Relic working on Age of Empires 4

Jump back to quoted post13 Jun 2018, 21:13 PMLordRommel

I would wait for Gamescom.
We got the Age 4 announcement at Gamescom here in Germany. The german age community is one of the biggest age communities at all. Furthermore Europe is the old "core region" for RTS (as far as i know RTS sold better in EU compared to other countries) and Gamescom is no "premiere exhibition" compared to the "all the time a new game announcement E3".
So i think Relic/Microsoft were afraid that Age wont get any attention at the E3 with all the new shooters, rpg games, battle royal games and co..

Do you love Real Time Strategy games? Do you hate it when your gatherer units get stuck to trees or wander off to enjoy the scenery? We sure do. If you do and are a skilled software engineer with the proven ability to keep our gatherers in-line and on task the Age of Empires franchise wants your help!

We’re looking for a Software Engineer to join our team to drive the navigation systems for Age of Empires. If successful you will closely collaborate with design and engineering teams globally and focus on developing a cutting edge RTS specific navigation solution for Age of Empires engine for use in Age IV and anything beyond, as well as offering support and guidance to help improve navigation in our older Age of Empires titles. You should have experience building cutting edge RTS navigation solutions and be keeping up with, if not pushing, what the state of the art in the field of navigation is.

Responsibilities
As a senior member of the Age of Empires Franchise team you will
- Be the navigation subject matter expert for the franchise.
- Understand and be able to implement state of the art for large group pathfinding techniques.
- Collaborate with partners both internal and external on titles new and old.
- Guild and possibly step in and help implement, if not design and lead efforts to build pathfinding solutions.
- Help teams troubleshoot issues, build more robust solutions and test frameworks.
- Find new ways to drive what the state of the art in the field is.

Qualifications and skills
4+ Years of experience in feature level development
Experience working in an Agile Environment
Ability to multi-task
Excellent written and oral communication skills
Ability to quickly gain familiarity with existing large code bases and quick ramp up effectively contributing to a code base.
Comfortable engaging with diverse teams and disciplines
Be able to collaborate with both internal and external partners, local and all over the world.

https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/composer-mikolai-stroinski-working-on-aoe4/36749
He has worked on games like Witcher 3 and Vanishing of Ethan Carter.

Announcement here:

https://www.facebook.com/mikolai.stroinski/posts/1995217320556685
Mikolai Stroinski
I'm super excited to reveal one of the projects I've been working on for the last couple of months- the legendary "Age of Empires 4"!!!- thank you Relic Entertainment for inviting me for this crazy ride.

http://mikolaistroinski.com/en/

Hi Age player! Thanks for clicking on our survey link. We would love to hear your thoughts on Age of Empires. Your opinions are very valuable to us, and can help us make the game even better.

In this survey, we will ask you about your experience playing Age of Empires, and what you do or don't enjoy about playing the game. We will also ask some demographic questions so that we can have a better idea of who is in our community. The survey should take about 15-20 minutes.

At the end of the survey, we will ask for your email address if you are interested in being contacted in the future to talk more about Age of Empires. This is completely optional. Your survey responses are kept private and shared with Qualtrics only to receive your responses. We will anonymize your personal data after the survey closes.

You are agreeing to this data collection and use by filling out this survey and submitting your responses back to us. Your privacy is important to us, and we are committed to handling personal data responsibly. To learn more, please read our Privacy Statement (link opens in new window).

Please note: to participate in this survey, you must be at least 18 years old and not be a Microsoft Employee or Vendor/Contractor working at Microsoft. You must also agree to the Microsoft Confidentiality Statement.

If you have any questions about this survey, we are happy to help. Please contact us at XRsurvey@microsoft.com.

Mobile Users: Please try both landscape and portrait orientations while going through the survey for the best viewing ability.

Please read and select questions carefully, as you will not always have the option to go back and change your answer.
I agree to the Microsoft Confidentiality Statement and wish to continue with the survey.

Senior Program Manager:
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/senior-program-manager-at-microsoft-1118620173/
At Microsoft Studios Global Publishing, we are hard at work continuing the great legacy of Age of Empires, our beloved RTS game. We are a passionate group responsible for this amazing franchise and are expanding our team looking for a wonderful colleague that can manage our Flight/Beta program.

As the producer for our Beta program, you are a key link between the players and the development team. You will be responsible for the day to day management and execution of our Age of Empires Franchise Beta program, an important initiative where early and prototype builds of our Age of Empires titles are provided to players for feedback and extended test opportunities. You will help manage all aspects of the ecosystem including creating the long term roadmap, working with our various teams on planning & execution, interacting with and managing beta communities, and ensuring feedback from our players is heard, categorized and prioritized.

