Over the last 20 years, these epoch-spanning games have starred more than 50 historical civilizations, sales have surpassed more than 20 million units, and a core fanbase of hundreds of thousands has put hours upon hours into playing one series entry or another on a weekly basis. Age of Empires is one of the most influential strategy games of all time. And far from fading into obscurity, as history is wont to do, Empires is now squarely back in the (games-playing) public consciousness.
[...] I spoke to several of the two dozen or so people who worked on the original Age of Empires about how it was made. I asked them to reflect on the series' triumphs, successes, failures, and legacy. This is a compressed retelling of their many stories, focusing on the early days—the building of the foundations that are so central to both the Age story and each of the Age games—but spanning the full breadth of the series' life
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/01/the-age-of-age-of-empires-as-told-by-the-devs-who-built-it/
Long read.
Related: Age of Empires: Definitive Edition adds 4K Resolution, Zoom Levels, Remastered Soundtrack
Microsoft Announces Age of Empires IV
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @09:02PM
There's maybe one ok story in the 4-pagelet-chunked article.
Basically: they had everyone including artists playtest every single day once, with a suitable 'watcher'.
Vote: bad, would have preferred a one line 'hey cool story bro, did you know one of the AoEs they had every single person from artist to dev to managers playtest every single day? What a way to collaborate!'