Civilization is now synonymous with turn-based strategy, but Sid Meier says the original game could have gone in a very different direction.
In a PC Gamer piece revisiting the series’ history, Meier says he and Bruce Shelley considered making Civilization real-time during early development. The team eventually moved away from that approach because the game’s scale needed breathing room. Players had to be able to understand cities, units, diplomacy, research, and history without fighting the clock.
Meier also said the team chose square tiles over hexes because hexes felt “too geeky” and less accessible at the time.
The real-time idea did not disappear completely. Shelley later became game director on Age of Empires, while Civilization veteran Brian Reynolds went on to lead Rise of Nations, a game that more directly explored the idea of a history-spanning RTS.
Civilization stayed turn-based, but its alternate path helped shape some of the biggest strategy games that followed.