This gives you an important role with direct impact ensuring that we put our players first and deliver games that delight and engage.

At heart, I am a community builder. My aim is to create next-level games and gaming platforms by building bridges between development teams and their communities, providing opportunities for advocacy and leadership within the larger gaming community, and by empowering players with the tools and understanding they need to inspire meaningful, positive change in the games they love.

ModSquad is looking for an experienced Community Content Project Manager to help us at Microsoft Studios Global Publishing. Our ideal candidate will have strong organizational skills, the ability to manage multiple concurrent projects, and a strong eye for quality community content. In this role you will work closely with the Age of Empires Community Managers and other internal teams to ensure a world-class brand presence in both customer-facing channels and internal reporting.

The day-to-day tasks can greatly vary depending on the phase of development, but key responsibilities include
*SNIP*

ModSquad is looking for a Community Content Specialist to help us at Microsoft Studios Global Publishing. Our ideal candidate will have strong visual content creation and copywriting experience, a passion for interacting with fans, and a keen eye for quality Community content. In this role you’ll be working closely with internal and external teams creating visual and written content to engage a worldwide audience.
*SNIP*

https://twitter.com/klobrille/status/1133392863889432576
@klobrille
Xbox in full lock-down mode.

https://twitter.com/JezCorden/status/1133381538484240384
@JezCorden
Not a single Xbox E3 plan "leak" from NeoGAF, Era, or 4Chan has been real yet btw. They're all guesswork, made up of existing rumors or outright wishful thinking.
In each list I've found at least a couple of things I know aren't true.
BTW I'm not saying EVERY ITEM in those lists is false. Some of them are of course obvious, yeah there'll be Halo Infinite news, yeah there'll be Gears 5 news, but some of the points weren't true, which called into question some of the wilder claims like "Dinio" Crisis 3.

Adam Isgreen
‏@Ishmae1
https://twitter.com/Ishmae1/status/1133496369115611136
We're looking for a design director to help us build amazing Age of Empires experiences. Is that you? Do you know someone that would be? Apply or send 'em the link!
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamisgreen/detail/recent-activity/
Our Age of Empires group is expanding, and we're looking for a Design Director to help us bring incredible games and experiences to a worldwide audience!

https://twitter.com/klobrille/status/1133497898874875904
@klobrille
Helping Adam on this one. If you are a professional and may want to shape the future of Age of Empires, this might be for you.
As a side note, it's great to see MS pushing this franchise again. I feel like good things are coming.
I think it's rather obvious at this point that MS is building an in-house team for the Age of Empires franchise while maintaining to work with Relic through MSGP for now. And that's fine as long as they have a strong in-house team and a multi-title agreement with Relic/Sega.

https://www.econotimes.com/Age-of-Empires-4-Release-Date-Update-Microsoft-Looking-for-Creative-Director-for-Upcoming-RTS-Title-1542988
Details about “Age of Empires 4” has been scant following its announcement in Gamescom 2017. However, it appears that Microsoft is slowly developing the game as it’s currently looking for a design director that would oversee the upcoming real-time strategy title.

But even though this is good news, it’s still worrying that Microsoft is only looking for the position now, two years after “Age of Empires 4” was announced. There’s also the fact that Relic Entertainment has been tasked to develop this game. Why is Microsoft the one actively looking for a design director instead of the studio that is developing it?

The answer to that is muddy since both Microsoft and Relic Entertainment are maintaining their silence about “Age of Empires 4.” Overall, however, it’s still good that progress is being made for the beloved RTS title.

Our team in Xbox Game Studios is responsible for delivering entertaining and engaging products in the Age of Empires franchise for Windows platforms and beyond. We are looking for an experienced Design Director to join us to help create world-class entertainment for diverse audiences from around the world.
The Design Director is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day game design of multiple titles. You will work closely with the Studio Creative Director on overarching goals for the products, game pillars, feature messaging, analytics interpretation, and evangelization of our titles. You will interact with our partner teams on a regular basis as a subject matter expert for design as well as learning the unique intricacies of each teams’ design capabilities and engines. You will collaborate closely with other discipline leads to shape and hone our titles into world-class entertainment. You are comfortable presenting our vision, goals and status to both internal and external stakeholders. You have a love for and play games, with an ability to talk to them and deconstruct them that shows an understanding of the art of design and its many manifestations across genres and platforms.

