The daunting task of reviving classic management sims
Over the next few days, both Spacebase Startopia and Evil Genius 2: World Domination arrive. The first is a spiritual successor to Startopia, the 2001 management sim about looking after space stations for alien travellers. The second is a sequel to 2004's Evil Genius, another man
Over the next few days, both Spacebase Startopia and Evil Genius 2: World Domination arrive. The first is a spiritual successor to Startopia, the 2001 management sim about looking after space stations for alien travellers. The second is a sequel to 2004's Evil Genius, another management sim where you get to play a Bond-esque villain taking over the world. It's a brilliant coincidence these games have bagged themselves release dates within a week of each other, and speaks to the resurgence of management games over the last couple of years.
To find out a little more about this trend, I wrangled the developers from both Rebellion and Realmforge Studios into a big voice call to ask them, and find out what it's like to revive a popular sim from the noughties.
Our producer Ash has said that he likes the Freeze Ray because of how pretty the VFX is, in addition to it being ‘classic villain stuff,’ whatever that means.
But, do you know what’s cooler than one Trap by itself? Combining Traps! We’ve touched on Trap Networks before, but let’s dig a little deeper into how they can really help take your Lair Defense to the next level. Your Fan Trap can blows someone in a straight line, have them hit a wall, and take some damage from the experience. But, what if you could subject them to something else mid-blow? Have them pass through a wall of flames, or end their trip with a dunk in a Shark Tank, to create a horrendous chain of events that will leave your enemies spinning.
It’s worth paying attention to the order you place your Traps in – lay out your Lair for maximum damage and pair your Traps to really clean house. Some traps are easier to avoid than others. That fan I mentioned, for instance, might be easily sabotaged by a low level agent, but something more nefarious will catch them out, leaving them vulnerable to the fan.
And let’s look at that flame thrower. If you set fire to someone and then push them into your shark tank, well, that fire is going to be very short lived. Hopefully the same can be said of your victim, but you might be better off letting them burn just a little longer.
Here’s a personal little favourite of mine – a pair of enormous, oversized pinball bumpers, and a single fan positioned to perfectly bounce an agent, time and time again, against the two.
I’m already expecting you all to ask how many Traps you could possibly combine in the creation of your Lair – and I have the answer ready to go. You can combine as many Traps as you want! The two biggest only two limitations; your imagination, and the strength of your enemies.
Oh. And your budget. Terms and conditions apply, I guess, but these traps don’t come cheap, and someone’s got to pay for them. Best find a bank you’re willing to rob.
Which is any of them, right?
But, sometimes you don’t want to kill, and need to consider capturing your enemies…
When we talk about rewards, there’s a number of handy things you could get from a successful Interrogation. From Schemes, which are ways to take on the Forces of Justice to resources that advance objectives more quickly.
Of course, if you fancy just making someone yours, you can take an enemy Agent to the brainwasher, and turn them into one of your own minions. The type of Agent you brainwash will determine what kind of minion they become, so experiment with this. For example, brainwash an enemy Soldier and you’ll get a Guard. The better the Agent, the better your minion.
The Interrogation room also has a fancy chair. There’s not much else I can say about it…but it does look nice.
Just be careful how you go about dealing with these agents. The more of them who fail to report for duty, whether that’s because they’re waylaid in a holding cell or going up in smoke, the more likely the Forces of Justice are to send their top of the line Soldiers.
That about does it for this blog post! There are more things you can do with Traps and Interrogations, but sometimes the thrill is in discovery. I personally can’t wait for you to share your best Trap combo videos with us on social, or indeed through the 
In the last blog we talked about your place as a Genius in the world. We were talking metaphorically. It’s time to talk literally.
Pick your Genius, pick a tropical Lair location, and get ready to build the ultimate in evil organizations.
Over the course of the campaign you’ll be spreading your influence through Global Operations – establishing Criminal Networks in all the regions of the world, then utilizing your minions to earn gold, advancing the progress of Global Objectives, and generally reaching out across the world stage to exploit every dastardly opportunity you can.
