Our strategy gaming experts sit down with Arcen Games CEO Chris McElligot Park to explore his ground-breaking work on AI War Fleet Command, examining how his revolutionary approach to artificial intelligence design transformed strategy gaming by creating opponents that feel genuinely alien rather than mimicking human players.

LISTEN LINK: https://criticalmovespodcast.com/listen

This episode features an in-depth interview with Chris McElligot Park, the visionary developer behind AI War Fleet Command and founder of Arcen Games. The conversation explores his unconventional approach to AI design that abandons traditional human-mimicking opponents in favour of asymmetric, alien-like intelligences that play by different rules. Chris discusses his journey from modding Supreme Commander to creating one of strategy gaming’s most innovative AI systems, the philosophy behind making games as “magic tricks” for player entertainment, and his upcoming project Heart of the Machine developed in partnership with Hooded Horse.

Critical Moves Podcast Episode 42 Show Notes

Episode Title: Chris McElligott-Park on Game Design, Narrative, and Arcen’s Origins
Hosts: Al, Jack
Guest: Chris McElligott-Park (Arcen Games Founder)
Episode Length: ~62 minutes

Episode Summary

The forty-second episode of Critical Moves presents the first part of an extensive interview with Chris McElligot Park, CEO of Arcen Games and creator of AI War Fleet Command. The conversation delves deep into Chris’s philosophy of game development, his revolutionary approach to AI design, and the indie development landscape from 2009 to present. Chris explains how his frustration with traditional AI opponents led to AI War’s innovative asymmetric design where players face genuinely alien intelligences rather than human-like opponents. The discussion covers his early inspirations from Supreme Commander, the narrative significance of setting AI War after humanity’s defeat, and his broader philosophy of treating game development as creating “magic tricks” for player entertainment.

Arkin Games Philosophy and Origins

From Hobby to Career Chris traces his unexpected journey from hobbyist modder to professional game developer, emphasizing how AI War Fleet Command began as a personal project for himself, his father, and uncle to enjoy. This origin story exemplifies the indie development ethos of creating games from genuine passion rather than market research or corporate mandate.

The transition from hobby to career coincided with the emergence of viable indie game development in 2009, when the industry shifted from a “toxic” corporate-dominated landscape to one where small developers could actually make a living. Chris’s timing proved fortuitous, entering the market during a brief window when indie success was becoming possible but competition remained manageable.

The Novelist Analogy Chris draws fascinating parallels between his development approach and 1990s midlist authors who maintained creative freedom while serving dedicated audiences. This comparison illuminates how indie developers occupy a similar niche – neither mainstream blockbusters nor hobbyist projects, but professional works serving specific communities with consistent creative vision across diverse projects.

The “death of the midlist author” in early 2000s book publishing mirrors what Chris terms the “Indocalypse” in indie gaming, where discoverability challenges and market saturation threatened the viability of mid-tier independent developers. His partnership with Hooded Horse represents part of the solution through specialized indie publishers supporting creative projects.

Revolutionary AI Design Philosophy

Beyond Human Mimicry The core innovation of AI War lies in abandoning the traditional approach of creating AI opponents that attempt to mimic human behaviour. Chris recognized that this “Shadow Mario” approach – referencing Mario Sunshine’s human-copying enemies – creates inherently limited and ultimately boring opponents that can never truly match human creativity and adaptability.

Instead, AI War’s artificial intelligences operate under completely different rules and constraints, creating genuinely alien opponents that feel authentic rather than like pale imitations of human players. This asymmetric design allows the AI to excel at what computers do well while avoiding direct competition in areas where humans naturally excel.

The Chess Grandmaster Model Chris’s inspiration from chess exhibitions where grandmasters simultaneously play dozens of opponents led to AI War’s stateless tactical intelligence system. Like grandmasters who make moves based purely on current board state without needing memory of previous turns, AI War’s opponents evaluate situations in the moment while following consistent behavioural patterns players can learn and exploit.

This approach eliminates the need for complex economic simulation or strategic planning systems that would inevitably pale compared to human decision-making. Instead, the AI focuses on tactical responses and pattern-based behaviours that create engaging moment-to-moment gameplay while maintaining strategic predictability.

Magic Trick Philosophy Chris frames game development as creating “magic tricks” designed purely for player entertainment rather than attempting to create fair or realistic simulations. This philosophy acknowledges that all game AI is fundamentally artificial and embraces that artificiality to create more engaging experiences.

First-person shooters exemplify this approach – AI enemies that could easily deliver perfect headshots instead follow complex behavioural patterns, use squad tactics, and exhibit apparent emotions purely to create interesting gameplay scenarios. Strategy games, Chris argues, should embrace similar theatrical approaches rather than pursuing impossible goals of true intelligence simulation.

