Happy Anniversary, Galactic Civilizations III!

Happy Anniversary, Galactic Civilizations III!

The story of Galactic Civilizations has been around for 24 years - can you believe that? Yeah, neither can we. Let's reflect!

24 YEARS AGO

GalCiv - the first commercial game for IBM's OS/2. Years ahead of its time, the game took full advantage of 32-bit memory addressing, multi-threading, and high-res graphics.

22 YEARS AGO

GalCiv II released for OS/2 in 1996. Expanding on the success of GalCiv, it added larger maps, new starships, and updated graphics supporting 16.8 million colors.

15 YEARS AGO

GalCiv for released Windows. The "just one more turn" feeling of gameplay found a much larger user base through digital download and traditional retail channels.

12 YEARS AGO

GalCiv II released for Windows. It included the first ever ship builder & released 2 expansions devoted to the mystery of the Dread Lords, a cliffhanger, a decade in the making.

3 YEARS AGO

Galactic Civilizations III released. The latest iteration of the largest space-strategy sandbox games of all time received praise from critics and is still receiving updates today. When our CEO Brad created Galactic Civilizations from his dorm room at Western Michigan University, he had no idea that it would lay the groundwork for Stardock growing into what it is today. He was just looking for a pay to pay the bills while he went to school - he didn't expect to launch his own gaming company! Although Stardock has made many other titles throughout the years, everything comes back to Galactic Civilizations, the thing that started it all. Let's take a look at some side-by-side screenshots and see how the game has grown and evolved. Let's start with one of the most beloved (ok, not beloved, but definitely most recognizable!) races, the Drengin. Brad wrote a blog post awhile back showing the progression of the Drengin race throughout the years, but let's just take a quick look at a "then" and "now" photo of Lord Kona:

Lord Kona has aged since his GalCiv I days! Must be all the pressure of guiding his people while overthrowing enemy empires and eating their leaders. All of the classic GalCiv races have seen some upgrading throughout the years. Take a look back at the old image below of the racial selection screen and see how far they've come:

GalCiv I << The Yor >> GalCiv III

GalCiv I << The Altarian >> GalCiv III

GalCiv I << The Arcean >> GalCiv III

GalCiv I << The Torian >> GalCiv III Stardock has always been supportive of modding so we found a way to include tools for our players right in the game itself. Original GalCiv may have had the map, scenario, and campaign editors, but GalCiv II pioneered the ship builder feature. This of course made its way into its successor, GalCiv III. We're constantly in awe of our community's creations using this tool!

The Ship Builder from GalCiv II vs the Ship Builder from GalCiv III UI, trade screens, research screens, and so much more have seen a lot of refining over the years. With every game, expansion, and DLC that we release, we've learned what our players need and have done our best to give it to them. Below are a few more screenshots of GalCiv I, II, and III.

GalCiv I Map vs GalCiv III Map GalCiv I Research Robot vs GalCiv III Research Robot GalCiv I Senate and Elections vs GalCiv III Senate and Elections Thanks for celebrating 24 years of Galactic Civilizations with us! To keep up with what Stardock's doing, follow us on Facebook or Twitter, and join us on Twitch every Tuesday at 4pm ET!