The Ambitious Plans Behind Rome: Total War's Development

Rome: Total War is considered one of the greatest strategy games ever made, but its development was not without challenges. A recently leaked design document from 2002 reveals the ambitious scope and features that were originally planned for the game, many of which didn't make it into the final release.

The Troubled Pre-Alpha

According to sources, Rome: Total War's pre-alpha version was "an absolute mess" made by a different development team than the one that created Shogun and Medieval: Total War. This team apparently hadn't played the previous games and wanted to do their own thing, creating a "Frankenstein's mess" that combined elements from Age of Empires and Civilization.

The lead designer at this point was reportedly a PR person with no game design experience. They had gotten rid of regions and had players founding their own settlements like in Civilization. The building and recruitment panels were overdesigned and convoluted.

When concerns were raised about deviating too far from the Total War formula, the developers insisted "we're not making Medieval" and refused to consider the design of the previous games. It took an intervention from studio head Mike Simpson to get the project back on track. He declared "This is not a Total War game" and ordered an immediate course correction.

Ambitious Plans

The 261-page design document reveals many ambitious features that were planned:

• A seamless zoom from the campaign map to the 3D battlefield
• The ability to survey battlefield terrain at any time from the campaign map
• Civilians wandering city streets during battles
• Rivers freezing over in winter, allowing armies to cross
• Ice that could break under the weight of heavy units
• The ability to construct wonders like the Colosseum
• A tech tree with buildings and "plugins"
• Political gameplay where characters could gain key government positions
• Changing settlement names based on which culture controls them
• Scaffolding on buildings under construction
• Wooden palisades, boiling oil, and other siege defenses
• Single elephants and artillery pieces as "hero" units

Many of these features didn't make it into the final game. The document also reveals plans for two expansions - "Fall of the West" (which became Barbarian Invasion) and one focused on Alexander the Great.

Influences from Other Games

The document mentions several games as influences, including:

• Age of Empires
• Civilization
• Heroes of Might and Magic
• Alpha Centauri
• Sacrifice
• FIFA

There are over 20 mentions of "Settlers 3" specifically as a reference point for various features.

Development Challenges

Despite the ambitious plans, time constraints forced the team to cut many features. The document mentions 6 months of planned "polish" time that had to be reallocated to finishing core systems. They also had to ask publisher Activision for an extra 6 months of development time.

The team worked "stupid amounts of overtime" to finish the game. While this crunch allowed them to ship an excellent product, it unfortunately "became entrenched as culture and tradition" at Creative Assembly, leading to issues with later games like Rome II.

Legacy

While many planned features didn't make the cut, Rome: Total War still turned out to be "one of the best strategy games ever made" according to sources. Its success cemented Total War as a major strategy franchise.

However, the document also reveals the roots of issues that would plague later Total War games, like over-ambitious designs that had to be scaled back and a reliance on crunch to finish games.

It's fascinating to see how many ideas from this 2002 document have slowly made their way into the series over the past 20 years. Features like seamless campaign-to-battle transitions, construction scaffolding, and accelerating building times with money have appeared in more recent Total War games.

The document even mentions plans for "faction packs purchasable after release" - an early sign of the DLC strategy that has become central to the Total War business model.

Conclusion

This leaked design document provides a remarkable look at the ambitious vision behind Rome: Total War. While the final game didn't include everything planned, it still managed to become a beloved classic that propelled the Total War series to new heights.

The document also serves as a time capsule of game design circa 2002, showing both the grand ambitions and technical limitations of the era. It's a testament to the creativity and passion of the developers, even if not every idea made it into the finished product.

For Total War fans, it's a fascinating glimpse at what might have been, and how the series has evolved over the past two decades. Many of the ideas first proposed here have slowly become reality in later games. Who knows what other concepts from this document may still shape the future of Total War?

Article created from: https://youtu.be/zg4ONKoQOGg?si=YE9IxMPaI-PpcOzz