Blood, sweat and cuba libre: Inside the ongoing development of Tropico 6
With great resources comes great responsibility. And because El Presidente himself is the best, his fans and Tropico players around the globe are expecting the most brilliant and refined Tropico gaming experience to date.
Therefore, the Tropican Ministry of Propaganda and Misinformation has held an interview with the producer of the game, Don Martin Tosta, who took some time to talk how the extra development time is being spent.
The interview was conducted by none other than Tropico’s favorite former radio hosts (Tropico News Today, aka. TNT Radio) Penultimo and Sunny Flowers.
Penultimo: Mr. Tosta. As you know, El Presidente is never late. He just thinks small delays are currently en vogue. So, what are you planning to do with the extra time?
Martin: Delivering the best Tropico experience at launch is what we’re aiming for with Tropico 6. It’s incredibly important to us that the game exceeds the expectations of the players who have been so eagerly following the development process of the game, and to take the foundations of the beta to make a good game into a great game.
Penultimo: Yes, yes – but you see, this delay is no joke. What exactly caused it? Were there problems with programming?
Martin T.: We’re developing Tropico 6 with an all-new engine, so that it looks much better than ever before. With the engine and the new development team, who have been fantastic, also came new challenges. And while we’ve overcome those challenges, and feel like we’ve been working together for much longer than we actually have, there are still some rough edges due to the new environment we’re working in. We also received a lot of useful feedback from our dedicated beta testers, which we are really grateful for, because it’s provided valuable input and made us aware of certain topics that weren’t even on our radar. So taking all that into consideration, we decided that we should use the extra time to fine-tune the game and implement as much of the player feedback as possible.
Sunny Flowers: Alrighty then. So, the great El Presidente has gifted you another two months. How are you planning to use the time up until release?
Martin: In games development, we aim to hit certain “milestones” at a specific date. We’ve done so very successfully in the past and are now actively planning additional milestones for the topics I just mentioned, specifically polishing, and incorporating player feedback. For example, we aim to have a fully working and smooth experience using the Random Map Generator by the end of February 2019. Our full plan consists of many small milestones. We’ve already tweaked the interface and menus a lot, and plan on improving citizen interactions and multiplayer even further, together with the usual balancing and optimization for all platforms.
Penultimo: Can you give us an example of a milestone or goal would not have been reached or been as polished if the game had come out on the original January 25th release date?
Martin: Well, in the last week, we’ve been working a lot on warfare. We wanted to make sure that in Tropico 6, the feature feels more meaningful and interactive than it did in previous games. With the extra time, we’ve already made significant improvements there. Another part would be the cross-platform capabilities of the game. Making sure that all players across PC, Mac and Linux can play seamlessly together was very important for us, and we’re now able to ensure that for launch.
Sunny Flowers: You talked a lot about community feedback. What kinds of insights did you gain thanks to the beta? Are there any features or mechanics that have changed dramatically, or is now different than originally planned?
Martin: Some gameplay systems and features were not as obvious to players as we expected them to be. So we’ve made a bunch of changes to those systems, and are still adding texts and icons to make things easier to understand. One example would be the trade interface, where we have now added trade route volumes, and an option to disable all exports. Both of those tweaks were requests from the community.
Another point that was kind of small, but still noticeable, was inefficiencies in the simulation of the Tropicans. The community was once again a great help in identifying idle Teamsters, Metro Stations, and game mechanics that could work more fluently – and we’re actively working on those.
Well, that’s it folks!
It’s blood, sweat and caipirinhas that make a great Tropico game, and once again El Presidente and his staff at the Ministry of Propaganda and Misinformation have proven that nothing can possibly go wrong!
If you still have any questions you’d like to ask the developer, feel free to get in touch with us on Twitter with our @KalypsoMedia, and @El_Prez handles using the hashtag #AskElPrez
In the next article, we’ll have a detailed conversation with the developers themselves to get a one of a kind insight into what’s it’s like to work for the great El Presidente.
Adios, comrades!
Your Ministry of Propaganda and Misinformation
Authors
Sunny Flowers -Freelance writer. Loves Tropico and its flora and fauna.
Penultimo – The voice of Tropico, and right-hand of our beloved El Presidente.
Martin Tosta – The real voice of Tropico and producer of Tropico 6 at Kalypso Media.