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about 2 years
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Age of Empires
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| 5s | Hi I'm Eric Wrobel, Lead Balance Designer on Age of Empires IV, |
|---|---|
| 9s | and I'd like to tell you about my story of how I got into Age of Empires. |
| 13s | As a kid, I was not the best student. |
| 17s | Being in a classroom with a teacher lecturing to me |
| 20s | was kinda like the Peanuts like, "womp womp womp womp." |
| 23s | And so, when I could play Age of Empires, |
| 27s | and get to experience the story, |
| 31s | and play with these famous historical characters, |
| 34s | I really remembered them and connected with them, |
| 36s | like William Wallace and Joan of Arc. |
| 39s | And when I got the opportunity to then come to Relic Entertainment, |
| 44s | it was a bit scary going 4,000 miles away from my home, |
| 48s | leaving my family and my friends. |
| 50s | But I really wanted to be able to share that joy that I experienced with the world, |
| 53s | and allow people to be learning |
| 56s | and getting educated while they're playing video games |
| 59s | and having a great time with an immersive, fun experience. |
| 63s | My name is Guerric Haché and I'm a mission designer on Age of Empires IV. |
| 67s | I have a long history with the Age of Empires franchise, |
| 70s | when I was a kid I discovered the shareware demo for Age of Empires 1 on... |
| 75s | somewhere on the internet. |
| 76s | And played a ton of that and really loved it |
| 79s | and managed to convince my parents to buy me Age of Empires II. |
| 82s | And I spent a lot of hours in all the encyclopedic elements of that game, |
| 87s | all the little history references that were tucked away, |
| 91s | just in all the various pages and stuff. |
| 93s | So learning about the Aztecs |
| 94s | and learning about the Byzantine empire and things like that, |
| 97s | which was really fascinating for me as a kid. |
| 98s | I also spent a ton of time playing with the level editor. |
| 101s | Which was maybe my first foray |
| 103s | into actually designing games which was really cool. |
| 106s | That's a really fun tool to have. |
| 108s | Just when you're a kid and you're experimenting with computers and stuff, |
| 111s | so I think that was definitely really formative |
| 113s | and kind of set me on the path toward working in games later. |
| 115s | And then later on in life |
| 117s | when I decided to move to Vancouver to study game design |
| 120s | I learned that the Vancouver film school |
| 123s | has an internship program with Relic |
| 125s | and I immediately kind of was very excited |
| 128s | because Relic makes some other games that I've really enjoyed. |
| 132s | And when I heard that Relic was going to be working on Age of Empires IV |
| 135s | I was extremely excited because I mean |
| 136s | this is a thing I grew up playing with my dad and my sister |
| 139s | and just spending hours and hours and hours with, |
| 141s | and I'd get to work on it as a grown up? |
| 144s | That was really cool. |
| 146s | So I was very excited with that, |
| 147s | very excited to join that project |
| 150s | and just getting to dive into working on the campaign of Age of Empires IV |
| 154s | was really validating and was kind of an experience of coming full circle, |
| 160s | because I got to research some of the history that gets put into games like that. |
| 164s | And I got to be on the other side of that equation, |
| 166s | where like maybe there are kids out there |
| 168s | who are playing these campaigns |
| 169s | and learning about that history for the first time, |
| 171s | in the same way I was learning |
| 173s | when I was that age with Age of Empires I and II. |
| 176s | It just feels really cool to be kind of giving back |
| 179s | to that same community and that same experience. |
| 184s | I really enjoy that part of it. |
| 186s | And I'm excited to keep working on this game |
| 188s | and keep seeing where it goes and where the franchise goes in the future. |
| 191s | So my name, Cloé Veilleux, Senior Technical Designer here at Relic. |
| 196s | So, my story about Age of Empires... |
| 199s | When I started working after I finished college, like 23 years ago, |
| 206s | it was a computer science degree that I did |
| 208s | because computer game design classes were not a thing. |
| 213s | And my first job was not in games. |
| 216s | But it so happens that the game we would play |
| 219s | during lunch break in that place, |
| 221s | was Age of Empires II. |
| 223s | So it was really something special |
| 226s | because the entire team of people |
| 228s | who were not actual gamers or people who wanted to work in the game industry, |
| 233s | would play this game together every lunch break. |
| 235s | And then 17 years later or thereabouts, I moved to Vancouver, |
| 242s | I joined Relic, and it so happens that I work on Age of Empires IV. |
| 247s | So I think it's very fitting that this game |
| 251s | is essentially at the beginning of my career, |
| 253s | and also it's right there with me after such a big move. |
| 258s | And hopefully I'm going to be here again with the franchise for a long time. |
| 266s | Hi everyone, my name is Zak Robinson, |
| 268s | and I'm a designer here at Relic Entertainment. |
| 270s | You probably know me better as ZeroEmpires online. |
| 273s | And I think like most people out there my earliest memories of Age of Empires |
| 277s | are as a very young boy playing with my family. |
| 281s | I really enjoyed the game so much, it enchanted me. |
| 285s | And I have here a book from Grade 7 when I was 11 years old |
| 290s | and it is just full of Age of Empires references, |
