The strategy game Millennia was released on Steam on March 26th and has so far received a mediocre response from players. A team member from publisher Paradox has now responded to the criticism and clarified the circumstances under which the game was developed.
What game is it about? Millennia is a new game published by Paradox, the strategy veterans behind Europa Universalis, Hearts of Iron or Crusader Kings.
Paradox acts as publisher, while the game is developed by studio C Prompt Games. Millennia is similar to Civilization, but there are no fixed peoples. You found your own nation and built cities.
MeinMMO author Schuhmann threw himself into the game shortly after its release and sunk 40 hours into it in just a few days. But not all players share the enthusiasm. Millennia has now collected 1,891 reviews on Steam and only has a “balanced” rating.
Bugs and glitches, performance problems and poor balancing are criticized. However, many reviews emphasize that there is a good game hidden beneath the problems. Millennia would just need more work to be really good. On MeinMMO we have summarized the mood of the players.
Announcement teaser trailer for Millennia
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The players are frustrated: they believe the studio is too small
Where is the problem? Steam user shoobers believes he knows the cause of Millennia’s current state. He talks about the team size of the small developer studio C Prompt Games.
According to shoobers, it only consists of three people. They are industry veterans and are responsible for classics like System Shock 2, Age of Empires 2, StarCraft and Diablo, but there are still only three people.
One of them is not even a developer, but “just” an art designer. According to the user, such a team size would not be enough to take care of all the game’s bugs and problems.
Another Steam user named Skybsky addresses this point and expresses his frustration:
“Just three people, really? That explains a lot, I thought there were a lot of people working on the game. Paradox should invest in them and hire more good developers so that the team’s vision is supported. The game is so good in terms of gameplay but with one of the worst balance/AI/performance and graphics.”
This statement clearly shows how annoyed some of the players are. They want to like Millennia, but the game prevents them from doing so.
Nevertheless, the assessment is wrong; significantly more people are now working on Millennia at C Prompt Games. The developers have now made this clear.
The team speaks out, promising groundbreaking change
What do the developers say? Paradox’s community manager, Erik Jakobsson, spoke up on Steam and directly addressed the criticism that the studio was too small.
It would no longer just be three people working on the game. That was the case at first, but the team has now grown and consists of exactly 20 people. This would include, among other things, additional designers and programmers.
Millennia would be a new IP, but significantly smaller than other Paradox games. That’s why the team would be smaller and would listen a lot to player feedback. The game will be improved in the future with regular updates.
Why is the new update so important?
Probably the most important innovation in the new update is promised: players should be able to demolish cities of their vassals.
The community manager is currently asking for patience. Have you already played Millennia? How did you find it? Write it in the comments. However, one thing really bothered My MMO author Schuhmann in the end.