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Evil Genius News

The daunting task of reviving classic management sims


Over the next few days, both Spacebase Startopia and Evil Genius 2: World Domination arrive. The first is a spiritual successor to Startopia, the 2001 management sim about looking after space stations for alien travellers. The second is a sequel to 2004's Evil Genius, another management sim where you get to play a Bond-esque villain taking over the world. It's a brilliant coincidence these games have bagged themselves release dates within a week of each other, and speaks to the resurgence of management games over the last couple of years.



To find out a little more about this trend, I wrangled the developers from both Rebellion and Realmforge Studios into a big voice call to ask them, and find out what it's like to revive a popular sim from the noughties.


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Evil Genius 2: World Domination plots a March 30th release date

As evil plans go, waiting 17 years between making a game and releasing the sequel is a pretty good one. Rebellion are finally releasing Evil Genius 2: World Domination this year, aiming their launch nukes squarely at March 30th. I’ve started my countdown timer to prepare us all. Just 5,215,571 seconds seconds to go before we're all doomed.


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DEVELOPMENT BLOG - Traps

Trapping and Capturing

Hello there! Evil Genius 2 Lead Designer Rich Edwards here, once again blogging for your pleasure. This week, we’ll be looking into Trapping and Capturing enemy Agents – both essential for budding supervillains!

It’s A Trap!

In Evil Genius 2, Traps feed into Lair defense. We’ve previously chatted about how you can defend your base with the help of Guards or other Muscle minions…but what sets traps apart from their fleshy counterparts?

For starters, they don’t talk back and they seem to genuinely enjoy their jobs. Not like some yellow-jumpsuited minions I could care to mention... If your Lair has power, your Traps are usually watching for intruders and when their inbuilt sensors detect someone suspicious then they’ll spring into action.

Now, it’s worth nothing that Traps aren’t a 100% - Agents can disable them, and they do have a cooldown period. Evil never rests, and Traps never sleep.

There’s a few traps I can’t get enough of. For starters, we have the Venus Spy Trap, a great big carnivorous plant that may change your mind about going vegan. But right now, my favorite is the Bubble Cannon. Using an advanced branch of science you and I have never heard of before, it traps Agents in an inescapable prison of soap and water, leaving them floating, completely defenseless, and at your mercy.



Our producer Ash has said that he likes the Freeze Ray because of how pretty the VFX is, in addition to it being ‘classic villain stuff,’ whatever that means.

But, do you know what’s cooler than one Trap by itself? Combining Traps! We’ve touched on Trap Networks before, but let’s dig a little deeper into how they can really help take your Lair Defense to the next level. Your Fan Trap can blows someone in a straight line, have them hit a wall, and take some damage from the experience. But, what if you could subject them to something else mid-blow? Have them pass through a wall of flames, or end their trip with a dunk in a Shark Tank, to create a horrendous chain of events that will leave your enemies spinning.



It’s worth paying attention to the order you place your Traps in – lay out your Lair for maximum damage and pair your Traps to really clean house. Some traps are easier to avoid than others. That fan I mentioned, for instance, might be easily sabotaged by a low level agent, but something more nefarious will catch them out, leaving them vulnerable to the fan.

And let’s look at that flame thrower. If you set fire to someone and then push them into your shark tank, well, that fire is going to be very short lived. Hopefully the same can be said of your victim, but you might be better off letting them burn just a little longer.

Here’s a personal little favourite of mine – a pair of enormous, oversized pinball bumpers, and a single fan positioned to perfectly bounce an agent, time and time again, against the two.

I’m already expecting you all to ask how many Traps you could possibly combine in the creation of your Lair – and I have the answer ready to go. You can combine as many Traps as you want! The two biggest only two limitations; your imagination, and the strength of your enemies.

Oh. And your budget. Terms and conditions apply, I guess, but these traps don’t come cheap, and someone’s got to pay for them. Best find a bank you’re willing to rob.

Which is any of them, right?