Naturally, the world doesn’t start dominated. As we hinted at last time, it was once, but things have slowly slipped back to something approaching normal. The Forces of Justice have reasserted themselves as self-appointed global protectors. They watch over their territory closely, fiercely guarding it against… well, against people like you.
Send some minions into a Region and they’ll establish a Criminal Network, exposing all manner of Schemes for you to run. Bolster your Networks and they’ll find even bigger and better opportunities.
However, there’s two sides to every coin, something you should know after you’ve stolen enough of them. The flipside here is that people tend to hate it when you commit a crime. Run too many schemes in a Region and you’ll trigger the wrath of the local “Good Guys”. I don’t want to spend too much time on this, but safe to say it’s unlikely to end well for you.
And that’s before we even start talking about their champions, the so-called “Super Agents.”
We designed World Domination to have a lot of different scenarios regardless of what Evil Genius you start out as – so how you spread your criminal empire across the globe is up to you! With all the content we’ve packed into it, it’s going to have plenty of replayability.
Talking of a criminal empire, every Genius needs a good Lair to base their operations from. At the start of a campaign, you’ll get to pick your island from a selection of pre-built tropical paradises. There are three islands in the game, and each one has a different layout and character to it, which in turn will influence how you lay out your Lair. You might even be able to spot a couple of classic spy genre influences in some of our Island designs.
Naturally, all three are unlocked from the start, and each provides its own specific advantage, from richer Gold seams to a larger Cover Operation, so you can really tailor your Lair to your playstyle. Once you’ve chosen your island you’ll be there until you either conquer the world or die in the attempt.
On the topic of building your Lair, we should talk about Loot. There’s a whole bunch of weird, wonderful and unique items of Loot in Evil Genius 2, and via a series of side-stories, you can acquire one of those Loot Items for yourself to display in your Lair. Now, these items aren’t just for show – they’ll have unique effects when placed. Throughout the campaign, you’ll have plenty of chances to decorate your Lair with the spoils of your adventures…and let’s get into one of those right now.
As you can see, he has a Mortarboard. That’s because what you’re looking at here is the world’s smartest Dodo. Smarts are essential if you intend to survive for as long as this bird has. At some point in your campaign, your Evil Genius is going to realize that this one of a kind Dodo exists out in the world. When you compare your minions’ own tenacity and intelligence to that of this bird, your Genius will begin to notice that their minions could stand to learn a lot from this Dodo.
As the player, you’ll spend some time sending minions into the world on Schemes, with the goal of capturing this intelligent bird! Each Loot Item in Evil Genius 2 has a variety of tasks you have to perform before you can get your maniacal mitts on them, because why would anything be easy?
Eventually, you’ll be able to bring the Dodo back to your Lair, where it will act as a Science Trainer. Minions will be able to study the Dodo, and skill up in Science faster than they would normally be able to. Here’s what that looks like.
So, as you can see – Loot Items are fantastic. We have a staggering number of them in the game (Lady Liberty’s Torch, anyone?), and I personally can’t wait to see how you put them to use. The Dodo also helps set the tone, in my mind, for a lot of the Loot items in the game. They’re silly, fun and just plain great to look at. Our Artists and Animators have done a fantastic job bringing them to life. Every time we got a new one into the game it’s been a genuine delight.
There’s so much more in Evil Genius 2’s World Domination mode – this blog was only intended to scratch the surface and give you all something to salivate over. We’ve hidden a lot within this mode, I’m excited to watch you discover the many weird and wonderful ways you’re going to expand your empire.
We’ll be back soon with another Development Blog, but until then make sure you’re in the 
We’ve got four distinct Evil Geniuses and, while each of them is tailored to a different play style, they do have some things in common. For example, they’re need to be protected. Yes, that includes Red Ivan, who might be hardier than the others, but he’s still at risk of being overwhelmed by some well-trained Agents. Keep them protected by minions at all times, and ensure that you send others to do your fighting. After all, a true criminal mastermind doesn’t like to get their hands dirty.
