Warhammer’s most overlooked strategy game was a “huge touchpoint” for Civilization 7’s all-new narratives

Civilization 7 represents a significant shift from its forerunners in storytelling due to its innovative emergent narratives. However, according to the game’s narrative director, inspiration also came from another major genre titan: Warhammer.

“There’s a rich tradition of effective narrative frameworks in strategy games, especially when they are closely linked to the game’s mechanics,” said Civ 7’s story director Cat Manning during a discussion at the Game Developer’s Conference. “For instance, games like FTL [Faster Than Light] have explored this concept. That was a crucial reference for us. Additionally, titles like Paradox games, Amplitude, Battletech, and Warhammer Chaos were influential. Warhammer 40k: Chaos Gate was particularly influential as we started brainstorming about what the system might entail.”

Manning elaborated that “the way all of Civ’s fundamental systems operate is that the game sends signals to various components within it” and “it’s just this continuous exchange.” “If you acquire, for example, a unit with gold, you might instantly trigger a narrative event related to that unit,” she continued. “And that’s because the system is perpetually operating in the background, listening for inputs.”

However, the choice to eliminate Civ 6’s Gossip Draw in favor of something entirely new was based on the fact that Gossip typically cluttered players’ screens with repetitive information.