| 293s | medieval history, and drawings of Age of Empires units. |
| 298s | And it just really amazed me at the time |
| 300s | and it's something that stuck with me and I don't know why |
| 303s | but as I continued to grow older I continued to stick with Age. |
| 307s | And in 2011 I started my YouTube channel, ZeroEmpires, |
| 311s | and with the goal really just to spread the awareness of the game, |
| 315s | share my excitement and passion about the game with other people. |
| 318s | At the time I didn't expect it to reach as many people as it did, |
| 322s | hundreds of thousands, or if not a million or more. |
| 325s | And many of the comments on those videos were the same, |
| 328s | like "Hey I didn't know Age of Empires was still a thing." |
| 331s | "I didn't know Age of Empires was still around. This is awesome!" |
| 334s | But when I think back to the most memorable things about Age, |
| 338s | it wasn't just the game or the gameplay, |
| 340s | it was really all the people that I met |
| 343s | and had the great opportunity of spending time with |
| 346s | in the community through various community meatups, |
| 349s | have amazing memories of singing Titanic on stage with Memb in a German karaoke bar, |
| 355s | and spending some awesome time with other Age community members. |
| 359s | I even met my partner, |
| 360s | and we're coming up on our four year anniversary this year, |
| 362s | through Age of Empires. |
| 364s | I also remember in 2017 getting a call from Joe Homes, |
| 368s | the franchise community manager at the time, |
| 370s | and he told me that they were going to be making Age of Empires IV. |
| 375s | And I couldn't believe the news, |
| 376s | I think I cried tears of joy and happiness at the time, |
| 379s | and not just because Age of Empires was continuing to get love and support, |
| 384s | but just because it was recognition that Age of Empires |
| 387s | was here to stay and continue growing and doing so well. |
| 390s | And since then it has. |
| 391s | And I'm really proud and I'm humbled to be working |
| 395s | on Age of Empires IV as a developer, |
| 397s | and I work with so many talented developers |
| 400s | and people who are so passionate about the game. |
| 403s | To them, and everybody else who's had a hand |
| 406s | in making Age of Empires and the franchise what it is today: |
| 409s | thank you so much, |
| 411s | for keeping the excitement of this 11 year old boy alive. |
| 414s | So, for that, thank you. |
| 416s | And here's to the next 25 years. |
| 419s | Hi I'm David Phan, I am the Executive Producer on Age of Empires IV. |
| 423s | I'm here to share my Age of Empires story with everybody. |
| 427s | And it's one that's not necessarily a happy one. |
| 429s | It doesn't have a happy ending, but it's still a great story. |
| 433s | It was the summer of 1998, |
| 435s | Age of Empires I had come out the year prior in 1997, |
| 438s | I was hooked on the game, |
| 440s | I was playing it on Microsoft Zone, if anyone remembers that. |
| 445s | I was playing a match with friends one evening |
| 448s | and we had played several matches together, it was great, we were having fun. |
| 452s | And then we realized it was around midnight and I was like |
| 455s | "Hey guys, I gotta log off, I got classes tomorrow, I got an exam to do." |
| 458s | They're like "Hey, Dave, one more game! One more game, please!" |
| 462s | And I said "Cool, one more game, and that's it." |
| 464s | So we played a 2v2 game on a very big map. |
| 468s | It went back and forth, it was a great game. |
| 470s | And then we had, it was down to just me and my friend Peter, |
| 473s | we were doing a 1v1, the other two players got wiped off the map, |
| 477s | they were done, they quit for the night, went to sleep. |
| 479s | Me and Peter continued playing, |
| 481s | it was 2 or 3am, and I'm like |
| 483s | "Peter, just give it up." Just constantly taunting each other. |
| 487s | "Just let it go! Like, let me win!" |
| 489s | And he's like "Nope, nope." He was super stubborn. |
| 492s | We played back and forth and |
| 494s | basically it got to the point where I had the upper hand. |
| 497s | I basically won the game. |
| 499s | But we had setup the settings so that it was Conquest |
| 502s | and you had to kind of defeat all the units in order to win the game. |
| 506s | So, Peter being the difficult person that he was, |
| 509s | he hid his last few villagers into a boat |
| 511s | and kind of moved them into a far corner of the map |
| 513s | and just spent the next few hours taunting me |
| 516s | while I tried to look for his last few units, |
| 518s | 'cause I just couldn't let it go. |
| 520s | I had to win. |
| 521s | I couldn't just give him that free win, just out of spite. |
| 526s | So, I finally found his units, destroyed them, won the game, |
| 531s | but by that point the sun was starting to kind of pop out outside my window. |
| 536s | The birds were chirping. |
| 537s | And I started panicking because I realized it was about 8 o'clock. |
| 541s | And my class and exam was about an hour away. |
| 545s | So, I didn't do too well on that exam, |
| 547s | I ended up kind of failing the course. |
| 550s | But, I took the victory, so I'm super happy about that! |
| 553s | But I learned the lesson the hard way, |
| 555s | make sure you always have your game settings |
| 557s | so that a Wonder Victory is possible, |
| 559s | so you never get into this situation again. |
| 562s | Thank you Peter for helping me fail that course, |
| 564s | but it definitely showed how much love I had for the game. |
| 568s | And I feel so honored to be working on Age of Empires IV today |
| 572s | and making such a great game for our players. |