First up, let’s talk about our Gold Standard in villainy – Maximillian. He’s returning from the original game, but I’d like to drop a little bit more information on what that means for him. You see, an Evil Genius did conquer the world, but… Well, it wasn’t dear old Max. Speculate all you want, I’m not allowed to say more! Maximillian is your all-rounder – a great Genius for beginners to sink their teeth into, generating gold and specialized minions to do his work for him.
Our other Geniuses are slightly more weighted towards each of the different Villainous Specializations in the game.
Red Ivan, as you may have guessed, focuses more on ‘Might Makes Right’ as his ethos. If you want to have the kind of Lair that features armed Guards on every single corner, then Ivan’s your man. He’s also slightly hardier in combat, so a great choice for first-time players.
Also, for those still wondering about the events of the first game, yes – Ivan was involved. The Genius even rewarded him with his own country, the Nation of Ivania, probably just to keep him away from the Lair. Things have taken a sour turn for your militaristic mastermind since then.
Zalika is Science-focused, ensuring that research goes smoothly, cracking through research trees more reliably than other geniuses. However, as Zalika’s Lair has a scientific focus, you’re going to need more Technicians and Scientists to keep everything running and up to date, so keep that in mind when choosing her.
Finally we have Emma – who focuses around the Deception Tree. She’s a former Spymaster, embittered at her defeat during the events of the original Evil Genius, and has a general fondness for beating agents at their own game. If you want to keep a low profile on the world stage, taking over the world almost completely in secret, then Emma is the Genius for you. She also prefers working more closely with her Henchmen, able to assist them and get them back into the fight more quickly.
Of course, all of our Geniuses are available at the start of the game, but it’s worth re-iterating that you can pick whoever you like. Each Genius has some key differences between them, but don’t take their advantages as guidance for your play style – you can still play Evil Genius the way you want, despite each of our Characters’ strengths and weaknesses. Although Zalika can unlock and maintain traps more cheaply, if you, a hardcore Ivan fanatic, want to forsake Muscle minions and build a diabolical marvel of a trap network, well, we’re not going to stop you. By the same token, did you choose Zalika? Did you want train wave after wave of guards and arm them with only the very finest weapons? Go right ahead.
We wouldn’t stop you even if we could.
In addition, all of our Geniuses have their own abilities to bring to the table…
Not just pretty faces, each of our Evil Geniuses has their own truly unique ability. They also have passive effects, which we’ll leave it up to you to discover, but we wanted to give each Genius an advantage that fits their character and nature.
Max excels at boosting minion training – rapidly promoting his workforce and creating more Specialists. So if you’re lacking in certain minions and want to quickly have them skill up to fill slots in your Lair, then Max is excellent at that.
Despite our protestations, Red Ivan has brought his Rocket Launcher into the modern age. Want to deal with invaders personally? Then put Red Ivan on the front lines and have him directly involved in combat. Now…it’s quite tricky to control a rocket in motion, so he’ll only do this when you command. Nobody, except maybe Ivan in his younger days, wants their Lair in a constant state of ‘on fire’. You’re in control of Red Ivan and his Rocket Launcher, so if you do want to set your base ablaze…
Emma’s abilities play into her close relationship with her Henchmen, giving her the power to reset their cooldowns. She’s used to overseeing spies, making her henchmen more efficient than everybody else. Given that you can choose your own Henchmen, then Emma’s playstyle can really be tailored to the player in question. So, if you wanted to keep Jubei in the fight for longer, you could have him return to Emma for a pep talk, before sending him into battle once again. If you pick a load of Muscle henchmen, then you can really give Emma a fighting force to be reckoned with.