But, sometimes you don’t want to kill, and need to consider capturing your enemies…

Gotta Catch ‘Em All

Agents deal in secrets. They steal yours and they have their own. Some of those secrets could very lucrative, if only you could get your greedy hands on them. Problem with this is the Forces of Justice are very good at keeping their lips sealed. They’re the kind of person who has an industrial strength padlock on their diary.

As the old saying goes, we have ways of making people talk. First, you have to capture them.

The process of killing someone is an easy, two step procedure: Reduce their Vitality to 0. Gloat.

Capturing someone is a bit harder. You need to make sure they’re alive, and that they can’t immediately attempt to escape prison. To do this, you’ll need to reduce their Skill – be it through lowering their confidence on the Casino’s rigged roulette tables, hitting them with Traps, applying Henchmen’s special abilities, or simply beating it out of them with a very large stick.

You’ll also need to reduce their Vitality. Not quite as far as Body Bag levels, but far enough to encourage them not to resist anymore.

Once you’ve captured an agent, it’s up to you to break their resolve. Of course, we have the classic way of demoralizing a do-gooder, and that’s for the Evil Genius to mock their captive, explaining their plan to them in an attempt to drive home the futility of their heroics.

Oh, and those traps I keep going on about? They’re another, excellent way of reducing the Agent’s resolve.

Make sure you get your mockery in quickly, though, as Agent Skill will recover over time, leading to escape attempts.

After that, all you have to do is still them in an Interrogation chair and apply a few polite questions to earn your rewards.



When we talk about rewards, there’s a number of handy things you could get from a successful Interrogation. From Schemes, which are ways to take on the Forces of Justice to resources that advance objectives more quickly.

Of course, if you fancy just making someone yours, you can take an enemy Agent to the brainwasher, and turn them into one of your own minions. The type of Agent you brainwash will determine what kind of minion they become, so experiment with this. For example, brainwash an enemy Soldier and you’ll get a Guard. The better the Agent, the better your minion.

The Interrogation room also has a fancy chair. There’s not much else I can say about it…but it does look nice.

Just be careful how you go about dealing with these agents. The more of them who fail to report for duty, whether that’s because they’re waylaid in a holding cell or going up in smoke, the more likely the Forces of Justice are to send their top of the line Soldiers.

That about does it for this blog post! There are more things you can do with Traps and Interrogations, but sometimes the thrill is in discovery. I personally can’t wait for you to share your best Trap combo videos with us on social, or indeed through the Rebellion Discord (which you should definitely join!)

Until next time,

Rich Edwards

Lead Designer

DEVELOPMENT BLOG - JAMES HANNIGAN (Part 2)

Composer James Hannigan Answers Your Questions! (Part 2)

We’re back with more answers from James Hannigan! If you missed Part 1, you can find it through this link. Thanks once again to James for his time!

[h3]Will there be different music for each of the geniuses?[/h3]
There will indeed. Each of the four Evil Geniuses have their own theme… kind of related to their personalities, I would say.

[h3]What’s different between making music for EG1 and EG2, beyond having the former as an inspiration when making music for a sequel? Are there new challenges, how has your process changed over the years, or are you tackling this in the same way you tackled the music for EG1?[/h3]
Since the beginning of this project, there’s been a feeling that EG2’s music should be a kind of progression or evolution of EG1’s music, rather than something wildly different for its own sake. It’s a cliché, but if isn’t broken why try to fix it? Plus, I tend to think that being consistent with a sound and style in a series helps build a more coherent world, creating a musical identity of some sort. That isn’t to say it’s all exactly the same, but a certain amount of the music is in a similar direction.

[h3]Were there any tracks that didn’t make it to the final version of Evil Genius 1 that you were particularly fond of? What was your favorite piece from the original game? [/h3]
There are one or two big band tracks that didn’t make it into the original game, but only because there wasn’t a particular use for them at the time, and they didn’t actually get recorded. It’s easy to forget that music to picture – be it for games, tv or film – needs somewhere to go! It often needs a purpose motivated by something else, such as the narrative or a visual cue, etc.