Responsibilities
Evaluate game designs, builds, UI, and gameplay elements
Be a subject matter expert on game systems, logic, and design tools for our titles
Write design documentation and white papers on design strategies
Prioritize, plan, and communicate features and risks in collaboration with partners and discipline directors, with an eye for getting ahead of potential problems before they arise
Develop analytics goals, KPIs, and user research outcomes for titles to measure success and drive user enjoyment
Identify, document, and pitch design opportunities for increasing our audience reach and appeal on a worldwide scale
Be a franchise advocate, able to speak to internal or external stakeholders, press, or our audiences.

Qualifications
5+ years’ experience in game design in a senior, lead, or directorial design role
Multiple complete loop projects (created, tested, shipped, supported) with design credit
Ability to easily switch between different products with different audience goals, feature sets, and design philosophies
Complete understanding of the entire design process, from early high concept to post-launch support
Demonstrable familiarity with Real-Time Strategy games in a development or enthusiast capacity
Excellent interpersonal skills
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Comfortable learning new and potentially proprietary toolsets and pipelines
Comfortable engaging with diverse teams and disciplines
Comfortable speaking to press or audiences
Passionate about games and their world-wide potential
Experience with Strategy and Role-Playing games is a plus
A love of history is a plus

At Xbox Game Studios, we are hard at work continuing the great legacy of Age of Empires, our beloved RTS game. We are a passionate group responsible for this amazing franchise and are expanding our team looking for a wonderful colleague that will be responsible for Games-as-a-Service.

As a Senior Producer, you will work closely with multiple functional teams to ensure smooth operations, updates and engagement of our games, based on real world data and customer feedback. The GaaS producer will be the essential person who help us grow our game business, with key focus on players engagement, directly impacting long term community sentiment. The ideal candidate will be one who has superb communication skills, is process and data oriented, an agile self-starter who enjoy breaking down complex issues, and one who is truly passionate about making our players happy while simultaneously helping the wider teams hit our KPI targets. This gives you an important role with direct impact ensuring that we put our players first and deliver games that delight and engage.
*SNIP*

Our team in Xbox Game Studios is responsible for delivering entertaining and engaging products in the Age of Empires franchise. We are looking for a passionate game and technology industry veteran to help us create world-class entertainment for diverse audiences from around the world. This is a rare opportunity to join a creatively driven team, develop exciting new projects, and take advantage of the newest technology available with backing and support from across Microsoft.
Our candidate has 8+ years of experience with C++, experience shipping Real Time Strategy games in a lead capacity and demonstrate strong technical skills with game engine development and a track record of delivering high quality software.
In addition to technical leadership, we are looking for someone with strong communication and interpersonal skills, and a self-driven approach to work. The ideal candidate understands first party development and enjoys collaborating with internal and external partners.
*SNIP*

Recently, we announced three of our Definitive Editions will be coming to Steam, giving our community the choice of where they want to play. With E3 fast approaching, kicking off with Microsoft’s Keynote on Sunday, June 9, we are excited to announce that we will be on the floor with Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition!

Attendees will be able to experience stunning 4K Ultra HD graphics, a new, fully remastered soundtrack, and 4 new civilizations during an on-hands demo of the game.

Not attending E3? Not a problem. Click here to sign up as an Age of Empires Insider and stay up to date on all things Age announced during the conference as well as get access to perks such as:

• Updates about the latest developments to the Age of Empires franchise

• Opportunities to provide input to the development teams via Insider surveys

• The chance to be selected as a participant in special playtesting events for unreleased Age titles and features

Today we announced that we will be bringing Age of Empires I, II, and III Definitive Editions to Steam! You can check out Phil Spencer’s full piece, including more exciting PC news, on Xbox Wire here.

The Age of Empires franchise has long been at the center of the PC gaming community, cherished not only by us, but by our millions of players across multiple generations. As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of Age of Empires II, we are excited to share the results of our continued dedication to the games you know and love, remastered with the latest tech in game development.

In addition, we want you to be able to enjoy these games no matter where you play. By releasing Age of Empires I, II, and III: Definitive Editions to Steam, we are letting you, our fans, decide where you want to play, explore, and create new experiences with our games.

More information on the Steam releases of the Age of Empires: Definitive Editions will be released soon.

Jump back to quoted post9 Jun 2019, 21:24 PMnigo

No Age4 in E2019?


LOL

Jump back to quoted post9 Jun 2019, 21:24 PMnigo

No Age4 in E2019?


