News Archive - August 2004

The results for the US Children of the Nile "Think like an Egyptian" T-shirt contest are in! The names of the 17 winners can be seen here. If you live in the UK, France or Germany and if you think you can name the 8 things that make your people in Children of the Nile dissatisfied, head over to the contest for Europe and compete for one of the 10 exclusive Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile T-shirts.

Need help? Check our extensive database of pre-release information, at the Children of the Nile Heaven!

The official Children of the Nile site has been updated, revealing three new characters, a god, six new screenshots and a new piece of music.

The merchant, mat maker and jeweler can be welcomed to the group of already known mortals while Anubis, Lord of the Dead, has been added to the collection of Gods.

There is only one week left to submit screenshots for August's Screenshot of the Month contest at Emperor Heaven. The theme is "Heroes in Action". Don't be shy, this is your chance to have your creativity rewarded with recognition in the Emperor Heaven Gallery. Full details of how to submit your screenshot are available here.

Both Gamespot and 3D Gamers have released a new trailer for Tilted Mill's Children of the Nile.

The trailer includes quite a lot of in-game footages as well as pre-rendered cinematics seen before. You'll see temples being built, people protesting and some scenes of which screenshots have been released as well.

Are you interested in a career-path that includes service as a Xia to six different kingdoms, a stint as an outlaw, and a quest for revenge? Did you ever wonder how it felt to share drinks with Jing Ke, kowtow to Qin Shi Huang, befriend Liu Bang,
and defy Xiang Yu?. You can experience all this plus embark on some epic city-building in the new singleplayer campaign, "A Xia's Diary", which is now available for download. Designer Gweilo wishes to send a special thanks to a great playtest team: Shaun, Pagh, Um Lei Tung, and Paulette.

Wow, it's been a while since I've done this news posting lark. Here's hoping I can still remember how it all works...

Yes, you read the title right - after several months of building anticipation, those fine folks at Tilted Mill have thrown the doors open (well, sort of) and are asking for some volunteers to assist in the upcoming beta test in September.

You have a couple of weeks to get your application in, so mosey on over to the official CotN site and make your case.

We've been busy, as you will soon notice and collected lots of information from places like the official Children of the Nile forums and gathered that in a little compendium.

You can find the interview with Chris Beatrice there, and some new screen shots. Yes, new screenshots.

The current design is still a temporary one, so don't be too disappointed if things don't quite work out.

Many thanks to Pecunia, EJay and Granite, and of course, Chris Beatrice and Tilted Mill. *wink*

You can find it here.

Enjoy!

Even if you missed the action of Emperor: The Bureaucratic Examination Competition, its legacy lives on. You can still have fun by playing all seven of the competition campaigns, and even see the entries submitted by the original competitors. All this is available for download at the E:BE Submissions section. Check it out, and see how well you can do against the top winning entries!

Phil Walker has been kind enough to write us a wonderful little essay on the ins and outs of the Emperor Multi-player game. He gives advice on how to get enough people together play and offers some thoughts on what makes a multi-player game enjoyable.

Want to read more? Click here.

Sega Europe to bring the anticipated city-building game to PCs outside North America.

Tilted Mill's upcoming city-building game is good to go, as Sega Europe has signed on to release Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile in all territories outside North America this November. Myelin Entertainment is handling the game's stateside release.

Children of the Nile will be the first in a series of games under the Immortal Cities title, and it puts the player in control of building ancient Egyptian cities. While the gameplay is reminiscent of the Pharaoh games (Tilted Mill was founded by the creators of that series), Children of the Nile features 3D graphics built on the Empire Earth engine, and it favors visual feedback rather than charts and tables.

In related news, Tilted Mill has also launched the official Web site for the game, which includes game music downloads and a community forum.

Check out GameSpot's recent preview for more information on Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile.

By Benjamin Golze -- GameSpot
POSTED: 08/02/04 05:09 PM PST

"Heroes in Action" is the theme for August's Screenshot of the Month contest at Emperor Heaven.

Whether you are partial to the blessings of Nu Wa, the wisdom of Confucius, or the antics of Sun Wu Kong, this is your chance to show us your favorite hero in action! Let loose your creativeness!

You can get the full details of the contest here.

Campaign designer Gweilo has offered a preview of his new project, "A Xia's Diary", which is nearing completion.

"The sheer size of this new singleplayer campaign has kept it in development for 6 months. It has ten missions and seven new custom maps. It immerses the player into a historical storyline that arcs from the climax of the Warring States period, through the brief Qin dynasty, and into the early Han dynasty. The story unfolds to the player as entries in their own personal diary, which adds an interesting first-person perspective."

"A player assumes the role of a 'Xia', which was the Chinese equivalent of Europe's knight-errants.Over the course of the campaign, your journey will take you from humble hunting tents to the splendor of magnificent capital cities. You will gain experience as you successfully complete each mission, slowly transforming from an inexperienced youth into the powerful Grand Xia of a mighty dynasty."

"The design includes some new twists, including new scripting techniques, combinations, and a totally revised commodity pricing scheme. The missions are a mix of military and economic challenges, along with some monument construction. The goal for this campaign is to provide a solid challenge for advanced players, and the feedback I've received from the playtest team indicates this goal is definitely on target. We are finishing up final playtesting now; watch for a release date sometime in the later part of August."

Sound interesting? If you are eager for a sneak peek, some teaser screenshots are viewable here.