Sunday, March 18, 2018

The Joy of Gaming: Women Game Designers - Exodus: Proxima Centauri

Women's History Month: 

A Joy of Gaming Tribute to 

Women Game Designers

#WomensHistoryMonth


Agnieszka Kopera (with partner)


Exodus: Proxima Centauri is a Sci-Fi 4X game. 4X are known by that term because they feature exploration, expansion, exploitation, and extermination to varying degrees and importance.  (Back in 2014, I wrote an article for Sci-Fi November about 4X games if you'd like to learn more.) These games are typically grandiose in scale and have many, many, many pieces. Exodus uses hexagonal tiles as its field of play and players have individual player boards and you use cubes and counters and.... you know what? The Starlit Citadel ladies have an amazing explanation of the game, which also provides you videos. Bonus for it being ladies! So if you want to know what the game is all about, check out this video. There are also a few expansions and it's a popular game with a few awards to boast.

Exodus is Agnieszka Kopera's breakout game. I know her partner and her also crowdfunded the party game Wild Fun West (2013), as well as Progress: Evolution of Technology (2014), but Exodus is Kopera's claim to fame. She has been given indirect credit for her work on Warriors and Traders (2012), but primary credit was given to her partner Andrei Novac. Kopera used to be an engineer who threw herself into gaming and game development. Currently Kopera is the Creative Director at NSKN games in Poland, so she continues to work in the field. There are several great interviews online with her where she talks about the games, their creation, and the difficulties involved in such pursuits. 

 

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