Following up on yesterday’s big announcement about the forthcoming Age of Empires Steam trading cards and pricing for The Forgotten expansion pack, it seemed fitting to take a different focus with today’s update by concentrating on one of the members of the team responsible for making this project a reality.
Hello, though I rarely reveal my real identity, I think this is a good opportunity to do so. My name is Tomas Nedved and I come from Prague. In the Age of Empires 2 world, however, I am mostly known as The_Prophet or simply Tom.
I first became acquainted with this game shortly after it came out, but it wasn’t until late 2005 that I discovered its dedicated community and started engaging in efforts to take this classic to new heights. For several years I had been moderating and administering community websites (the late AoCGroup and later its successor AoCZone.net), leading and organizing prestigious tournaments (starting with UltraRandom and Arabia cup back in 2006 and continuing with the latest World Clan League, Tribal Wars and the currently ongoing Clash of the Titans), and since 2010 also scripting random maps with the intent to explore and push the game’s boundaries. It was primarily because of my scripting experience that Cysion (Bert Beeckman) had me join the Forgotten Expansion project.
Around that time I had just released a new map script called MegaRandom. Its goal was to create a different and unpredictable map every time but not detract from its playability, visual appeal, or fair distribution of resources. I took the unusual approach of pre-designing over a hundred and fifty different maps and putting them all in a pack that was able to randomize them and give them different attributes. Since then I have taken the concept of MegaRandom beyond its first version as I focused my scripting on the Forgotten Expansion.
Working with all the great people on this capable team has been a very enjoyable experience. There have been numerous challenges along the way, not just with the scripting and designing the game but also the game-balance and implementation of new features. The introduction of several items raised interesting discussions about the balance between making the game too easy to play and making it a challenge.
I sincerely hope everyone will enjoy this long-awaited expansion and that we’ll be able to continue working on this gem in the AoE franchise.
*Editorial Note from MS Ryz0n*
Many of you have seen some of Tom’s work in the past, or heard him discussing content on Dev streams. Back in late August, we were fortunate enough to have him travel from Prague out to Seattle for a short while to help both with AoF development and the civilization reveal at PAX Prime. At the show, players got a chance to check out the AoF civilizations on Capture the Relic and pick Tom’s brain on the details for all the new units.
Following the show, we headed up to Skybox in Vancouver to spend a few days really digging into the command lag issues after addressing the 2.6 patch issues and ELO quirks that presented themselves. It was a bit too warm for a game of ice hocky, but we also made sure to stop by a Tim Horton’s for Timbits to capture a little bit of Canada.
There is one critical discovery we made while in Canada, it turns out Tom’s spirit animal is in fact a Grizzly Bear, not a Toucan. After seeing several live ones, he was determined to hunt through Vancouver giftshops to bring a good sized replica back to Prague. Alas, stores only seemed to carry cartoonish stuffed animal versions and he left emptyhanded. But while your scout is running from Bears in AoF, keep in mind Tom could always have made them more cuddly if only he’d managed to bring a model grizzly back to Prague.