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Age of Empires
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| 5s | My name is Marius Beck and I am working for Forgotten Empires as a Producer. |
|---|---|
| 9s | So, my first experience with the Age of Empires franchise |
| 11s | happened when I was just eight years old. |
| 13s | So, I got the Age of Empires II game as a gift from my parents |
| 17s | and I played it on the family computer, |
| 18s | so that was super fun. |
| 20s | And I distinctly remember telling my parents |
| 22s | that this is the one game which doesn't get boring after a while. |
| 26s | Because there were other games, I also had lots of fun playing other games, |
| 29s | which eventually weren't as interesting anymore as the first time that I tried them. |
| 33s | For Age of Empires II, I felt like this was the only game where this was different. |
| 36s | I could play it again and again, and it would always still be fun. |
| 40s | Especially because it had an AI which was actually quite capable, |
| 44s | so you could have lots of fun in single player skirmishes, |
| 46s | but it also had random map generation, which is always different, |
| 49s | so it always felt like a new experience, again, playing Age of Empires II. |
| 53s | So yeah, I loved to do this, I also loved to play on a LAN, with my friends. |
| 57s | That was great fun as well! |
| 59s | But, yes, eventually I felt like "Hm, okay, so the AI is really fun |
| 63s | and it is smart, but it's not smart enough." |
| 66s | So I thought "Let me just take a look and see if I can just change some minor things." |
| 71s | And I had a look, and I discovered |
| 74s | how I was able to change the AI, |
| 77s | and the AI script to be specific. |
| 79s | But I didn't understand any of the code, |
| 83s | I was still just a little kid. |
| 85s | So I scrapped it at that time. |
| 88s | But eventually I returned to it, and I finally understood what I was looking at |
| 92s | or at least I was able to slowly understand. |
| 95s | And that is when I started working on the AI as a hobby. |
| 98s | And as you can imagine, the scope of the project quickly expanded, |
| 102s | of what I was doing with the AI, until I had a full-fledged AI which was |
| 106s | way smarter than what I ever played against before. |
| 110s | This is really my journey into Forgotten Empires |
| 112s | we started a big mod project that turned official and since then |
| 116s | I've been living a dream, playing Age of Empires |
| 118s | on my free time, while working on the game as well. |
| 121s | So, it's absolutely amazing. |
| 123s | It all began when my parents bought |
| 125s | me a game localized in Spanish. |
| 127s | In the hopes that I would learn some Spanish. |
| 130s | However, this was Age of Empires II |
| 133s | and I didn't learn a lot of Spanish. |
| 135s | I just got very addicted and invested in Medieval history. |
| 139s | I also showed this game to all my friends |
| 141s | and we played it every single day. |
| 143s | And one of my friends basically told me |
| 145s | "Yes I have this game as well." |
| 146s | So we went over to his place and wanted to play it. |
| 149s | Turned out it was Age of Empires 1... |
| 151s | Which was slightly different, but it was still lots of fun. |
| 154s | One day he got back and had bought Age of Mythology. |
| 159s | And he also then introduced me to the concept |
| 163s | of what a Game Developer was. |
| 165s | And that was basically the first moment where |
| 167s | we both basically thought we really want to become Game Developers. |
| 173s | And not just Game Developers, |
| 175s | specifically Game Developers of Age of Empires and Age of Mythology. |
| 179s | Now, clearly we were on to something back then, |
| 182s | because of all the remakes nowadays. |
| 184s | But back then, I just was very interested in how these games worked. |
| 189s | And I started looking through the files that they had, and modifying them. |
| 193s | I also discovered the online community |
| 195s | and started some projects there, helping out some people, |
| 200s | and starting my own expansion projects for Age of Mythology. |
| 203s | Then one day the Extended Edition popped up |
| 207s | and then Forgotten Empires came around. |
| 211s | And the community basically pushed me towards them. |
| 214s | Saying "You absolutely need this guy. He knows almost everything." |
| 218s | And luckily Forgotten Empires needed someone to work on the AI |
| 223s | and I knew something about the AI, so I could help out there. |