My favourite track from the first game is the main theme, on the whole, because I think it gives Evil Genius some kind of musical identity, and helps sets up the world and scope of the game’s agenda (which, of course, is world domination!) Plus, I remember the pressure of writing it just a couple of days before recording the orchestra for the first game!

The main theme’s motif returns here and there in different guises as well, including in Evil Genius 2. Every time it shows up I hope it slaps you in the face and says ‘Evil Genius’! But the truth is, it’s also possible to use a motif like that in more subtle and understated ways, delivering an altogether softer message, or simply to create a kind of recognizable Evil Genius atmosphere. That’s the beauty of the ‘leitmotif’. I love how music can operate subconsciously in this way, often when the listener is barely aware of its presence! The funny thing about music is that it can often be more noticeable when it’s absent, especially if its well-integrated in a game’s overall experience.

[h3]In addition, have you been able to revisit some of your older compositions for Evil Genius 2?[/h3]
Yes, there are a few tracks that are undoubtedly linked with those of EG1. Not only the theme, but some of the in-game tracks do echo the first game… often on steroids!

Thanks to James for taking the time to answer our questions! Until next time - stay safe, stay sinister, and make sure you join the Evil Genius 2 Discord!

Ben M-J, Blog Mastermind

DEVELOPMENT BLOG - JAMES HANNIGAN

Composer James Hannigan Answers Your Questions! (Part 1)

It wouldn’t be an Evil Genius game without the sinister sounds of James Hannigan pumping through the airwaves. Once word got out that the sonic mastermind himself had returned, our community had plenty of questions for him. We gathered up the most relevant ones and put them to the man himself! Many thanks to James for his time, and to Nick Brewer for facilitating this conversation.

[h3]When you were composing the original Evil Genius, what were your inspirations? You’ve composed several works with Russian influences over the years, what has inspired you in general when shaping your style?[/h3]
I’ve been quite fortunate as the projects I’ve worked on over the years have been very varied in terms of genre and what they require musically, so I’ve become a bit of a musical chameleon! Despite this, I always hope there is something of ‘me’ running through the work as well, especially within the themes. I love writing those, as it’s often where you try to create a kind of musical blueprint for a project … but it can also be the hardest part!

I do indeed love Russian music of the 20th Century - by the likes of Shostakovich, Stravinsky and many others, and that has probably influenced me to some extent … especially when writing fairly popular tracks such as Soviet March for Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3. But I try to write whatever is stylistically appropriate for what I’m working on, and that’s part of the challenge - and fun - of doing the job. When you write music to picture, going with a story, or to be heard within a particular setting or era, you have to put aside some of your own personal tastes in order create something actually serving the project… especially if it refers to a recognisable genre in the way Evil Genius does, which has a degree of parody involved as well. Fortunately, I absolutely love the spy and sci-fi genres, especially from the 1950s to the 1970s, and there’s something magical for me about the fusion of an orchestra with a jazz flavour in particular.

[h3]What was the oddest instrument you’ve used in composing the music for either EG1 or EG2? [/h3]
Being mostly orchestral, many of the instruments used in the EG1 and EG2 scores aren’t super exotic in themselves, but I do find that the vibraphone [vibes] can be particularly interesting, and pretty integral to a certain sound often heard within the spy genre. Nothing seems to say ‘intrigue’ quite like the low shimmering, mellow tones of the vibes. They have this unmistakable warmth and presence, great for atmospheric, rhythmic beds brimming with mystery and tension.

I’m also a huge fan of surf guitar, which is another musical stalwart of the spy genre. There’s something about its ability to cut through a mix and carry a tune that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The original James Bond theme is undoubtedly a testament to its twangy awesomeness.
Big bold brass and high trumpets, percussion like bongos and congas are also a lot of fun to work with on a project like Evil Genius 2, and help make the music a little bit more eccentric and suave than an orchestra alone could.

That’s it for today’s blog post! We’ll be taking a few weeks off posting to give our minions a little rest – but rest assured we’ll be coming back in January of next year with more deep dives, and part two of this interview! Until then, stay safe, stay sinister, and make sure you join the Evil Genius 2 Discord!

Ben M-J, Blog Mastermind