Zalika’s scientific prowess also extends to Furniture repair. If any item in your Lair is falling apart, you can order her to deploy Nano-Drones, repairing the area around her – extinguishing fires, repairing objects and keeping her Lair in a good state. This is especially useful if your Lair is power-hungry, so if you’re looking to keep the lights on regardless of outside interference, then you and Zalika have a lot in common.
(Someone in marketing has suggested we say “Zalika is your gal-ika.” Personally, I can’t think of anything more evil than inflicting that phrase on you.)
Hey there! It’s me, Lead Designer Rich Edwards. Back again with another Developer Blog post on Evil Genius 2: World Domination. This time, we’re going to be talking about the first lines of defence in your base. We nefarious types call it the Cover Operation, but the public know it as a Casino.
A successful cover operation is the Evil Genius’ front, a means of shifting prying eyes away from their Lair, and in our game this takes the form of a Casino. This is your first line of defence against the Forces of Justice. This doesn’t mean you have to invest heavily in it – Muscle and Traps are totally fine if you want to go that way – but it will be where most Agents show up for the first time. With a strong Cover Operation, you’ll be able to turn away some Agents before they even enter the Lair by investing in the Deception Tree, which I talked about in my previous blog.
I should note that your Casino isn’t a metagame – we’re not secretly crafting Casino Manager 2021, but you do have some options. You can choose the Furniture you place, who you staff it with, and all these things help to determine how effective it is at turning away enemy Agents. The longer and Agent stays in your Casino, the more you'll lower their Resolve. If that ever hits zero then, congratulations, you just convinced them that their orders from Headquarters aren't as important as they once were. Goodbye Agent, we hope you enjoyed your stay.
Of course, a Casino doesn't just attract enemy agents. No. It also attracts a horde of gullible Tourists who are easily parted from their money. If you'd rather defend your lair with traps, minions and henchmen, then your Casino makes for an effective side hustle.
Speaking of minions and henchmen, let’s talk about how you can make their life easier…
You’ve seen Guards in your Lair. While they are capable fighters, rippling with muscle, I want to share a secret with you. I think they put too much emphasis on their glamour muscles, and I’ve seen them skip leg day more than once. Higher tier minions are stronger, but even then, why take the chance? Why not give them an array of deadly weapons? After all, no matter how impressive your muscles, you should never take a glute to a gunfight.
And so the final thing that ends up in your Armoury is naturally Weapons. Minions will pick up the weapon they want and carry that with them in order to respond to any intruders. You don’t *need* to build Weapon Racks, but if you don’t your minions are going to try and solve every problem with their fists. While admirable, they will be shot to death relatively quickly. You can grab both lethal and non-lethal weapons, especially useful if you want to capture enemy Agents. There are even Batons available, useful for handing down a pummelling. However you want to deal with your foes, there’s a weapon available for that purpose. You can even skill up your Guards into different classes – the Martial Artist, for example, excels at Hand-To-Hand combat.
All of this does filter back into the Traits system we talked about previously – and, additionally, how your minions have a series of stats you should pay attention to if you want your Lair to operate to its fullest potential. If your minions have low Smarts, then your security network is going to suffer. They’ll tire out quicker, and they won’t be paying as much attention to their screens. So, you need to make sure your minions are well-rested, well-fed, and prepared to stare at a screen all day, ready to dispatch guards at a moment’s notice. Of course, Traps are also incredibly important to Lair defence, but we’re going to be diving in to those at a later date. Eventually, we want you to free up your headspace to focus on the bigger picture of World Domination. A lair that can take care of itself is a successfully run operation, with the first line of defence being your minions’ ability to spot incoming threats.
Before we close this blog out, let’s flip the script and switch from defence to offence – heading straight over to the Control Room! Your gateway to the world stage, the Control Room is the key to World Domination, a topic we’ll be covering more in the future. However, as a room in the lair, it is incredibly important. As the hub of your global Operations, your Control Room helps you establish and organise your criminal network and Schemes. The bigger your control room, the more minions you have working in it, the more you’re going to be able to exploit the world and enhance your effectiveness. A small control room will be fine for robbing the bank down the road, but if you want to literally steal the riches of a thousand kingdoms in some kind of mega heist, you’re going to need a sizeable Control Room. We’ll be coming back to this room more at a later date, because of its importance to the World Domination mode. You should definitely look forward to that…all in good time.
