With the pending release of Republic-The Revolution, I thought it'd be great if we took a look behind the scenes at what's happening over there at Elixir Central.

Many people have used many words to describe what they think about how long it's taken for R-tR to get to this late stage of production. Some of these words will get me into heaps of trouble if I use them here but I'm sure you know how impatient gamers react to the news that the game they've been waiting for won't be out 3 years after it was first conceived. Well what they don't know is the lengths that the good people at Elixir have gone to so that this game could even exist (which I'm sure it does).

We all know that R-tR is a huge game that simulates a small, former soviet state, it's 1 million person population and your struggles to take it over. But what many don't know is that because of a few AI problems, the boffins down at Elixir decided to actually shrink 1 million Eastern Europeans and place them into the game. The technology needed to do this had to be invented of cause and took up a big chunk of time as did the Time Machine which was used to bring back those twenty 18th century child coal miners which now serve tea and sandwiches, answer the phones, take messages and do the inhouse testing at Elixir Studios. [Ed note: plus many other annoying tasks - like getting someone in Russia to go through every single piece of text to ensure there were no swear words in there by accident...]

Alot of work went into researching R-tR as well. Countless small, former soviet countries were userped by Elixir staff so that all possibilities could be programmed into the game. Special mention must go out to Ron Jacobs who is still in a Tashkent prison and Victor Matthews who is currently missing in Cheremkhovo. We're all praying that both men will return home safely soon.

So it's back to work for everyone over a Elixir as they put the final touches to R-tR in between dwarf tossing competitions in the lunch room and games of naked twister in the court yard.

And what for the future? Well by now many of you would have heard about the exciting new title Evil Genius so the team are busy hollowing out extinct volcanos, building underwater labs and holding the world to ransom .... Oh and best wishes go out to Elixir researcher Saddam Hussain who is currently missing after his field test. Come home soon son.

Joe