handheld PC’s has that come into consideration when developing Civ?
Andrew: Our engineering department is incredibly proud and I think rightly so that Civ has always been playable on older hardware than most other new games that come out at the same time would allow. Obviously, with each version of Civ, the min specs come up because there is only so much you can do as you add new features, more content and higher fidelity but we have still done a lot of work to make sure Civ 7 works on a wide range of hardware. The cool thing is, by putting it on the consoles, have already done some of the work required anyway. After all, making it for the Playstation 4 or something like that is a lot like making it for a lower-end PC.
Matt: Are there any changes to the traditional win conditions for a match?
Andrew: Absolutely, we have added the Ages system and it shakes up a lot of things. Some were like “ ok now we can do this really cool thing” and others were “Ok what does this now mean.” One of the biggest considerations in this area was Victory and what it means now. A Civ game, even if you don’t finish it, you know it is a march through history. You are aiming for a grand finale, but now we have the game in essentially three parts so there was a lot of work to make sure that each age has its own objectives, but you are still working towards a final victory. Those final victories are not the same, but they are of the same ilk.
Matt: How is each civilization and leader chosen? I am sure there are Leaders that have to be in there, after all, what would a Civ game be without Ghandi? But how are the rest picked?
Andrew: While I haven’t been around for all of the games, it is incredible every time it comes up it is always something a little bit different. The ideas might come from a designer, an art team member, something cool we saw online or even something we have sat on since the previous game because it wasn’t quite right then. Now with Civ 7 and making the leaders a separate choice within the ages, there are leaders that make a lot more sense in the game because they are leaders of culture or a leader of science, not necessarily a leader of a civilisation, they weren’t the head of state. Now they can be a leader in a different way which has opened a lot of doors. We have historians on staff, we work with consultants, we reach out to our partners within 2K across the globe and say “Hey we are interested in people like this as a leader, is that appropriate ?” and we might get a response like “maybe not this person but have you thought about?” or “maybe not in this way but perhaps like this.”
We also have a lot of consideration for diversity and by diversity I don’t mean just at the individual level, I mean diverse cultures, diverse geography, diverse time periods, and diverse genders. We want to cover as much representation as possible because Civ should never be a singular perspective. When we are looking at these things there are leaders that people expect and as much as it is fun to give the people what they want I personally feel it’s more fun to give them leaders they don’t expect.
Matt: There seems to be more and more competition in the 4X historical genre with titles like Ara and Humankind all bringing their own spin on things. Do you see that as a compliment or as a bit of a challenge?
Andrew: All of us love to see more in that space because it means more people are enjoying that space. It means there is more to go see and do which is always good. It’s obviously competition but I don’t think it is a competition that we feel worried or bad about. We see it as “great, there are more people playing these games” which means there is more excitement and if these people try one of these games and it isn’t for them, maybe ours is or vice-versa.
Matt: Finally, recently on our own podcast we did a segment where we asked “If we only have 5 games for the rest of our lives what would they be?” My first pick was Civ 6. Can you tell me why Civ 7 will replace that choice on my list?
Andrew: I’ve learned to try and argue with people that have a favourite Civ…
Matt: I am open to being convinced
Andrew: I think that we shook up the formula a lot with 6 and we have shaken up the formula even more with 7. Taking out some of the things that were, I don’t want to say “not fun” but weren’t an important part is key. The best example that comes to mind immediately is there are no more builders or workers. No one had a problem with builders but the interesting thing is what you make and where not the act of building. So now when I get some land, I get the building I was going to get anyway without having to task a worker and I can focus my energy on more interesting things. Streamlining isn’t quite the right word, it is making sure more of your time is spent on meaningful interesting stuff.
Matt: So that must reduce some of the inherent micromanagement, especially for controller players.
Andrew: Absolutely, there are obviously lots of decisions to make each turn but the goal is to make sure those decisions are interesting and meaningful ones, not just busy work.
Civilization 7 is coming to PC, Xbox, PS5 and Switch on the 11th of Feb 2025.
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