This lesser-known Warhammer game inspired Civilization VII's narratives

As the first Civilization game in nearly a decade, Civilization VII made some big changes to the traditional formula. There was the Ages mechanic, the split between Civilizations and Leaders, and plenty more. Narratives stood out to many players as an exciting new feature, and they were apparently inspired by an unsuspected source.

Speaking in a panel at GDC this year, Civilization VII's narrative director Cat Manning (thanks, GamesRadar), explained how the narratives came about. "Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate was a huge touch point as we were beginning to talk about what the system could look like," she said.

"So, games like FTL [Faster Than Light] have experimented with this. That was a huge touch point for us. There's also games like Paradox games, Amplitude, Battletech, and Warhammer Chaos," she added. Manning explained that the systems in Civ basically work as one constant back and forth, as each action you take sends signals to other parts of the game.

"If you purchase, say, a unit with gold, you might immediately get a narrative event tied to that unit," she said. "And that's because the system is just always in the background listening."

Civilization VII is out now for PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.