| 227s | And that's basically how I got my first job in the industry. |
| 232s | And the next project was Age of Empires 1 Definitive Edition, |
| 235s | where actually I was allowed to work as a programmer |
| 238s | and ever since I've been working as a programmer at Forgotten Empires |
| 242s | living the childhood dream. |
| 244s | Hi, I'm Alina Goetz and I work as a Quality Assurance Tester at Forgotten Empires. |
| 249s | My first time seeing Age of Empires was when I was six years old, |
| 254s | it was my first game I ever played. |
| 256s | I remember enjoying exploring the black map, and building navy, |
| 261s | and sending my villagers out to hunt, and making chariots. |
| 265s | And I also remember being confused why my chariots could not cross farms. |
| 272s | And a bit later, after that, I played Age of Empires II. |
| 276s | For a long while I forgot about the game but in 2017 I rediscovered it |
| 281s | and I watched Spirit of the Law's YouTube videos, |
| 285s | and I found out how many people still play the game today. |
| 288s | I promptly bought the HD Edition afterwards, |
| 291s | and watched more YouTube videos |
| 293s | like T90's famous Forest Nothing video. |
| 297s | After that I joined Twitch and I followed the professional scene, |
| 302s | like TheViper and MbL and became sort of involved in watching all the tournaments. |
| 309s | Also I attended gamescom 2017 and met many great members of the community there, |
| 314s | and that inspired me to be more active, take a more active role as well. |
| 318s | So I became a moderator in about a dozen channels in the Age of Empires II community |
| 324s | and I had lots of fun engaging with people in the chat. |
| 327s | And that made me also want to start my own channel |
| 331s | so in 2018 I streamed for the first time on Twitch. |
| 337s | And I built my first ever gaming PC specifically for Age of Empires II. |
| 343s | And that experience also inspired me to learn more about the industry itself |
| 347s | and I did some research on the live streaming industry |
| 350s | in China for my degree in Chinese studies. |
| 353s | And that also inspired me to write my final thesis about the gaming industry in China. |
| 360s | So, yeah, Age of Empires had a big impact in sort of my pivot from Chinese to games. |
| 366s | And I was really hooked on the topic of game development |
| 369s | and found my first role in the industry |
| 372s | as a Quality Assurance Tester with Forgotten Empires. |
| 376s | And now I'm just really happy to work on the franchise, |
| 379s | Age of Empires has brought me many happy moments |
| 383s | and it's changed my career path completely. |
| 386s | And I'm really happy to be part of this passionate team |
| 390s | and bring many more players happy moments with Age of Empires. |
| 395s | I think most people will know me as Interjection, but, hi, I'm Will. |
| 399s | And like a lot of us, I got into the Age series as a kid. |
| 403s | My fondest memories playing back then |
| 405s | are of Arkantos, Ajax, and the rest of the Age of Mythology saga. |
| 409s | Back then it was single-player for me, my parents didn't have internet yet, |
| 413s | but sometimes we stayed with family who did, and I took the game there. |
| 418s | And the first time I just couldn't believe I was online with other people. |
| 422s | I would sneak down the stairs, boot up the PC to play some more, |
| 426s | and just pray that the old dial-up sound wouldn't wake anyone up, |
| 430s | because it was really loud. |
| 432s | Then Microsoft announced Age of Empires IV and the definitive editions. |
| 437s | And I'd just finished with uni, I had no commitments in life just yet, |
| 441s | I was still pretty young and I thought "Wow, when those come out, |
| 445s | wouldn't it be fun to immerse myself full time into making videos and streaming |
| 451s | and being part of the community?" And if that ends up being just a gap year, |
| 455s | then, well, that would've been time well spent. |
| 458s | Turns out a fellow YouTube friend, ZeroEmpires, or Zak, |
| 463s | had a much bigger idea. He asked me and some others |
| 466s | to come and help him build a streaming studio. |
| 470s | All of us moved in together to keep costs low, |
| 472s | we rented a space and we built a stage, a casting booth, and... |
| 476s | It was nuts, really. |
| 480s | We had funding for one year, and that is sadly how long it lasted. |
| 484s | But during that time I am immensely proud of what we achieved for Age of Empires. |
| 489s | Particularly Age of Empires III. |
| 492s | Where we hosted the New World Championship which was the 2nd ever LAN tournament |