That’s it for another Evil Genius 2 Development Blog! Lair Defence is just one step in your grand plan, but an important one to consider. I can’t wait to see how you all lay out your lairs – there’s bound to be some inventive designs out there! We’ll be back in two weeks with yet more for you, but until then join the 
Hello! Rich Edwards back again, Lead Designer on Evil Genius 2: World Domination.
We’re here with another Development Blog, this time covering minion Traits. It’s a broad topic, but every character in Evil Genius 2 can have Traits – these inform the personality and the behavior of that character. Traits come out in all sorts of different ways, so let’s dive in and see what they’re all about.
I’m going to address the unspoken first. You and I are two different people. I enjoy puzzles, I’m soft spoken, and I wear comfortable hoodies. You’re a fan of Evil Genius 2: World Domination, so I’m going to take a stab in the dark and say you’re some sort of incredible super being, blessed with amazing charisma, a keen mind, and excellent taste. Aren’t you amazing?
In Evil Genius 2, we call these differences Traits.
Whenever a new character is called into existence they are assigned a number of Traits. Perhaps they’re a Homebody, or have a Fear of Needles? They could be a Workaholic, or have a Sweet Tooth too.
Traits run the gamut from sillier little Easter Eggs (watch your minions closely for some of those), through to them being former Agents, with the ability to see through disguises more effectively. Certain minions could have disastrous traits, which might even work against you.
Did you know that a minion can be Oblivious? This means they can’t see through disguises, letting enemy Agents run rampant – a trait to be avoided. They could also arrive in your Lair with a nasty case of Hay Fever? A sniffling worker will do everything they can to avoid becoming a Biologist – but if they do, and they have to work with dangerous, pollen spewing plants in the Laboratory? Well, then they’ll lose health more rapidly.
Minions can have a number of traits, so make sure to inspect your workforce regularly. If you want to get in there, micro-manage and root out the weaker employees, then you absolutely can. In fact we encourage it. Who wants to employ a Lazy, Oblivious Worker when you could hire someone is Dedicated and Oblivious? Wait – that’s isn’t much better…
While you can’t filter minions by Traits when employing them – an Evil Genius doesn’t involve themselves in middle management. Instead, it’s simplicity itself to execute a minion after recruiting them. Not only does this… terminate their employment, it also provides a temporary boost to any witnesses. After all – if you saw someone executed in front of you, you’d probably work a little harder, too.
(Editor’s Note: that isn’t how Rebellion operates. We’re much fairer. All executions are done in trial by combat.)
Every worker minion in Evil Genius 2 comes to you with a basic set of traits. However, when you skill them up through training methods, they become inherently better in one aspect. So a minion might retain some traits, but they’ll gain new attributes. Some traits, like Pacifism, might even disappear with enough combat training.
There’s nothing quite like making a minion punch something enough until they enjoy it. Not that you’ll be overseeing this process every single time, mind. Training is mostly big picture stuff – if you say ‘I want X Guards and Y Technicians’, your minions will then organize themselves into teams, training themselves up automatically until they can call themselves a Guard or a Technician.
However, that could take a while, a potentially daunting prospect if you need specialized minions a little quicker. So, you can assign existing minions to assist with training, speeding up the entire process. Your minions are always helping train their own replacement, filling in slots based on how many specialists you want. Nobody wants to get involved in micro-management. There’s a World to dominate, and that’s Big Picture Stuff.
As any Lawyer will tell you, all Crime comes in one of three flavours. It’s either a Muscle crime, Science-y, or mired in Deception. That’s why we themed our minions after these three criminal aspects, creating the Muscle, Science, and Deception Tree.
