Galactic Civilizations III

It would take a long while for Stardock to get back to the Galactic Civilizations universe.

After the success of Galactic Civilizations II, its top developers worked on Impulse, a digital distribution platform, while a new generation of developers joined Stardock to work on Twilight of the Arnor and then Elemental: War of Magic.

Following the sale of Impulse to GameStop, the Galactic Civilizations team was reunited. They developed Elemental: Fallen Enchantress and then began work on Galactic Civilizations III. The challenge of creating something new and fresh, yet familiar, fell to 15+ year Stardock veteran Paul Boyer as lead designer.

Many designs were created, some were prototyped, a few even built – and discarded between the beginning of development and the game’s release three years later. Boyer and the rest of the Galactic Civilizations III team experimented with single production queues, radically different tech trees, and much more. Ideology went through many iterations, eventually settling on the 5x5x3 grid you see in-game today.

Visually, Galactic Civilizations III is far beyond its initial alpha release. The team added a much more complex lighting system during beta, then went one further by implementing high dynamic range lighting, which makes everything “pop” much more onscreen by making dark darker and bright brighter.

Due to the expected longevity of Galactic Civilizations III, the new engine is strictly 64-bit and DirectX 11. This is to allow the game to continue to be improved and expanded well into the future.

Galactic Civilizations III launched on May 14, 2015. Much ice cream was consumed.