World Conquest In Scio Township

There's a tumble on the other side of a white door, which is splattered with something that has hardened to a dry crust. The knob turns and a little blonde-headed boy bursts through beaming with excitement.

"He just killed them all with one guy, dad," the boy yells, turns around and flies back down the stairs to the basement, where the boisterous voices of what seems like a dozen other children yelp and laugh.

Eric Babe – black hair, black goatee, and big Santa-like cheeks – laughs, gets up, and pushes the door shut, muffling the noises of their excitement.

Ah, to be the son of a computer game designer.

Babe has five children (though it sounds like a hundred) between the ages of one and ten – Penelope, Freddie, twins Carl and Gregory (who just left), and Duncan.

During the day he takes care of his small army of offspring while his wife, a physician in Ann Arbor, is at the office. As night comes and the kids hit the hay, or just stop laughing (and sometimes crying), Babe looks after his other baby – Western Civilization Software.

"I stay up late," Eric says. "I'm usually up 'til two or so programming or debugging, working on the game."

Babe is lead developer and poppa bear for West-Civ, a Scio Township-based (because that's where Babe calls home) computer game design group that has, since 2005, produced two strategy-based war games and is finishing up their third for Matrix Games, the largest publisher of this niche market in the world.

"Not yet, but soon," he says of their newest game - a sequel to their first release Crown of Glory: Europe in the Age of Napoleon.

"Oh man, we've added a lot of stuff (to the sequel)," says Mike Zeddies, partner-in-crime, friend, and chief researcher for West-Civ. Zeddies and Babe love talking about their games. "We have detailed naval now – you can fight with ships."

Babe lives in a modest house in a Scio Township subdivision, just west of Ann Arbor where Zeddies, he, and the two other members of the team --Jason Barish and Gil Renberg-- went to the University of Michigan. (The fifth and newest member of this formerly all-boys club is Becky Williams.)

"Programming has always been a hobby of mine," Babe says. "And I've always had an interest in history and I've always played games." Despite his degree in physics, Babe opted to make game development his career path. And though, he says, it's not always fun and games (with a slight laugh) he's happy with his choice.

Strategy-based games are very much like glorified, detailed, animated sessions of Risk. And though details, strategy options and outcomes are far more sophisticated, West-Civ's turn-based play emulates the Parker Brothers board game devoted to world-domination. Players take turns positioning their armies and waging battles until territory is conquered. But, where Risk entails a single move with a handful of pieces, these computer-based strategy games involve hundreds of possible moves influencing everything from setting up military command to food supply logistics to elaborate battlefield tactics. The fate of an entire country at stake – albeit inside your hard drive and on your computer screen.

To say these games are "detailed" may be a bit of an understatement. Crown came out with a 200-page manual and a 50-page PDF file available upon installation. It's not a Tolkien novel but, for a computer game, it's pretty darn close.

"The PDF file was attached because our publisher gave us a 200 page limit on the manual," Zeddies says, with a disappointed laugh. "I could have written more."

West-Civ games don't just focus on combat. Games like Forge Of Freedom, which centers on the Civil War, require a player to make decisions about the economy, diplomacy, and even social mores. There are trade routes to be considered, population growth to accommodate, and resource security and allocation to plan for. Not to mention choosing what your general will have for breakfast. (Actually, just kidding about that last part.)

It's an elaborate and complex system that appeals to the multi-tasking world conqueror in all of us. Babe and company dig down into the nitty-gritty when it comes to simulating historical combat, and that even means getting the uniforms right.

"In the initial stages of a project we are reading all the time," Babe says. "Mike and I each spend hundreds of hours reading and pouring over maps and historical atlases."

Of course, niche audiences usually mean hardcore fans, and hardcore fans can be hard to please.

"Shortly after Crown of Glory came out," Zeddies says, "we got a seven-page email outlining all of our typos in the manual."

Babe interjects: "We do get a lot of 'Thank Yous' from fans but we also get things like this one guy telling us that he noticed the epaulets on the soldiers were the wrong ones for that time… I'm telling you, these things are tiny and pixilated but he really had a problem with it."

However, beyond a few members of the hardcore war-gaming society and their nit-picking magnifying glass, Babe's games are a hit. And they were a hit from the start – well, at least the start of 2005.

West-Civ rolled into the Matrix family three years ago with a bang. Their first title, the 2005 released Crown of Glory: Europe in the Age of Napoleon, ended up being Matrix's second highest selling game that year and brought home awards. It landed the 2006 Charles S. Roberts Award (the Oscar for historical wargamers) for Best Pre-20th Century Era Wargame, War Historical's 2005 "Wargame of the Year," the Silver Award from Gamershall, and the 2005 "Reader's Choice Wargame of the Year" from Wargamer.com.

Babe's crew followed up with Forge of Freedom, a 2006 release that focused on the American Civil War. It won the 2006 Bronze "Reader's Choice Game of the Year" and "Reader's Choice Wargame of the Year" from Wargamer.com.

Unfortunately, hard numbers of sales aren't available. Babe is contractually prevented from divulging such information, but, if the awards are any indication, West-Civ has a healthy fan base.

Despite these successes, the game designers' life wasn't always so rosy. It took Babe and the boys a number of years find their way. They went through dozens of publishers and several rejected proposals before Matrix finally gave them their shot.

Still, even though they landed the top dog in the industry to distribute their games, you won't find West-Civ titles at your local Best Buy. World domination has a limited audience.

"Strategy games are in a small but loyal niche market and the profit margins from retail sales are very small, whereas the online sales have very high margins," Babe says. "Our core audience knows how to find us, and we really don't sell that many titles outside of that core audience, so there's not much of an incentive for us to pursue retail."

Crown found its way into stores in Europe and Australia shortly after its release in 2005 but their bread-and-butter continues to be via the web.

"We'd literally have to sell ten-times as many copies in the stores as Matrix does online to make the same amount," Babe says. So, for now, West-Civ intends to stick to the Net.

Michigan and the Ann Arbor region is another thing that West-Civ sticks to quite well. Despite a few members being from out of state (telecommuting is pretty big these days), Babe intends to keep his Scio home the company's base of operations.

"There are more resources for us here in Michigan," Babe says. "It's our home."

And, once he's done, he's got five little computer gamers in the basement ready to pass on his legacy.