What can I tell you about the Deception Tree? It’s instead a career path for minions who excel at keeping your enemies misinformed.
Let’s take a look at how your minions can help reduce the stats of your enemies, and keep your Casino running! The Deception Tree covers all the minions that can work in the Casino, ensuring no Agents infiltrate your Lair, keeping them all handily distracted. Valets are the lowest rung of this ladder of lies – keeping people occupied, but their powers can only stretch so far. Eventually, they’ll progress to becoming a Socialite or Spin Doctor, who can in turn become a Counter Agent, the final tier of The Deception Tree.
The Casino is a necessary part of keeping your Lair running. After all, without it your Island is just your lair, making it the perfect target for the Forces of Justice. When operating your Casino, Tourists will naturally flood to your island – who could resist gambling in paradise? Unfortunately, they tend to distract Valets from their real purpose – distracting Agents. Which brings us to…
Drumroll please. Swing a spotlight over this way because our next minion won’t put in an appearance unless we make a fuss. Enter the Socialite.
The Socialite is a loud, brash presence, who draws a lot of Tourist attention, allowing your other minions to distract more Agents. Sometimes, being a chatterbox does help.
The Spin Doctor, on the other side, acts as a sort of damage-dealing character, reducing the skill of any Agents that are approaching your lair – confusing them for a while, ensuring they can’t do their job effectively. If any Agents do stumble across anything suspicious, then the Spin Doctor will be right there with them, ensuring that everything is normal – Look, every Casino has a ray gun, have you even been to a Casino before?
And lurking behind the scenes this whole time is the final Deception Minion: the Counter Agent. These folks are incredible at seeing through disguises, and lowering Agent skills – rooting them out and damaging their ability to perform their mission before they even set foot in the lair. They won’t convince them to go home, but they will ensure that Agents can barely perform. A good combination of all of these minions will ensure a flawless operation. For more details on how to keep your Lair running smoothly…we suggest you wait for our next blog post.
Minion traits is a complex system, but I hope I was able to give you all enough information to excite you. We’ll be back in another two weeks with another Dev Blog, so see you all then. Remember, make sure to check out the 
Hello. This is Rich Edwards here, Lead Designer on Evil Genius 2: World Domination.
In today’s Development Blog we’ll be covering Lair Building. The best criminal masterminds put a lot of thought into their Lair and we know this is something you’ve been asking us to divulge more on, so let’s get right to it.
Let’s tackle the elephant-sized-device in the room first. You might have noticed in our trailers that your minions have a fancy new tool they’ve been putting to use. The Lair Builder 5000 is its name, and it is the answer to ‘how do your minions do X?’ The Lair Builder is a state of the art multi-tool, allowing minions to do all manner of things throughout the Lair – from destroying solid rock to putting up new walls, all the way through to constructing equipment and sucking up body bags. It’s a brilliant tool that all minions have access to, and it’s definitely a lot cooler than giving them pick axes and shovels.
I’ve seen a few of you mentioning this online, and wanted to dispel a small misconception about the Lair Builder 5000 – it doesn’t create furniture out of thin air. Your minions will still need to pick equipment up from the depot and carry it into the Lair, but these items are often heavy, and let's face it, your workers aren't the strongest people in the world. The Lair builder simply turns the heavy, back-breaking labour into more manageable back-straining labour. When it comes to adding items to your Lair, we’ve kept the flow from the original Evil Genius is still intact, not to worry. We just thought we’d enhance how minions go about their business – and honestly, a spy-fi gadget is far fancier than crates, as is befitting for your stylish underground Lair.
We're also doing our level best to ensure that the feedback on building is more immediate. If you give an order - say, if you lay down a plan for a brand new Inner Sanctum, complete with impressive boardroom table and chairs you’d literally die for - the minions will immediately start work. As soon as you hit Confirm on your build order, you'll see a horde of jumpsuits converging on the building site, brandishing their Lair Builders, eager to get to work.
