Ara: History Untold will ‘let the player know they already lost’ because accidentally persevering with a losing game ‘sucks’

techradar.com:

Oxide Games’ upcoming turn-based grand strategy game Ara: History Untold now has a release window, and fans have been shown a behind-the-scenes look at its development.

Revealed during the Xbox Developer_Direct, Ara: History Untold is set to release on PC via Steam and PC Game Pass in ‘fall 2024.’ Generally, fall releases for games point to a launch somewhere around September to November, but Oxide Games hasn’t revealed the specifics yet.

Furthermore, in an interview posted on Xbox Wire, Ara: History Untold’s design director, Michelle Menard, spoke more about the areas of the grand strategy genre that the developers have aimed to improve with Ara. One of these is the ‘Act’ system, which breaks down games into three separate phases which players can only progress through if they have enough ‘Prestige.’ This is earned through things like completing quests and making technological advancements. Essentially, this system results in players losing more quickly, which Menard described as a “kindness.”

“It sucks so hard to play a 20-hour game to realize that, by the end of it, you lost at hour two,” Menard explained. “So, it’s a kindness to players. Let them build, lose early, and then let them restart anyway. So: fail often, fail early, learn from that, and then play further because you know you need to learn from your failure to play these games. Nothing wrong with that, but let the player know they already lost and let them actually lose.”

Also revealed during the Developer_Direct was the first footage of MachineGames Indiana Jonesgame. Titled Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the first-person action-adventure is set to release later this year on Xbox Series X|S and PC.

For more games like Ara: History Untold that you can dive into right now, be sure to check out our roundup of the very best PC strategy games . If you’re looking for something different, there are some fantastic varied picks on our list of the best PC games .