Gaming as a reflection of the times

We believe the games we play as a society are often a reflection of our current anxieties, challenges and aspirations. As part of our process, we've enjoyed tracing back the design paths of some of our favourite games and can see where history and game trends have converged. It's a lens that shaped Exalt too, and we'll touch on why.

Causation is messy, so this is more of an exploration than a theorem. But it's clear that games are a fantastic way to explore a setting, mechanism or event in a controllable and safe environment. This makes them the perfect canvas for our innate speculation about the positive or negative paths the future might take. 

Preparing for the worst: the wargaming era (1950s–70s)

Many fantastic wargames emerged from the 1950s onward, like Risk, Diplomacy and later much of Avalon Hill's catalogue. Some of these were simulations of historical battles, but many represented a chance for players to try their own hand at managing the global tensions of the Cold War if things went south. At a time when people felt powerless against the huge forces at play, games gave them an opportunity to find a temporary kind of control.

Relative peace and growth: the Eurogame turn (1980s–2000s)

Then as the West began to thaw a little, new games seemed to turn towards industry, growth and trade as backdrops for competition. It also brought in a gentler kind of competition, with many games adopting non-elimination mechanics and ways to interact that weren't purely hostile. This is the era that gave us Catan, one of the most played and longstanding board games of modern times. It was a period that came with fantasies of growth and development that mirrored the economic acceleration of the US and Europe.

Facing into the future together: the cooperative wave (2008–present)

As the world has become more and more global, cooperation, sharing and joint decisions have been a much larger feature of games. Pandemic helped popularise co-op play and the genre surged around 2020 when Covid hit. Perhaps it was because the kind of threats the world was facing became themselves more global (pandemics, climate crises etc) or because of more emphasis on connectivity and collaboration.

You can already see glimpses of how this trend might evolve into something new, where games focus on refuge and relaxation. Many popular games now take on a low-interaction engine building mechanic where people play together but pursue individual goals.

Just one part of the picture

This is a neat thread we've woven to illustrate a connection between games and society, but it's obviously not the only factor at play and nor is it a perfect one. For example, this is a very Western lens and doesn't at all speak to the different experiences of games and societies outside of the US and Europe. There are also some good examples of games where the authorial intent was wildly different to the way it's landed in society, like Monopoly. Originally meant as a cautionary tale, its dystopic capitalism has become something people celebrate more than fear. But in that sense, both the meaning put in and the meaning taken out speak to the times.

So what's Exalt all about?

We feel that while technology has brought with it so much progress and innovation, it can sometimes make people more present-centric and less collective, rushing forward without pausing to acknowledge the cultural history that lies behind us all. In Exalt, with the Spirits fading from relevance, we wanted to explore how important it is to hold onto those cultural touchstones, because once the last person forgets them, they're gone forever. 

We also liked how tempting it is in Exalt to charge out with a Hero and act alone. But you will be quickly punished for this kind of strategy. The best approaches will balance cooperation with your Minions and a sound understanding of how the Spirits can support you. Finally, we baked a distinct value into each Hero's background. This helped inform their mechanics and the playstyle we were after, but we won't tell you what they are. You can go and read their stories! 

Of course, none of this framing is necessary to enjoy the game. But this was the thinking that evolved into Exalt and we always want to have meaning there for anyone who goes looking.