Let's talk about dynamite briefly. We loved how that felt in the original game, how satisfying it was to watch the ripple of explosions expertly, and improbably, carve a winding tunnel through the mountain. That feeling is still there as your minions tunnel into the bedrock tile by tile. Only now there’s far less waiting around for stacks of explosives to be piled haphazardly against the wall.
Corridors. Who doesn’t love corridors? The endless stretches of safety lights, the quiet humming of generators. The distant sound of squeaking rubber soles.
And that’s before we even mention the total lack of hiding places for Agents or the concealed death traps built into the walls and floors.
Corridors make the ideal home for your Trap Networks. We experimented early on with having them in multiple rooms, but it turns out that minions find it hard to sleep next to saw blades, guards kept falling into the shark tanks, and let’s not even mention the time Eli got too close to a flamethrower. So, we decided to adhere to some form of health and safety in our Lair constructions.
They’re also great places for gunfights – with great line of sights. Think of the corridor as the veins connecting your Lair, allowing you to spot undesirables with relative ease. Minions don’t hang around in corridors…so that could be an Agent in disguise.
For their unassuming nature, corridors might just be the most important area in the Lair. Making sure that minions can get where they need to go quickly, while ensuring any Agents who break through your security get lost in the maze is just one of the many aspects you’re going to need to account for when you’re building your Lair.
Or you could even remove corridors entirely. If you want to connect your barracks straight to a Mess Hall be our guest. You are the Genius, after all.
There’s also doors to consider. Yes, doors. The indefatigable Forces of Justice have many tricks up their sleeve, but each of their Agents struggles with certain doors. I’m not going to reveal all the combinations here, but…it’s worth considering the types of agent you’re going to come up against, and trying to beat them at their own game. A Rogue might get past a simple door’s security with ease, but a high tech laser grid? That’s trickier.
You might have also noticed that your Lair now has multiple floors…the possibilities for crafting your dream Lair truly are endless, but watch out for the Forces Of Justice attacking on multiple fronts. You’ll have to make sure all your floors are properly defended.
Of course, we have all sorts of rooms in the Lair for you to get your heads around - but you’ll want to pay special attention to the Barracks and the Mess Hall. These two rooms serve very important purposes in your Lair – helping to replenish your minions’ stats. A hungry workforce can’t perform adequately, and if your minions don’t have the rest they need to function, then your Lair is going to suffer.
The Barracks is actually the only room in the Lair that can contain Beds – which, as you might expect, are completely necessary for helping your minions rest up. They’re also one of the cheapest rooms in the game to build, because the value of a good nights’ sleep is absolutely priceless. Similarly, the Mess Hall is the only room in the game that contains furniture that allows them to take a lunch break – no snacking on the job. Your minions will automatically gather at these two locations when they feel either tired or hungry, which is definitely one less thing to worry about as you’re plotting your eventual World Domination.
Just keep an eye on those rooms. If a significant number of overworked, tired, hungry minions gather in one place for too long… Well, let’s just say that you might be a Genius, but you are outnumbered…
That’s it for Lair Building Basics. Remember, we’ll be back in two weeks’ time with yet another Dev Blog, so we’ll see you then. Until then, make sure you check out the 
Hello! My name is Rich Edwards and I’m the Lead Designer on Evil Genius 2: World Domination. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be here talking to you guys about our game. But let me give it a go.
I joined Rebellion to work specifically on Evil Genius 2 as a massive – and I mean massive – fan of the original. This is my dream project and I’m so thrilled to be finally able to talk more about it.
Two weeks ago our Spin Doctor Sadie launched the Evil Genius 2 Development Blog and she promised you guys some brand new info in future posts. Well, here we are!
In today’s Development Blog post I’ll talk about one of the key aspects we’re reprising in Evil Genius 2 and how we’re putting our own spin on it. Let’s dive into the world of Henchmen.
https://youtu.be/7fZ7EutB6CE