| 498s | in the game's history where we flew eight of the best players |
| 501s | to our studio as well as, we invited all of the community and we had this |
| 506s | four day event where everyone got to meet all of the names |
| 510s | that we'd known online for so many years. |
| 512s | And just that, I will cherish those memories forever. |
| 517s | And shortly after that, I was offered a game design position at Forgotten Empires. |
| 524s | And it has been a privilage to contribute to what is now 25 years of Age of Empires. |
| 531s | It's fantastic. |
| 534s | I have always loved AoE 2. |
| 536s | It was literally my childhood game. |
| 538s | And once I became aware of the possibility of modding, |
| 541s | I immediately felt attracted to it. |
| 544s | I worked on a few short-lived modding projects |
| 547s | and soon moved to the AoE 3 modding community |
| 551s | where eventually I joined the mod that's known nowadays as Wars of Liberty. |
| 558s | Around that time I heard about a new mod for AoE 2 |
| 562s | that was Forgotten Empires back then, |
| 565s | which could literally add new civilizations to the game, |
| 568s | and that piqued my curiosity as this wasn't really possible back then. |
| 573s | Once I found the AoEZone thread I immediately messaged Bert |
| 578s | and asked him how he did that, and other requests about a Portuguese civilization. |
| 583s | Sadly all civs were already set in stone, |
| 586s | and that eventually led me to create my own mod, |
| 589s | just to add the Portuguese civ, initially. |
| 592s | As time passed and the mod grew, I added new civs, new features, |
| 598s | and eventually had to delve into actual programming. |
| 600s | I had to learn ASM and basic reverse engineering |
| 604s | to add some features and civ bonuses I wanted to add into the game, |
| 609s | and this eventually led me to develop a few patches for AoE 2 and AoE 3 mods. |
| 616s | Eventually I became a part of Forgotten Empires. |
| 620s | Initially I just worked on localization for a few AoE 2 HD DLCs |
| 626s | and then QA for AoE 2 Definitive Edition, |
| 629s | and later as an engineer for AoE 3 Definitive Edition. |
| 634s | I feel really honored to be working on the game I love. |
| 637s | I feel like I'm doing officially what I used to do as a modder back then. |
| 643s | And it still feels like a dream coming true to me. |
| 648s | Hello my name is Bert Beeckman, I'm Studio Head at Forgotten Empires, |
| 651s | and for the past ten years I've been working on the Age of Empires franchise. |
| 655s | But my history with Age of Empires started much much longer ago. |
| 659s | I think when I was around 10 years old, I was visiting my uncle, |
| 665s | who was playing Age of Empires 2 on his computer, |
| 668s | he was playing the William Wallace campaign. |
| 670s | And I saw him playing and at some point there was a castle that was on fire, |
| 673s | and I was walking by and I was like |
| 674s | "Hey your castle is on fire, you need to do something about it." |
| 677s | And he looked at me and said "No no no that's not how the game works." |
| 681s | And I was like "Okay that's weird" |
| 683s | and I kind of left it at that. But I was still fascinated. |
| 687s | It was interesting to see the trebuchets, the castles, the whole atmosphere. |
| 692s | And then later at my birthday I got the actual CD |
| 696s | for Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. |
| 698s | At that point the journey began, the passion began. |
| 703s | And many many many years later, at this point 20 years later, |
| 708s | I'm still very busy with Age of Empires. |
| 710s | During those 20 years has been kind of an on and off relationship, |
| 715s | like you play it, you forget about it, you play it, you come back. |
| 719s | And then after university I finally came back, went online, |
| 725s | found there was still an active community playing the game, |
| 729s | and also a modding community. |
| 731s | People who were making scenarios, |
| 733s | making graphics, trying to add new things to the game. |
| 736s | And with that group of people, like-minded people, |
| 740s | we created a mod, modification, for Age of Empires 2, |
| 744s | that contained new civilizations, and it was a great journey, |
| 749s | or rather the start of a great journey, |
| 752s | because it's those people, after all those years, we founded Forgotten Empires, |
| 758s | a studio that is now 80 people strong and working on the Age of Empires franchise |
| 763s | for 10 years now, and hopefully for many more years to come. |