Ara: History Untold News

On January 18th, the Xbox Developer Direct will offer updates on games from some of the studios the behemoth have swallowed over the past several years. Most excitingly, that'll include an update from MachineGames on their in-development Indiana Jones game.

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A brand new Dev Diary has arrived!

In our most recent episode, we took a look at Ara’s Insider Program and all the amazing features awaiting fans who sign up. To help guide us through this, we sat down with Andy Cataldo, Community and Marketing Manager at Oxide Games, to unwrap all the layers of Ara's Insider Program.

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So what exactly is waiting for you upon entry? You’ll get to chat directly with our developers, participate in message boards, get sneak peeks of exclusive content, and be part of Ara's development. The Insider Program is a hub for everything community-related – from news and announcements to discussions, surveys, and even the latest scoop on Technical Alpha news!

Ara's evolution is the result of an ongoing partnership between developers and fans, aimed at crafting the optimal gameplay experience. Your feedback and ideas serve as our guiding compass throughout this developmental journey. Andy explained how the team is constantly testing new features and modes, and collecting feedback on what works, what doesn’t, and what could be improved. It's a cycle – you speak, we listen, and then we test new versions to make sure Ara becomes the game you've been dreaming of.



When you're ready to jump in, head over to AraHistoryUntold.com, complete a quick survey, and attach your DxDiag to ensure your system is all set for future tests. Oh, and here's a heads up – we've got one more Dev Diary lined up before the year waves goodbye. Subscribe, stay tuned, and catch the full video for the latest info on our Insider Program!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2021880/Ara_History_Untold/

Get your anvil ready because this week’s Dev Diary is all about the crafting system in Ara: History Untold!

Lead Designer Michael Califf makes a return appearance to guide us through Ara’s crafting system, which brings a new level of complexity to the 4X genre. Michael breaks down the two major categories, Goods and Equipment, and how players will incorporate them into their overall strategy.

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The basics of crafting are fairly simple. Harvest a resource, build a suitable crafting improvement, and start crafting items for your nation. Goods are items created at Improvements like Weavers, Apothecaries, and Artisan Studios. Players can use these items to boost city stats over a set number of turns. But here’s the twist – some goods will boost one stat while giving another a little nudge in the opposite direction. It's all about finding the right balance! Beyond providing city buffs, certain goods also play a part in crafting new Improvements. Who's making that gorgeous Stained Glass for the cathedral? Your citizens, that’s who!

Equipment is the other side of the Crafting coin in Ara. Players can create these items at Improvements like the Forge and Village Hall to train new troops or specialized citizens such as merchants and missionaries. These units will help to spread your nation’s influence far beyond your city walls, allowing you to conduct war, diplomacy, or grow your religious following as you carve out a path to victory.



The team has spent countless hours balancing Ara’s crafting system to allow players free reign in creating items that suit their playstyle. There’s so much more to explore in Ara’s crafting system, and this video barely scratches the surface! If you’re ready to learn more, you can catch the full episode on our YouTube channel and be sure to subscribe for future Dev Diary content.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2021880/Ara_History_Untold/

Great news, Ara fans: A brand new Dev Diary episode is now available!

In this week’s super technical episode, we got a peek under the hood at the proprietary engine powering Ara: History Untold. To help explain the technical lingo and show us what Nitrous® is truly capable of, we sat down with the wizard behind the scenes, Dan Baker, Chief Graphics Architect and co-founder of Oxide Games, for a few questions.

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Dan walked us through the various challenges and triumphs of creating a new game engine from the ground up. From the initial designs to partnering with Microsoft and AMD, the engine has seen its fair share of changes and improvements over the years.

Nitrous® is a next-gen game engine designed to navigate the vast realms of both visual and gameplay complexity. It’s able to handle thousands of units simultaneously, setting the stage for epic battles and scenes on a wide variety of platforms.



Unlike its counterparts, Nitrous distinguishes itself by intelligently distributing its workload across multiple CPUs, paving the way for more detailed worlds and units with seamless movement in between. Dan explains the evolutionary leap facilitated by DirectX 12, that allows Nitrous to harness multiple CPUs for unparalleled performance—a significant departure from older games that relied on a single CPU for their build command buffers.

For a deeper dive into the Nitrous Engine and a glimpse into the future of strategy games, catch the full episode on our YouTube channel. And, of course, hit the subscribe button to stay in the loop with our Dev Diary series!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2021880/Ara_History_Untold/

It's a good time to be a strategy game developer, according to Oxide Games, developers of Ara: History Untold, which happens to be a strategy game. Speaking to me during a showing of Ara - which is notable among turn-based 4X games for playing out every player's turn simultaneously - the creators offered a rousing characterisation of the genre, suggesting that strategy games have somewhat shucked off their association with stifling complexity and elitism, thanks not least to the recent influence of board gaming.

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