Narrative Integration and Design Goals

Post-Apocalyptic Setting Choice The decision to set AI War after humanity’s defeat rather than during an ongoing conflict serves crucial mechanical and emotional purposes. This narrative framework justifies the player’s underdog position and explains why aggressive expansion triggers increasingly dangerous AI responses – the machines already won and are maintaining their victory.

This setting choice transforms typical 4X expansion mechanics into careful guerrilla warfare where stealth and strategic restraint become survival necessities. Players must balance resource needs against the risk of attracting overwhelming retaliation, creating tension absent from traditional strategy games where expansion is always beneficial.

Immutable Design Goals Chris emphasizes the importance of establishing “immutable design goals” – emotional and experiential targets that cannot be compromised during development. For AI War, the primary goal was making players feel like Ender Wiggin facing overwhelming odds through superior strategy rather than superior forces.

These emotional anchors provide consistent direction throughout development while allowing mechanical flexibility. Design decisions that serve the immutable goals stay; those that don’t get discarded regardless of their technical sophistication or initial appeal.

Industry Evolution and Steam’s Impact

The Greenlight Era Chris provides insider perspective on Steam’s evolution from highly curated platform to today’s open marketplace. The original system required personal approval from Valve executives, creating artificial scarcity that benefited early adopters like Chris while excluding many deserving projects.

Steam Greenlight represented an attempt to democratize access while maintaining quality control, limiting releases to 120 games annually through community voting. This system worked reasonably well but couldn’t scale to meet growing developer demand.

The Flood and Recovery The transition to Steam Direct’s $100 entry fee created massive discoverability challenges as thousands of low-effort asset flips flooded the platform. Many established indie developers didn’t survive this transition period, unable to compete for attention against the sheer volume of new releases.

Valve’s algorithmic improvements and the rise of specialized indie publishers like Hooded Horse have since restored viability for quality independent projects. Chris credits his partnership with Hooded Horse as enabling his return to large-scale development after planning to focus only on smaller projects.

Technical Innovation and Legacy Mechanics

Supreme Commander Influences AI War directly inherits several key innovations from Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation, particularly the infinite zoom system that allows seamless transition from tactical detail to strategic overview. This interface innovation remains underutilized in strategy gaming despite its obvious advantages over traditional minimap systems.

The massive unit count capabilities that made Supreme Commander feel authentically large-scale also influenced AI War’s design, supporting the narrative goal of facing overwhelming AI forces while maintaining performance through efficient simulation systems.

Wormhole Network Design The shift from realistic space travel to wormhole networks solved crucial strategic problems by creating “walls in space” – defensible chokepoints that enable meaningful territorial control and strategic positioning. This design choice transforms empty void combat into positional warfare with clear tactical implications.

This network system also enables the asymmetric design where AI forces follow predictable patrol and reinforcement patterns that skilled players can learn to exploit. The wormhole structure provides the framework for strategic gameplay that would be impossible in truly open space.

Development Challenges and Solutions

Multiplayer to AI Transition Chris’s original multiplayer prototype revealed fundamental problems with traditional strategy game pacing and balance when transitioning to AI opponents. Creating AI that could match human players’ existing strategies would only recreate the same gameplay patterns that had grown stale, defeating the purpose of single-player development.

This realization prompted the revolutionary decision to create AI opponents that play entirely different games while sharing the same battlefield. The resulting asymmetric design creates novel strategic challenges that couldn’t exist in symmetric multiplayer contexts.

Community Integration Arcen Games exemplifies successful community integration in indie development, with players contributing everything from bug testing and feature suggestions to actual code contributions for open-source components. This collaborative approach extends development capabilities far beyond what small teams could achieve independently.

The ongoing relationship with dedicated community members provides sustainable feedback loops and content creation that keeps games relevant years after release. Chris credits community involvement as essential to both the creative and commercial success of his projects.

Contact & Links

About | Contact | Meet the Team | Get Involved | Forum | Episodes
Patreon | Discord | Reddit | Twitter / X | Facebook
Instagram | Twitch | Steam Group | Steam Curator
YouTube | Spotify | Apple | Amazon
Email: [email protected]

Episode Verdict

This first part of the Chris McElligot Park interview provides invaluable insights into one of strategy gaming’s most innovative developers. Chris’s articulate explanation of his AI design philosophy reveals the depth of thought behind AI War’s revolutionary approach, while his broader commentary on indie development trends offers perspective on the industry’s evolution over the past decade and a half. The conversation successfully balances technical game design discussion with accessible explanations of complex concepts, making it valuable for both developers and players interested in understanding what makes certain strategy games special. Chris’s “magic trick” philosophy and emphasis on emotional design goals provide a refreshing alternative to purely mechanical approaches to game development, suggesting directions the strategy genre could explore more fully.

Next Episode: Chris McElligott-Park on AI War, Community, and Running an Indie Studio