LOL

https://www.pcgamer.com/the-pc-gaming-show-returns-to-e3-2019/
More trailers, new games, and announcements live on Twitch, coming June 10.
PC Gamer will broadcast the fifth PC Gaming Show live from E3 on Twitch on Monday, June 10 at 10 AM Pacific.

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2019/06/09/double-fine-productions-joins-xbox-game-studios/
With the addition of Double Fine, there will be a total of 15 unique, standalone studios that comprise Xbox Game Studios, including our newly-created Age of Empires studio headed by Shannon Loftis and our Publishing group headed by Peter Wyse. We are committing more resources and dedicated leadership to the Age of Empires franchise to ensure that its legacy on PC continues in service of the passionate community of faithful fans.

https://www.pcgamer.com/age-of-empires-4-is-making-good-progress-and-microsoft-will-talk-about-it-later-this-year/
https://twitter.com/pcgamer/status/1138430257235730433
Yesterday, I sat down with Microsoft's executive VP of gaming Phil Spencer to discuss Game Pass coming to Windows, the company's attitude towards Steam and a whole lot more. One subject I just had to ask about, given the opportunity, was the current status of Age of Empires 4. The Relic-developed sequel to Ensemble's historical strategy series was announced back at Gamescom 2017, and didn't feature in the Xbox E3 briefing on Sunday. The good news is, you'll be hearing more about it later this year.

"We'll talk about it more this year," Spencer says. "Relic's great as a studio, we're making good progress with it. One of the things I loved about our show [on Sunday] is the things that we didn't show. We had 60 games, 14 first-party games, with 12 shipping in the next year. And then I know, like okay, what's The Initiative working on? Where is Age 4, how's that going? I think Playground has a second team, what's going on with that? Where's Turn 10, they didn't show up?

"So it was cool for us to be able to have a such a full show, and have some things like Age 4 that have been announced but haven't been shown in a while, other things that maybe aren't announced, to still be able to have those continue to drive excitement both through the year and potentially even next year's E3. But we'll talk more about Age 4, yeah."

I asked Spencer if there was anything more he could say about the game. "No, I want us to make sure we're doing that in the right context. The thing I would say is, we've been incredibly impressed by Relic's capability. Obviously they're somewhat local to us being in Vancouver, and we know the studio. They did the best job of, 'here's what we think Age should go to'. And the other thing I'll say is, we are learning a lot revisiting Age 1, and Age 2. As those communities grow again, as those communities continue to exist, they have large player bases, and there's a lot of feedback. So we're really getting good insight. even here as we're putting Age 2: DE, which is playable on the floor, from those communities about things they'd like to see in Age 4, and that's important for us."

Age of Empires is being treated like a big deal again by Microsoft. Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is coming later this year, and the same treatment is on the horizon for the third entry in the series. It feels like one of Microsoft's priorities as it looks to attract PC players to its new Game Pass offering. Microsoft also announced a 'newly founded' Age of Empires studio on Sunday, too.

Look out for my full Phil Spencer interview later this week.

Not only will Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition launch with all previously included expansions, but will include new content called The Last Khans, which will include three new campaigns and four new civilizations: Bulgarians, Cumans, Lithuanians, and Tatars bringing the total number of civilizations in the game to 35.
For the more competitive players out there, new spectator and tournament features will be coming to AoE II: DE as well, allowing for real-time viewing and for switching between each player’s view, letting you brush up on some of your build tactics.

In a behind-closed-doors demo, I met with Adam Isgreen (creative director at Microsoft Game Studios) and Bert Beeckman (project lead for Age of Empires)

Burt Beeckman, Co-Founder of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition contributor Forgotten Empires, told DualShockers at an E3 2019 meeting that the Age of Empires developers and Microsoft decided not to take it down because “they are our customers and we want them to be happy,” which is good to hear in the age of games being delisted. That being said, Creative Director Adam Isgreen did clarify that “our support will move onto being on Definitive Edition because we made so many changes that we want to keep going with that one. But we are not going to take HD away. So the people want to continue to play HD are welcome to do so.”

Continuing the discussion, Isgreen reinforced the fact that Microsoft’s new studio founded to work on Age of Empires will not be abandoning this new remaster anytime soon. “The important thing is that even when we do [Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition] and when we are going to start talking about [Age of Empires] 4 later this year, which I am very excited about, we’re not going to abandon the games. We’re still going to support them. People love Age II, and if people just want to play Age II forever okay, that’s cool. We’ll keep making campaigns and stuff for them to do. It really is a long term commitment for us. We want to keep supporting the game.”

Jump back to quoted post12 Jun 2019, 10:49 AMnigo

Relic's capability


lol